Old Baldy on Our Anniversary

No, the title is not referring to Hubby! Tuesday, the day of our 47th wedding anniversary was to be one of the more comfortable days this week for a geocaching excursion during our stay in the Black Hills. Hubby had chosen the Old Baldy Trail near Spearfish as the geo destination. Temps were to be in the low 70s and elevations in the 6000' range.

this is logging country

Old Baldy is the name of a mountain. I had no desire to get to the top or to be on the mountain to see the awesome views of the northern Black Hills. I just was looking forward to the trail and what we might see along the way, and the geocaches we might find.

a family of deer in the clearing (buck moved off to the left)

nice of these guys to pose as I only had fleeting glimpses

along the trail after this sighting

walking amongst quaking aspen, paper birch and

ponderosa pine

a red clay watering hole

overnight rain made some of the trail slick mud

wildflower sighting

I wanted to title this post Red, White & Blue

but as we continued along the trail, I was happy

to just put one foot in front of the other

color didn't matter

Mother Nature at work

the forest service clears the trail, but leaves everything else alone

fuzzy growth on the ponderosa pines

another purple wildflower

surprised to see the sunflowers growing

24-36 inches tall

tree/bush flowers

the butterflies were out and about

coloration patterns of the clover

well-marked trail

later in the day we met 4 young women and their two dogs

and near the end of the trail a couple planning to get

to Old Baldy

a few wild roses

the quaking aspen

lightning got this tree

it was a successful geo-adventure

some of the geocaches had not been found since May 2016

two very tired cachers at the end of the trail

5.2 miles, lots of up and down, and some bush-whacking

BUT well-worth it

Happy 47th Anniversary Hubby!

I was very surprised the truck temp reading showed mid-60s when we were driving back to Spearfish. I thought it was much warmer. There was no breeze in the trail area, but typical SD wind once we got off the mountain. 

We had hoped to stop for pizza when we got done, but the place was closed on Tuesdays. (The pizza place is managed by the daughter of the folks who own our favorite steak & ribs place in AZ, San Tan Flat.) We plan to stop for pizza this weekend when we attend the PBR in Deadwood. That is the next blog post, PBR not pizza.