On Terry's day off, Friday September 30, the six of us loaded up and drove north to Spearfish Canyon to take in the fall colors. I was worried we would have completely missed any color due to high winds the day before, but there were still more than enough leaves on the trees.
It took what seemed like forever to get up there and we were thankful to get out of the Envoy when we reached The Latchstring Inn. The little waterfall across the road was the first thing to catch my eye.
Next we took a short 1 mile-ish hike down below the restaurant to Little Spearfish Falls. We crossed a bridge not long before the falls. Looking upstream.
Downstream.
The falls plus four kids.
We had Noah take our photo like back in the day when Terry and I posed here in our dating days.
So pretty.
Next we drove down the road a few more miles until we came to a small parking lot on the west of the highway called Iron Creek. There we ate our packed lunch before we went on a longer two mile hike.
Looking further down the road to the north.
South, the way we had just come.
Just starting out on our hike.
We brought along Ezra's Strider bike, which was a blessing and a curse. I ended up carrying it for at least half the time.
Everyone was a bit tired from the drive and probably due to the overcast sky.
Pretty little waterfall.
We scrambled around down there for a while.
Next to the waterfall was a little mining hole or something. The kids were all drawn to it but I checked it out first.
It went back way deeper than I figured and it totally freaked me out.
Leaving the waterfall.
Tired Evie sat still too long so daddy sprinkled leaves on her.
Going through some tall grass, getting near the end of the trail.
We turned around after about a mile of hiking when we reached a barbed wire fence. The creek had dried up, it wasn't as pretty, and everyone was tired. This is that same tall grass only from the other direction.
The banks of the creek just got higher and higher so it wasn't as magical. Plus up higher the creek wasn't running. So weird.
Almost back.
This is my favorite shot from that day. Love it!
I had to squat next to the creek bed to get this shot but I loved those red leaves.
It started raining on us half back down the trail, hence the white sky. We were almost back at this point.
I loved the yellow leaf strewn path.
We got back in the Envoy and continued driving north. This is Bridal Veil Falls. Every time we came around a curve I wanted to stop and take pictures, everything was so beautiful.
We stopped at Dairy Queen for a treat and then went and bought a four bike bike rack from someone in town whose facebook ad we had seen on the garage sale page. By this time the clouds had passed and it was sunny and hot. Too bad the clouds couldn't have cleared earlier but we still had a great day.
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