Roughlock Falls On A Random Fall Sunday

So we’ve caught up. As I type up this post it’s October 12, a Friday. It’s supposed to get up to 70 today, although the wind is currently trying to tear our house down so 70 will probably feel like 50. 

Husband has a big trial next week, which means this weekend is going to be a lonely one for me. Instead of focusing on our less than desirable circumstances this weekend, I thought I would share the lovely little day we had last weekend.

During the week I had mentioned to Hubs that with it being Fall and all, we should go up to Spearfish Canyon, sip apple cider by the creek, and see all the beautiful leaves. I never got a response to that email, and seeing as he was up to his ears in work I assumed it got deleted and forgotten.

Turns out I was wrong.

Saturday night I went to bed early. But as I was just dozing, off Husband came downstairs and turned on the overhead light…and left it on and went back upstairs. Jim was practically smothering me on the left, and Jeannie had burrowed into my right side. So, after a few moments of patiently waiting for him to come back, realizing he wasn’t coming back anytime soon, I did what any lazy person would do. I yelled for him to come turn off the light.

Ridiculous, I know.

He was NOT in a good mood when he came back down, and never did tell me what he was busy doing. I assumed working, which furthered my frustration seeing as it was a Saturday night.

Sunday morning I woke up and he was in our closet…looking through and pulling out MY clothes. I looked down at the foot of the bed and saw he had his jeans, a plaid flannel, and a fleece pullover laid out for himself, and on my side, I had jeans (somehow he knew the exact pair I always wear hiking), a plaid flannel, and he was in the process of finding me a pullover as well. Apparently he was going for matching outfits 🙂

Going upstairs I saw his backpack laying out, and he breathily asked me where my camera was. 

I asked where we were going, and he told me it was a surprise.

We then drove to Spearfish (can you see where this is going?) and made our way directly to The Green Bean.  

There are not many organic or even local food focused restaurants in the Black Hills, so every time we drive by this place I comment on wanting to stop there. Hubs had decided it was time.

It’s basically a coffee house that sells sandwiches and soups. Built like a little cabin of sorts and nestled into a collection of Fall foliage, it reminded me so much of Boone. Ironically it was the same weekend as the ASU homecoming game.

By this point I was privy to the plan 🙂 We have driven through, fished and hiked in Spearfish Canyon a number of times since we’ve been here, but we hadnt stopped at Roughlock Falls on any of our trips. 

After parking we got out and realized that it was not just cold, it was freezing. Thankfully I had grabbed a few extra layers, none of them being a winter coat mind you, and piled them on when we got out of the car.

Looking around, we almost couldn’t believe our eyes. That’s snow people!

Jim was in hog heaven. That dog loves him some cold weather. It was in the thirties last week and I tried to call him inside, he just looked up at me from his position laying in the grass and refused to budge. I would say winter is definitely his favorite time of year.

Making the drive up we noticed that quite a few of the leaves had already dropped from the trees. I was convinced that this weekend was going to be the peak of the leaves, I found out later they had peaked two weeks earlier while we were on vacation 🙁

We could totally tell the locals from the tourists. We, along with anyone else not accustomed to midwestern winters, were bundled up like Randy from A Christmas Story. The locals seemed perfectly content strolling through the winter wonderland in little more than a sweatshirt.

Leaving the Falls we headed to our favorite camping spot. 

Where Husband busted out the camp stove to brew up some tea. No it wasn’t cider, however, we have been hooked on this awesome red chai tea as a bedtime nightcap lately. It was perfect.

And a little brandy. To warm the insides you know 🙂

Icicles! 

Jim doesn’t just love running and playing in snow. It just happens to be his favorite snack.

A short stroll through the woods…

and then we stopped by Crow Peak for a beer and to fill our growler. I don’t know what it is about that place, but even after just one beer you feel like you never want to leave. As if you could just set up camp in the parking lot and be content for the rest of your life. We debated heavily, once again, about whether or not to have one more beer or just head home. And once again we made the smart choice of hitting the road, but only with the promise to take care of that full growler once we got home. 

The problem with leaving Spearfish is that we always have such an amazing time. It just feels good to be there. We find our happy place, and even though we convince ourselves we will let it continue once we get back home, every time the hour long drive between causes our good spirits to settle and sleepy eyes to take over.

We did end up drinking the growler though 🙂