We rode the 1880,s train from Hill City to Keystone and back. A two and a quarter hour round trip through the scenic Black Hills.



Engine 104 was originally built in 1926 for the Silver Falls Timber Company in Oregon.

The current fuel for the boiler is propane.





A Northern Pacific Railroad caboose built in 1906 and a World War II-era heavyweight Hospital Car, displayed in Hill City.










At least five of the cars use and on display were built by the American Car Company for the Oregon Electric Railway in 1913.











There are many trails to hike in the Black Hills and with each turn in the trail the view will go from spectacular to magnificent.












Tall spires of granite are everywhere adding contrast to the green pines.











A talus cave; a cave or space created by one rock falling onto an other creating an opening large enough for a person.












Well entry was easy, it didn't look that narrow from the other end. Bear had no problem but........... "Stop pulling Bear I think my heads stuck!"














Talk about tight fits, they do not make tunnels very big around here either.

One of six tunnels in the area, widths range from 14 feet to 8 foot 4 inches.










Taken from the Needles Hwy.













Know I do not know how they got to the top of those rock. I am even less interested in finding out how to get to the top of those rocks.










We arrive for the Evening Program and the Lighting of Faces. This would be the entrance and Avenue of the Frags.

Program focuses on the presidents, patriotism and the nation's history.









The program continues with the film Freedom: America's Lasting Legacy and culminates in the lighting of the memorial.












The evening concludes with a flag ceremony honoring military personnel past and present.


Yes, I am down there somewhere to the right.







If no erosion had occurred here over the eons, the Black hills would be 7,500 feet higher, and you would not see this pinkish rock.











From hwy 385 at the southern end of Wind Cave National Park located just south of Custer State Park.

Wind Cave National Park preserves one of the last remnants of mixed-grass prairie and one of the longest, most complex cave systems in the world.