Out in the parks
The Black Hills Nature Shop is joining Custer’s Crazy Days with a two-day sidewalk sale outside association headquarters at 833 Mt. Rushmore Road.The tables will hold close-out merchandise, ding and dent items, one-off samples, and odds and ends. Look for adult and youth apparel, books, puzzles and games, household goods, and plush animals. Quantities are […]
National Grasslands Visitor Center staff will be presenting interpretive programs every other Monday at Badlands National Park’s Cedar Pass Amphitheater throughout the summer.
Colorado-based historian Kurt Skinner brings the country’s 26th president to life in a one-evening performance at the Elk Mountain Campground Amphitheater in Wind Cave National Park. A retired military officer-turned high school history teacher, Skinner is a lifelong student of Roosevelt’s legacy and has performed as the president at national parks and historic sites across […]
Coyote howls, yips, and barks: they are actually saying something. And that is just the start. Pronghorn can run 55 mph with more stamina than any other animal alive. They picked up that speed running from an American cheetah that went extinct thousands of years ago, and never lost it. A mountain lion can clear […]
Artist and educator Marty Two Bulls Jr. comes to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument to discuss his work and the Winter Count project he helped develop with the Oglala Sioux Tribe. His talk, Winter Counts, traces his artistic career, including his artist residency at the Sanford Underground Research Facility and his role as artist laureate […]
Step into Black Hills history at Meeker Ranch, built in 1887 by former Pony Express rider Frank Cunningham Meeker and acquired by the Forest Service in 2004. Just outside Custer, the ranch is undergoing historic preservation and restoration, including work on the buildings and on nearby riparian and wetland areas. Forest Service recreation, heritage, and […]
Wind Cave National Park protects two very different worlds: the open prairie above and the intricate cave below. On clear nights a third world blankets both, the brilliant night sky over the southern Black Hills.Join a park ranger who ties the majesty of the night sky to the story of the park, pointing out and […]
Spend a Friday evening at the BHPFA Nature Shop in Custer learning to read the landscape like a naturalist. Join Education Specialist Tom Tonkin for Field Notes: An Introduction to the Art of Nature Observation, an engaging 1.5-hour look at how naturalist skills can deepen your understanding of the natural world around us, told through […]
Some guests overstay their welcome. The Unwanted Guests: When Nature Goes Rogue explores invasive species in the Black Hills: what makes a plant invasive, how to recognize one, and how you can help the ecosystem when you spot them. The program runs from 1 to 4 p.m. Check the Forest Service and association channels for […]
Close out the summer with a lakeside campfire sing-along at Sheridan Lake. Sally Svenson, the Songbird of the Black Hills, plays her original songs and the Black Hills stories behind them as the evenings turn cool. Music starts at 7:00 p.m.Getting there: Sheridan Lake South Campground is on Sheridan Lake along Highway 385 near Hill […]
National Grasslands Visitor Center staff will be presenting interpretive programs every other Monday at Badlands National Park’s Cedar Pass Amphitheater throughout the summer.
Throw a spear the way hunters did for thousands of years. Join a Nebraska National Forest ranger at the Pinnacles for a hands-on look at the atlatl, an ancient spear-throwing tool that came long before the bow and arrow, then step up and launch one yourself.The program covers how the atlatl worked, why it mattered […]
