Custer County
Hiking Cathedral Spires Trail
On our recent trip to Custer State Park, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, we did a lot of hiking. This was one of the trails we enjoyed – Cathedral Spires Trail. The “needles” rock formations were fun to explore.
The Cathedral Spires Trail is located inside an area of Custer State Park known as the Needles. As you might expect, it can be found on Needles Highway. The trail is approximately 1.5 miles one way.
This photo was taken with my fisheye lens. It provides a very wide view but also gives it that curving inward look. My hiking partner and beautiful wife is pictured on the trail ahead of me.
You can get a larger more detailed version of this image by clicking on the photo.
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A Herd Mentality
Note: Don’t try to comprehend this photo by the view on this page. Click the photo and see it span your entire screen.
The original image is a very large, panoramic photo (more than 18,000 pixels wide). I features the Bison herd at Custer State Park in the Black Hills area of South Dakota. There hundreds of American Buffalo in this image – on the plain and on the hills in the background.
If you could really zoom in, you would also see about eight prairie dogs and four magpies in the photo, as well. But they are really small and you have to zoom in a lot. (I’m not sure you can really see them on this compressed version of the original.)
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me (pops@popsdigital.com) for digital purchase and licensing options.
A Beautiful Capture
This is a panoramic view of Lakota Lake. This is a small lake in Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
We stumbled upon this calm, out-of-the-way lake while driving though the park. This was one of my wife’s favorite spots at Custer State Park. She is the one on the shore taking photos of the beauty that she sent to her parents. This is a very wide image – a compilation of five individual photos taken.
According to the US Forest Service, “Lakota Lake is located southeast of Keystone, SD, on US Highway 16A (Iron Mountain Road), within the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve. It is a small, non-motorized lake and a popular destination for fishing and kayaking. A hitchrail is provided for horses, along with access to Iron Creek Trail #15. Several picnic tables offer a scenic view of the lake. Lakota Lake Road was upgraded in fall 2021.”
You can get a little better, larger view by clicking on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me (pops@popsdigital.com) for digital purchase and licensing options.
Morning Lake Mist
This is an early morning view of Stockade Lake in West Custer Township of South Dakota. Stockade Lake is the largest of Custer State Park’s five lakes. This image was captured just before the sun rose over the trees.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me (pops@popsdigital.com) for digital purchase and licensing options.
Crazy Horse Memorial
This is the closest we got to the Crazy Horse Memorial on our recent trip to South Dakota. It was impressive in size, but clearly they have a lot of work to do. They’ve been at it for 75 years.
The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument under construction on privately held land in the Black Hills, in Custer County, South Dakota, United States. You can learn more at Wikipedia.
You can view a larger version of this image by clicking on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me (pops@popsdigital.com) for digital purchase and licensing options.