Black Hills - South Dakota

Deadwood was a mining camp illegally established in the 1870's where prospectors traded their goods, drank in saloons and frequented brothels.  Wild Bill Hickock was shot here in the Saloon No 10.  Calamity Jane spent some time here and attended to those suffering from the small pox epidemic in 1876.  We walked around town, ate lunch at the Gem Restaurant, which today sits in the exact location of the Gem Theater.  Not so much theater, but a brothel and saloon.  We also visited the Adams Museum which contains a boat load of period artifacts, very interesting.

We drove up to the cemetery and visited Bill and Jane's graves then hiked up to the grave of Seth Bullock, the sheriff around these parts.

After a full day of exploring Deadwood we took a side trip to Spearfish Canyon to check out this amazing waterfall.  Used the 'Little Guy' on this trip, the FujiFilm X-T20.  I will be taking the 'Little Guy' to Greece and wanted to make sure that I am ready to travel without the Nikon.  Yeah, I think I am.  I am so ready to not lug around a heavy bag on along trip.

After Spearfish Canyon we headed back up to Rapid City to check out the Chapel in the Hills. It is a an exact replica of the Borgund stave church in Norway.  There was a serene prayer path just behind the the chapel with benches and statues.

Ok, we are running out of daylight and we decided to go for it and do some night photography in the Badlands.  We arrived as the sun was setting and a wicked storm was rolling in.  Set up the tripods and snapped a few shots before it started pouring, then it got dark and dangerous.  We pulled over and waited for the surge to let up enough to drive out of the park.  It was a fantastic light show - the lightening was like a strobe light. 35 miles an hour all the way back to Rapid City arriving at 11:30 PM.  What a great trip!!