Harney Peak Trail Scrapbook Page

We saw a lot of great stuff in South Dakota last summer, but our best experience was hiking the Harney Peak Trail in Custer State Park. It was the most challenging hike we've ever completed as a family, and it was an amazing experience. I loved Harney Peak so much I made 11 2-page layouts for it in the scrapbook. Yes, 22 pages of just this hike. There's a lot to talk about and look at!

We made the decision the day before that we would hike Harney Peak. It was a question mark up until then, but after we easily hiked the 3 mile Sunday Gulch Trail which had a fair amount of uphill terrain, we decided we could do the 6 to 7 mile hike up the mountain. We planned to leave early the next morning, as they were calling for rain in the afternoon and we didn't want to risk getting stuck up there in a thunderstorm.

We hit the trail at 7:30am, it was a crisp and clear morning, and very quiet on the trail. Admittedly I was a little worried about this hike - how we would all feel, how strenuous it would be, and if we'd make it to the top. From the trailhead, we could not see the peak and we really didn't know where it was. So we just started hiking, and followed the signs for Trail #9.

After hiking for about 30 minutes and gradually gaining a little elevation, we rounded a bend and off in the distance we could see it. What looked like a little stone hut on the top of a mountain REALLY FAR AWAY and REALLY HIGH UP. My heart sank a little and I really started to have my doubts. But we kept hiking onward.

It was very still and quiet on the trail, we all spread out and didn't talk much. The boys trailed behind us, picking up pine cones from the Ponderosa Pines and peeling them apart - they made up some kind of game doing this and entertained themselves for quite a while.

The main section of the hike was very easy, the uphills were very gradual and you didn't really feel the elevation changing. There was always so much to look at that we just kept hiking without really noticing how high we were getting. As we started to near the peak, we could feel the terrain changing and the inclines becoming more steep. We knew we were getting closer. From here, the real hike began. A lot of uphill, and a lot of stone stairs. There were some rest areas and overlooks along the way that we pulled off into to catch our breath. It just seemed to keep going and going upward, and we still couldn't see the top or the lookout tower. 

But the higher we climbed the more excited we got - we could see for miles and knew we were getting up there, we knew it was close. We finally reached a sign for a trail that branched off that said "Harney Peak Lookout" and made our way down that trail. As we rounded a bend, we could begin to see the top of the stone tower emerge from the trees. After lots of stone steps upward, we reached the tower...we had made it! 

At the peak it was extremely windy, and there was no one else at the tower with us. We explored the tower a bit, took some photos and video, and ate some granola bars we brought along. The kids ran around and explored the tower, while I mostly took pictures and tried to capture it all on camera. We hung out at the tower for about a half hour, then decided to start making our way back down. It took us just under 2 hours to hike up, so we figured the hike down would be a little shorter. We were all a little sad to leave the peak. 

The hike down went quickly and the trail was getting much busier, we probably passed over 60 people heading up. We were the 4th group to make it up that morning, as we passed only 3 others coming down on our way up. It was great to see so many people out there hiking  - people of all ages and abilities. We practically raced down the mountain, as the kids needed to use the bathroom, and we made it back down in a little over an hour. Our full hike was 3.5 hours to cover the almost 7 miles.

I took a lot of photos on this hike and decided early on that I wasn't going to skimp on the scrapbook pages for this one - all the photos I wanted were going in! So I ended up with what might be considered an exorbitant amount of scrapbook pages for this hike, but I know we'll look back at this hike often. So here they are, all 11 layouts:

Thanks for looking! If you are ever in Custer State Park - do this hike! You won't regret it.

Badlands National Park Hiking Scrapbook Layouts

Badlands National Parks isn't necessarily known for it's hiking, but there are some short and easy hikes that will get you out into some areas of the park that you just can't see from the road. 

We hiked (and sometimes just walked) 6 trails in the park, including:

• The Window Trail
• The Door Trail
• Notch Trail
• Cliff Shelf Trail
• Saddle Pass Trail
• The Fossil Trail

All of these, with the exception of maybe Saddle Pass & and the Notch trail, were easy hikes, some of which were along boardwalks.

The two days we were here it was extremely hot and dry. The thermometer in our truck registered at 99 degrees, but that is as high as it goes! So luckily the hikes were short and we kept a lot of water at our vehicle. The only hike in that park that has any trees or vegetation at all is the Cliff Shelf trail, which goes through a Juniper forest and smells amazing!  

I created 11 2-page layouts of our hiking in the Badlands, and I tried to keep each of the trails looking a little bit different from each other in terms of color scheme and accents on the pages.

Here are the full 11 layouts together (click to view larger or view as a slideshow):

We hiked here over the course of 2 days, and made different stops along the Badlands Loop Road to do these different hikes. The last scrapbook pages for the Badlands are the pages from that scenic drive...and they're next! Thanks for taking a look!

Pipestone National Monument Scrapbook Page

Our second stop on our South Dakota trip was Pipestone National Monument in Pipestone, Minnesota. This park was a little bit out of the way, about an hour north of the interstate, but we wanted to stop and visit while we were in the area. It ended up being a pretty neat place.

We arrived at about 3pm and had about 2 hours there before it closed. They also offered the Junior Ranger program, so my son got his book and we started touring the visitor center. We also hiked the Circle Trail, a one mile path through the park that takes you past the pipestone rock formations. There is also a nice waterfall on the hike.

After finishing up the hike and visitor center, my son got his badge and we finished up just before closing time.

I ended up creating 3 2-page layouts for Pipestone, and included the park map and photographs of the National Parks Passport stamps that we got at the park. These pages were also created using the We R Memory Keepers Shine collection, and I used a lot of red paper and accents to highlight the red pipestone we saw there. The final layouts turned out like this (please click the layout to see it larger):

From here we finally headed to the South Dakota border and made it into Mitchell, SD at about 6pm. After visiting 2 national parks, being on the road and traveling for over 12 hours and covering 555 miles, we were happy to get to our hotel and rest.

UP NEXT: Wall Drug!