Dad, it's right there! It's right above you!
*Screaming*
All right, we're in Spearfish Canyon just above Spearfish South Dakota and we are gonna hike up
there
to community caves
so we have to cross the
highway here and
Go down and then up. There's been a few other people down this path here. The snow is pretty deep here
It's a beautiful day it's about 41 degrees and
It's not windy here
We will hopefully find the way up there. I've never been up here before, first day
Okay, we found the bridge. Somebody made a nice little walkway across here
a little bit more cold down in here
Maybe we should have brought ice cleats
Alright it's just starting to get steep now
Elliot, what kind of tree is that?
It's an aspen tree
You can tell it's an aspen tree because of the way it is
You have to watch your step coming up this hill it's pretty slick in spots most of it's alright though
Alright we're getting closer to the top now getting to be bigger rocks along the path
There's a lot of water coming down off the hill here.
Look at the ice up at the top, kids
Elliot, go around the left side of that. Well, do what you want
All right, we started down there and we're almost to the top now
The two younger kids are well on their way up
Helen and I are still trudging along. There's quite a bit of ice down here
So you really have to watch your step on stuff like that right there
We're getting close, that's the caves up there. There's ice hanging off everywhere
Guess we crawled to the top here
Yeah, that's pretty icy Wow, look at that, that's, so neat
Hi
All right, we are nearing the top now there's a lot of water coming down the hill
It's melting all the snow.There's big pieces of ice all over
It is prett! It's a very short hike. It's very well worth it.
Forgot my gloves in the car
Bunch of pigeons flying out
Wow, look at that waterfall inside the rock
All right, I might ruin my camera
All right, this is inside the cave
It's so pretty
This is a big column of ice
Okay, hey kids, let's go let's go up in here
This one the water is falling down out of the middle of the rocks up there
It was just a pigeon I thought it was a bat. Oh, yeah, I
Didn't even see it
Be careful going back down the mountain
I think it's harder getting down off of this hill than it was coming up
And now Hannah and I and Elliot are gonna hike up to Baker's cave and it is right up there
So it's pretty steep and the snow is super deep now we have to cross this little Creek right here
This is our Creek Crossing here, there's not nearly as nice of a bridge this time. Look, be really careful. Alright
Okay kids, step down on that grab it with your hands. All right, you ready to go? This is the bridge.
I've go to shut this camera off so I can get these kids across here. Alright, we've crossed stream and now we're coming up here
This trail is very steep and
snow-covered right now, but
Lots of other people have gone up here. So makes it a lot easier
We parked down there
Right there, we walked up the highway
Now we're coming up this mountain
all the way to the top
It's gonna be icy at the tops - be careful very
Steep stair-climber work out
So it is super steep we're almost to the top
At least there's trees to grab a hold of here. This goes straight down
So here we, go kids are almost up there
Okay, we are up to the cave
Hannah is peeking in. It's a solid sheet ice right there
It's got an earthy smell okay, let's go do this
Are we going in there? Yep
Okay, let's look in there
Oh wow! That's neat
This is really neat it's just a solid sheet of ice
Look at this icicle Wow
All right, we made it
inside Baker's cave and it is
pretty incredible
It's just solid ice all the way across the front
What do you think of this
Next time we bring crampons
Yeah, and then there's
Stalagmites coming off the floor of ice. It's like ice stalagmite and stalagtites
That was cool. Well, I guess we're gonna look at itt a little bit and then head on down
Yeah, it's very slick
Alright now we're gonna start our trek back down we'll probably be sliding down the hill
Okay, I think you're gonna want to let me go first
Find the best route