Needles Eye

 

Custer State Park in the Black Hills is known for its wild rock formations and obvious appeal to rock climbers.

Crouching Shaman, Hidden Passage

 

Comic relief from a friend and colleague, Dustin a.k.a. “ferret boy”, the field technician spotlighting black-footed ferrets in the Conata Basin.

Fire Lookout Tower

 

Black Hills Encore

 

My friend Peter suggested I tackle Harney Peak in the Black Hills, and so I did. Harney Peak is the highest point east of the Rockies and west of Pyrenees at 7,242 feet. Rather than walking the popular route from Sylvan Lake, I opted instead to walk through Black Elk Wilderness from the north on a 12-mile loop that was rewarded by fantastic peak views.

Chicken Dance

 

And then there was the chicken dance … somehow I had managed to live 13 years in the U.S. without having any exposure whatsoever to this rite of passage. No longer…

Skinny Pig

 

A face only a mother could love.

Central States Fair

 

I haven’t been to a fair since college days in Ohio. There were the requisite farm animals, including the equivalent of “poodles” among award-winning chickens, plus the ugliest animal I have ever seen in my life...