NY Times on Harney Peak
We ran across a travel story in the New York Times about hiking Harney Peak.
The writer, Stephen Regenold, captures the experience of being atop the tallest peak this side of the Rocky Mountains. (It’s 7,242 feet above sea level.) He also writes about the strange granite rock formations of Cathedral Spires and the Needles. He said they could have been drawn by Dr. Suess.
The downside, at least for Regenold and photographer T.C. Worley, is that they made the hike in May 2008, not long after the big blizzard. They had post-hole through some pretty deep snow. And they lost the trial once. The upside was that they had the trail all to themselves.
Harney Peak, when it’s not crowded, is probably the best of many good hikes in the Black Hills. It’s a day hike, and if you start out at Sylvan Lake it’s not too strenous. And the view from the top is pretty incredible. The Black Hills are like a big, lumpy green blanket spread out in all directions.
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Dan is an on-again, off-again Black Hills resident since 1978. The Aberdeen native hit the road after high school, building houses in Boulder, working oil rigs on Colorado's Western Slope, delivering cars in California. In Wyoming and Idaho, he worked as a newspaper journalist. But the Black Hills kept luring him back. For 18 years, he wrote for the Rapid City Journal. The job gave him a chance to see the Hills from atop Mount Rushmore and the bottom of the Homestake Mine. Whenever possible, Dan grabs his dog Kody and heads to the Hills. These days, he's perfecting the art of low-impact backpacking: hike two hours to a scenic spot, break out the wine, cook up the pasta, watch the sunset and fall asleep under the stars.
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