My Mom came to visit last week and the weather was absolutely PERFECT!! It was in the 70's with clear, blue skies. My mom is fanatic about hiking. She loves it and gets thrilled when she conquers a mountain. So since I know this about my mom, I decided to take her on the best hike in the Black Hills. We hiked up to Harney Peak. It's the tallest point East of the Rocky Mountains and West of the Peronies Mountains in Europe. It was a little over 7000 feet and you could see five states from the peak! On the top is a tower that they used as a forest fire lookout a long time ago. It was truly beautiful and awesome. The pictures do not portray what we saw.
The hike was 6 miles, through mud and snow. My mom bought me a hiking pack to carry Josiah in and it was great!! My back really didn't hurt until the very end.
In this picture we were only about 1/3rd of the way there. We could see the peak and it looked really far away. At that point I thought, 'There's no way we are going to make it!' But we did!!
Here we are at the top. I kept telling my mom we had climbed Mt. Everest of the Black Hills!! 
Here we are making our way back down. I really wanted to call a helicopter to come get us because it was a looooong walk back!
In these next pictures we went to a lake one day and walked around while Justin fished.
This was just one of many trout Justin caught. This was a small one.
Our friends Joe and Bethany showed up too and Joe tore it up catching the fish. He caught 2 monster trout! We ate one of them for dinner that night and he was gooood. :)
Joe was VERY excited!!
Josiah watching with envy... he wished he could fish too.
Thank you Mom for coming to visit! I had a great time with you. Josiah misses his Nana too. :)
MAN!!!!every time i see those beautiful pictures of that awesome countryside....the outdoor man inside of me just goes to jumping and jumping and JUMPING!!!!i can't even begin to imagine the surreal feeling that day....especially getting to spend it with your mom....that is so awesome that she fixed you up with hiking pack...i can hear Josiah...GIDDEE UP, MOMMA!!! YEEEEE HAAAAAWWWW!!!!!that is one awesome lookout tower...looks like one of the towers in Lord of the Rings that you set the signal fire ablaze on ....good to see a fishing pole in Justin's hand and a trout for dinner...the daryl's and i have got to make it up some time and luke too !!! Lesley hates driving....bye honey!!!!love you!!!see you in a week!!!!!!!or two!!!!
ReplyDeleteJennifer- I am sp impressed that you hiked all day with that little cute monkey on your back!!! WoW!
ReplyDeletegreat pics!!! looks like a beautiful place. and i have to say, you must be in awesome shape (not to mention very brave) to take that baby boy on your hike! :)
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