Bear Butte in the Distance
Sturgis has one of the best tourist parks we encountered on the trip. The camp is equipped with excellent little cottages for those who prefer them. It has a main camp building containing running spring water, modern toilet facilities with hot and cold water, shower baths and a laundry. Bear Butte Creek flows directly behind our tent. Above our heads are electric lights. Beside the thrill and exhilaration of camping the conveniences are almost equal to those enjoyed in a first class hotel. The nice shady camp site, however, to the person enjoying the out-of-doors makes a hotel feel like a dungeon. The tent takes but a few minutes to set up and it adds tremendously to the pleasure of an outing.
Bear Butte, close up O. A. Vik
We get a good night’s rest in the Sturgis park and rise early the following morning to partake of the nice hot flap-jacks, bacon, coffee and oatmeal. (We will need it all before lunch time).
We start out bright and early to climb Bear Butte. We take trail No. 79 out to the northeast of Sturgis. We leave the highway a few miles out and take the Bear Butte trail. What looked like a mile or two proves to be seven or eight, and what looked like a small mound proves to be a huge formation rising nearly a thousand feet above its base.
We had hoped to prance right up to the top on short notice. Our troubles start when we cannot decide whether we are supposed to go up the east or south slope. We find later that either is sufficiently difficult. We finally flounder around to a farm house near the south slope, leave the car and start up.
Climbing Bear Butte. It is more steep than it looked