Spearfish Canyon Scenic Drive.

Spearfish Canyon is one of the items we had on our list of things to see while we were here so we took a ride today. US highway 14A winds through the canyon which is located in the Black Hills National Forest;  we drove 15 miles from Spearfish to Savoy where we walked to see two waterfalls before retracing our route.

As we drove south the walls of the canyon rose on each side of the road; our first stop was a turnout at Bridal Veil Falls, the falls is visible from the road so there were a number of vehicles parked and people out looking at the falls. The light wasn’t great but we took a couple images and continued on our way.

 

The canyon walls started to grow as we drove south.

 

The walls became taller and more picturesque as we continued.

 

 

Bridal Veil Falls.

 

We stopped to look at the creek on our way to Savoy.

 

The canyon didn’t disappoint.

 

 

Our next stop was in Savoy where we turned onto Forest Service Road 222 and drove to a parking area near Roughlock Falls; there is a parking area for a trailhead near the intersection of 14A and 222, the trail will take you up the valley to the falls but we drove up 222 and parked near the falls. There are nice picnic spots along the creek and a paved trail that takes you to several viewing spots above and at the base of the falls. After watching the water for awhile we walked the trail back down the valley to a dam near the trailhead, we walked out onto the dam before returning to the car.

 

 

Roughlock Falls has an upper fall (in the background, to the right of center), and a lower cascade fall. There are several decks where you can view the falls from various locations.

 

We walked the trail down valley.

 

We stopped on the dam where we could see the fish in the shallow water.

 

 

The creek feed some wetlands along the way.

 

 

From Roughlock Falls we drove back to the 14A/222 intersection and stopped in the trailhead parking area. We crossed 14A where we found the trail to Spearfish Falls. We took the Nature Trail down to the Spearfish Falls viewing area. Spearfish was the best of the three falls we saw today; after leaving the viewing area we continued on the trail which took us up to a river crossing above the falls.

 

Crossing the creek again.

 

What a beauty, and Spearfish Falls isn’t bad either.

 

We walked back to the CRV and returned to Spearfish on 14A, the light was better so we took some more images as we drove.

 

The view during our trip back to Spearfish.