After our harrowing drive from Devil's Tower, we pulled into a site in Spearfish City Park which is at the northern terminus of Spearfish Canyon. As mentioned yesterday, Mr. Snootypurse is from the Midwest and has a fondness for frozen custard which I now share with him. This dessert is similar to soft serve ice cream, but richer because it contains egg yolks. We were delighted to find an outlet of Wisconsin-based Culver's in town and made that one of our first stops. Spearfish has a cute downtown and lots of biking trails but we spent most of our time in the campground, recovering from the excitement of the previous day. We did spend a couple of hours at the D.C. Booth Historic Fish Hatchery and Archives, located close to the campground in Spearfish City Park. While the exhibits were interesting, we most enjoyed talking to the retirees volunteering at the site.
Following a two-night stay in Spearfish, we started our journey into the Black Hills of South Dakota driving south through Spearfish Canyon. There are three picturesque waterfalls along this drive but we only had time to stop at the closest one, Bridal Veil falls.
Upon exiting Spearfish Canyon we headed for Lead (pronounced leed) and stopped at Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center. This is the site of what at one point was the largest gold mine in the world. Within the last several years, the network of tunnels underneath the mine has been repurposed for sophisticated physics experiments. I'm not going to try to explain the parameters of their work but take a look at their website if you are interested in such matters.
Mr. Snootypurse took a short tour of the town of Lead including the hoist elevator associated with the mine. If you're ever in the area and interested in science and/or history, this site is worth a stop.
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