Friday, we made a tour of the local winery, Prairie Berry Winery located outside of Hill City. It is a nice, modern winery offering wine tasting, gift shop, its own café' serving some very delectable cuisine. The facility was built in 1998 when it was relocated from Rapid City. It would be considered a rather small winery, with an annual production in the 20,000 case range. I must say they do have some very interesting, if not amusing, wine names like 3-Rednecks (a Cabernet red), Chokeberry Medley (a rose' made from Chokeberry and Elderberry fruit), Lawrence Elk (a semi-sweet red), Phat Hogg Chardonnay, Buffaloberry Fusion (a dry white), and their largest seller, Red Ass Rhubarb (made from South Dakota rhubarb and red raspberries), which actually is a pretty good, albeit different, semi-dry wine.

All grapes, berries and fruits used in the Prairie Berry wines are grown and gathered in South Dakota.

At the Hill City winery, they crush, ferment, age and bottle all of their wines.  It is a fifth-generation South Dakota winery, having been established in 1876.

We had a delicious lunch there and the quality of the food is excellent. They were quite busy and sales were brisk from all indications.

We took a drive on one of the well maintained back roads on Friday, to Silver City.  This is an old (est. 1876) along the headwaters of Rapid Creek at about 6,000 ft. ASL.  But interestingly it is still an active community with about 80 residents, it's own volunteer fire department, water department and community center, which is located in an old school building with the school bell still in place on the roof.  The post office was closed in 1976, but that is most likely due to the small population, the lack of prior use, and its location (making it probably very difficult to make ingress and egress during the winter months.  It is a very pretty place in a serene setting, making it an ideal "getaway from the crowd type of place".

We drove through a little rustic, western community of Nemo, which seems it could have easily been an old western town with Black Hills charm and scenic appeal. It has a large gust ranch, general store, log cabins for guests, a livery stable, and a rustic log restaurant, all located in a very pretty setting along the hills and meadows of the area.

We drove by Lake Sheridan, where the fishing seemed to be popular, and then on further up 385 we came to Pactola Lake which is a large lake with boating, fishing, camping and the like in and around it.  It too has a beautiful setting, and not being crowded makes for a big plus with us.

Saturday (yesterday), we took a tour of the Black Hills Petrified Forest which is adjacent to our location here at Elk Creek.  It was a very interesting and informative tour.  We found it interesting to learn that about 80 million years ago this was a tropical setting, about 2,000 miles further south than where we are today, and it was marshlands and swamp with many cypress trees, palms and some firs.

Over time, as changes took place, the marsh and swamp disappeared while the land so ever slowly was creeping northward.  Then about 30 million years ago, a vertical up-thrusting began that formed the Black Hills.  One characteristic about the Black Hills is that is was formed by a vertical up-thrusting as opposed to the formation of the Rockies which was formed by the more common method of lateral-shifting and subsequent horizontal over-lapping of plates. 

The direct evidence of the Black Hills vertical up-thrust is visually apparent with the petrified trees that have been broken into various sections of about four to six feet in length, caused by being pushed upward in a 'dome-like' motion as the formation of the Black Hills took place.

There was a very information museum along with a large rock shop and gift shop located on site also.

An interesting item of note for us, was that there was a wedding about to be performed there.  We understand that this is a popular place for couples to 'tie-the-knot'.  I will say that the setting is beautiful and makes for an excellent location for having a wedding ceremony performed.

This morning (Sunday), we went to patronize the local country café here in Piedmont for a bite of breakfast.  It was good, the food was great, the service very good and the setting was quite nice to boot.  A nice way to start off our day.

 

A key to the pictures above - Left to Right / Top to Bottom:

I-90 coming into Rapid City;     The entrance to Elk Creek RV Resort, Piedmont;

Prairie Berry Winery, Hill City;

Prairie Berry Winery Tasting Room;

Silver City;

Nemo;

Pactola Lake;

Double-Diamond Ranch;

Petrified Forest Tree (100' long);

A polished cross-section of a petrified tree (red is from iron oxide minerals during petrification);

Another tree about 100' long;

A petrified turtle found there.
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