Hell Canyon Horse Camp - Custer, South Dakota

 

Our next stop was Hell Canyon Horse Camp - located 8 miles west of Custer.

Our horses have one of their favorite types of accommodation - a decent sized corral with shade.

This camp features wifi - which is actually pretty decent. There is a camp store where they sell tack as well as items from local artisans.  They also have public toilets and showers in the office. There are small cabins to rent as well.

The owners are from Louisiana and they are a hoot.

There are open corrals as well as stalls inside the barn - so you have choices as to where you keep your horses.

Sites feature full hook-up and most sites have a picnic table.

You aren't supposed to hook up by your trailer. The camp provides these very cool carts with wheels to help you move your tack into one of the tack rooms in the barn.

Here is our tack stowed in the barn.

The previous camp owner is a farrier and he came out to trim our horses. Their feet are holding up really well.

A couple of other campers offered to take us out on the trails and show us some of the local mines, so off we went. They were riding two mules - both mollies (meaning females). My horse had a hissy fit most of the ride because he did not care for the mules one bit.

We ended up parting ways before the end of the ride because my horse was throwing a temper tantrum over it.

Ari wanted to tour Jewel Cave, which is close by. After our experience at Wind Cave, we got to Jewel Cave before they opened the ticket kiosk. There was already a line for tickets, but we managed to get tickets for the second tour.

They were running a modified tour because the elevators are undergoing repairs. 

The tour only included one large room of the cave, so we were a bit disappointed.

We had been hoping to ride Hell Canyon Trail, but it is a 21 mile round trip from the campground. The owners will drop you off, but that only takes about 7 miles off the ride. I am just not up for that long a ride, plus we were told the trail is very narrow and not that safe.

I went into Hill City which is about 20 minutes away from the campground to go grocery shopping.

The market is called Krull's and they have the best cinnamon rolls I have bought so far.

There is a lot of public art and I really liked this status of a horse in the downtown area - the horse is made up of different scrap metal parts. 

Here is the rear flank of the statue

This is the front flank of the statue

And there is this little foal chasing after the larger horse.

The farrier had thought my horse was sore, so we brought out Kat Davies to give both horses a massage. She said they both were actually in really good shape.

We managed two more rides during our stay - timing them on days when it wasn't too hot.

It was fairly easy riding, although I was nervous riding my horse after his hissy fit on the first ride. He didn't act up once the mules were gone, though.

Next stop - Iron Creek Horse Camp.