Day Five: Venturing Out

Like the day before, I got early, made coffee and then headed into the park to catch the early morning light.  This time, I was smart (or at least smart-ER) and identified a spot to shoot.  I got there at the perfect time since I didn't have to wait long.  This was a good thing since it was dang cold.  It was right around freezing and windchill was easily in the teens due to the strong winds.  Thank goodness I had foresight to pack thermal underwear...and put it on!

There was another photographer there, which suggested this was a good location.  And it was!  I took a bunch of shots with the golden light and then some more when the sun popped above the rocks behind me. Very cool!!!

Pano taken with my cell phone

I drove a bit further, thinking about what to do next.  The light was changing rapidly, and since it was a cloudless day, it was not very likely I'd get many good images.  I had toyed with idea of driving over to Mt. Rushmore, which was about 90 minutes away.  It wouldn't present many photographic opportunities, but since I was this close and had never been there, I thought I should go see it.  And I'm glad I did.  This is an amazing place!  I especially enjoyed the museum that talked about how Mt. Rushmore was built.  Fascinating!  I left with a good dose of patriotism.

I thought this was a clever idea.  You could pick frames with different sayings to have your photo taken with Mt. Rushmore in the background.  It was fun watching families do this.

What next?  Visit Custer State Park?  There was some amazing scenery there, but at least a day was likely needed to justify visiting.  I even thought about Devil's Tower, but that was over an hour further west.  I decided just to head back to the park and catch some sunset shots.  But first, since it was officially afternoon, I thought I'd check out Firehouse Brewery in downtown Rapid City.  They had all those impressive billboards along I-90, so it was worth a stop.

The brewery, as I suspected, was an old fire house downtown, and it was decorated with various fire fighting memorabilia and equipment, including tons of patches from fire departments around the country (and possibly the world).  However, there was a touch of shabbiness about the place.  It had clearly been there awhile and hasn't seen many (if any) updates.  And the beer?  Well, the IPA I had was good but it wasn't remarkable (I almost always get an IPA at a new brewery...contrary to popular belief, brewing a great IPA is hard, and if a brewer can nail it, chances are the rest of the beer line-up is pretty decent).

I headed back to the park with a quick stop for some essentials.  My destination for the sunset shots was the Fossil trail head.  It didn't disappoint!

Another "selfie"

Unfortunately, while I was wondering around, I turned too quickly and lost my footing on some loose stone, which caused my foot to twist oddly.  Initially I thought I was OK and even took a few more photos, but eventually my foot began to hurt.  I hurried back to the van, took off my hiking boots, wrapped my foot, put some ice on it and popped 4 ibuprofen.  Well this is going to put a damper on my plans!  (I had contemplated just staying at this spot and grab some shots of the Milky Way, but no way was I going to wander back out there in the darkness with a lame foot!).

Back to the cliff campsite for dinner and a few well-deserved beers!

Dinner from a recipe provided by my sister-in-law.  Yummy.