Southern Hills RV Park, Hermosa, South Dakota
Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to (Laban) to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him, he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” and that Jacob had obeyed his father . . . Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had. ~ Genesis 28:6-9 So what was your first thought upon reading this? Sounds good doesn’t it? Sounds like he’s sorry for the trouble he’s caused, doesn’t it? But has he learned anything? I think, not so much. Yes, he finally realized that he never should’ve married the forbidden Canaanite women, but what did he do? He went and joined himself to the people God rejected. Ishmael (Abraham’s ‘illegitimate’ son) and his people. Hopefully, he didn’t consult Isaac on this marriage either. I would hate to think Isaac would give his blessing for this. Plus, Esau continues to add wives to his harem, something that God doesn’t approve of. In the beginning, God ordained marriage to be between one man and one woman. Men – beginning with Cain’s descendants – made the choice to take on more than one. You won’t find Old Testament scripture that specifically condemns polygamy, but whenever polygamy is present, trouble abounds (both personally and spiritually), as with Abraham, Jacob, David and Solomon, and others. In the New Testament however, Jesus makes it pretty clear in both Matthew 5 and 19, that God’s desire is for one man and one woman – and no divorce.
Every time we have a lazy day, Blaine decides we have to make up for it. Now mind you, I’m not complaining. I love to eat, and I love that I’m able to wear smaller clothes, and I love that I can walk uphill without too much trouble, and I love soaking up the marvelous Creation God gave to us.
Today included places within Custer State Park that we’ve been before, so there aren’t quite as many pictures, but we still found beautiful and awesome things to see!
We began with a hike to and from Cathedral Spires (where Blaine discovered the giant eagle rock formation the other day). It was a different route than we took the last time. Easy going down to the spires, but quite a steep climb coming back up.
Did you notice the kid that scampered up on the rocks?
And not motley looking like the ones we saw earlier.
They must be done shedding.
What is it? Well, it seems it’s the secretion of spittlebug nymphs.
Apparently these bugs prefer goldenrod.
They dine on the stems, and excrete these bubbles (sometimes as much as 80 bubbles per minute!).
The bubbles serve as protection – both from predators, and also from temperature.
That’s it in a nutshell! Your entomology lesson for today!
Those low, flat rocks is where we rested the last time we hiked here.
This trail connects with the loop up to and down from the Harney Peak Lookout tower on the top of Black Elk mountain. I confess, we took a bunch of pictures up there again. I’m not sure how you could not! Even with the smoke haze, it’s still a spectacular view!
It’s that wide, flat rock near the top of the picture.
And just think, Teddy Roosevelt is only 10′ from what we can see!
That’s because the sculptor had to set him way back in the mountain.
When you’re up in places like this, surrounded by 360 degrees of majesty,
it’s hard to imagine Heaven being any better!
I didn’t much care for his decision. . . but I always take his picture. : )
We said we’d not spend the money when there’s so much smoke haze.
There’s no trail, so you have to pick your way.
After we spent some time soaking up the reward for our effort, it was time to head back to the Jeep. It’s much easier going back down. 😊
Not sure how they got it this far. We’re quite a ways from the start.
Our Jeep was parked at Sylvan Lake this time, and after we collapsed and forced cold air onto our skin and more ice water into our bodies, and removed our boots and socks, we slipped on the comfortable, cool sandals we’d brought with us.
And then, we decided we still wanted to walk some more. Call it a cool down period after our strenuous hike, I don’t know, but we thought to walk around the Lake. It’s a mile loop, and we remembered it being flat.
Guess our memories aren’t what they used to be! It started out flat, but then there were plenty of rocks to climb! Not so easy in thin, flip-flop-type sandals! But we made it. Kudos to whomever created my sandals. I bought them at WalMart for less than $10 about 5-6 years ago, and they’re still holding up well!
It wasn’t stifling hot this afternoon, and when we were ready to leave the Lake, it was cloudy, so we actually took the top off the Jeep for the drive around the Park looking for wildlife – especially buffalo. Very nice! But then the sun came out and . . . . well . . . sun and redheads don’t mix so well. But we managed to get home with no burns. 😊
they had two Park staff parked at each end of this particular tunnel, because you can’t see what’s coming.
No buffalo sightings either – not even in the distance. But we saw those two mountain goats this morning, and one lone pronghorn antelope this afternoon crossing the road. There weren’t even any herds to be seen in the distance today. Sad, but how could we possibly complain? We’ve enjoyed a spectacular, overwhelmingly-blessed month in this area!
