JEFF'S EXCELLENT GALENA ADVENTURE, JULY 9, 2006
Today I decided that since it was cloudy and cool that I'd go hike the Dugout Trail that Ken kept asking me to check out. You go to Beulah, Wyoming and head south about 6 miles. It turns out this road is where we would sometimes go as kids so pop could help a guy get better TV reception. It's the Sand Creek valley and very pretty, with lots of places to camp along the creek. You go through a Ranch A property, which was built by some rich guy named Annenburg. The state of Wyoming is restoring these huge buildings now. I'm not sure if you can stay there yet or not.
Not far from there is the Dugout trail. There was a truck there with a horse trailer, so it was a couple horseback riding the trail. I met them after I got back, and they were relaxing at the parking area. The trail seems to be very seldom used as far as I could tell. It goes up at a gradual grade constantly. I went up I think about 5 miles, then came back the same way I went up, rather than continue the loop. When the trail is near the stream, it's very thick and kind of swampy. But at other times the trail is higher up than the stream, and it's sort of typical Black Hills hiking. When I got to the top, I did a GPS coordinate, then looked at the forest service map and was surprised that the trail was on there. It's just a few miles from Tinton, actually.
Then I went west of Beulah to a Bison Jump site. This is a sort of bowl area maybe 50 yards across that the Indians used to stampede the bulffalo over the cliff there, then they'd go down in the bowl and finish off the buffalo with arrows. Some people have been excavating the bowl, and they've gone down about 24 feet so far. They've found lots of arrow heads from different tribes, including the Navajo! There is mud sediment in there too that is somewhat like tree rings, where you can see how wet the seasons were by how thick the mud layers are.
I drove back from Speafish on a back road I hadn't been on before, coming out at Roughlock Falls. Then I drove up to Terry Peak and took photos. It looks like they are building home sites up there like crazy!
You can really see here where the fire had been.