Happy Blogiversary!

In this post, I ruminate on my last five years of blogging and what I hope to achieve in the next five years

 

The Tranquil Trekker turns 5 this month!  That’s a pretty major Blogiversary milestone!  I can’t believe it’s been that long!  For fun, here’s a link to the first, full-length blog post I ever wrote:  Dugout Gulch Botanical Trail (#77).

How It Started…

I started the blog in 2016 kind of on a whim, not knowing ANYTHING about blogging.  I did it mainly to make it easy to share pictures and stories of our adventures with our family and friends.  At the time we were living more than 900 miles from our closest family members and people were always asking about the random trips we took.  I originally assumed “no one makes money on a blog”, so I didn’t start it with that intent at all.

What’s Changed…

SO MUCH has changed in the last 5 years!!!

–In 2018 I left my full-time job and started social media accounts for the blog.  I also switched from a free-hosted blog (WordPress.com) to a self-hosted blog (WordPress.org).  I can honestly say that I LOVE both Bluehost and WordPress.org!  They make blogging easy for me, the technologically-challenged, “geriatric” millennial. 😝 (I also now know the difference between the two WordPress options. 😉  If any novice bloggers out there want help deciding which option is right for them, let me know!)

–I monetized my blog!  Contrary to popular belief, it is actually possible to make money blogging! 😮   I’m still not making much, but at least it’s something! (And at least now I know what affiliate programs are and how they work!)

–In 2020 I FINALLY learned how to do SEO and started ranking on Page 1 of Google for many posts!

I still hate SEO, it still feels to me like you’re speaking “robot” to make a computer happy–which you kind of are.  It’s hard to make the blog post feel authentic to ME.  But…I understand the need for SEO.  At some point, if you want your blog to be seen by others, you have to make it easy for the Google Bots to “see” you first.

I’ve even had a couple of freelance jobs where I did proofreading and helped with SEO optimization on other blogs.  I definitely NEVER thought THAT would be a job for me! 😮

What I’ve Learned…

You could ask, when did my blog really start?  In 2016 I was lucky if I was publishing one post each month as I was busy with my full-time job and other projects.  In 2018, when I finally got on social media, I really started pushing my blog to the masses.  But it wasn’t until 2020 that I finally started really doing the SEO.  So, did I “start” my blog in 2016 and I’m just a REALLY slow learner, or did it really not “start” still 2018 or 2020?  Whatever the answer you can see I have learned SO MUCH throughout the whole process.

I also learned how to code…barely. 😉.  Really I just learned how to look tips up online to tell the webpage how to do what I want it to do.  Sometimes, Google really is your friend! (If anyone has any suggestions on coding classes I could take, specifically for web development–namely HTML and CSS–let me know!  I’ve been on the lookout but haven’t found anything that really fits just yet.)

Over the last five years, I’ve made a lot of friends in the blogging world, specifically travel/outdoor recreation bloggers.  I’ve done guest posts on other blogs and collaborations with other friendly bloggers (click here to see those!)  There are so many supportive people in the blogging world, I’ve been SO impressed by how many want to help each other.  It’s a really encouraging community to be a part of!

What’s Next?

What will the next five years bring?  Who knows!  Some day I want to attend my first blogging conference.  I’ve also been working on a project for the last several years that I’ve been keeping very hush-hush.  I’m truly hoping to make enough progress on this to reveal it to you soon…🙏 🤞  I do hope to continue the blog, at least in some form, for the next many years!

Thank you for hanging out with me for the last five years.  I have grown to love blogging and I TRULY appreciate the supportive readers I’ve gained along the way.  I hope we have MANY more years of blog enjoyment ahead of us!

What brought you to my blog Dear Reader?  What holds your interest and gets you to keep reading?  Do you have any suggestions of things I could change in the future or topics you’d like to see me cover?  Let me know in the comments!

 

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4 pineapples (one wearing sunglasses) are surrounded by balloons and party hats! Pin reads, "The Tranquil Trekker turns FIVE!"

 

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Great Hikes in the Black Elk Wilderness

In this post, I review some hiking trails found in the Black Elk Wilderness, in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

 

The Black Elk Wilderness covers a portion of the central Black Hills, in the Mount Rushmore/Horsethief Lake portion of the Harney range (now the Black Elk range) of South Dakota.  There are some great hiking trails that traverse this area!

Hike the Horsethief Lake Trail to Grizzly Bear Creek Trail in the Black Hills

One great option is to begin at the Horsethief Lake Trail.  The trailhead can be found at the Horsethief Lake Fishing/Rec area which is located off of Hwy 244, west of Mt. Rushmore.

Note: this is one turnoff east of the drive for the Horsethief Lake Campground. 

There is a larger parking area right at the lake. The trailhead is located at a small parking area just to the east of here–there is a sign. 

We took the Horsethief Lake Trail (Trail #14) to the Grizzly Bear Creek Trail (Trail #7) which traverses a lovely canyon area and parallels Grizzly Bear Creek for a time. 

This portion of the Black Hills is particularly vulnerable to storm damage as it was decimated by the Pine Beetle plague in recent years.  Due to this, there are several hazards to watch out for in this area, including blow-down sections of trees and falling limbs/trees if windy conditions are occurring. 

What you’ll see hiking through the Black Elk Wilderness

The hike was lovely.  Much of it traverses canyons, surrounded on all sides by towers of granite.  There are several beautiful, lookout points with views of the surrounding Hills and the prairie stretching far to the east.  The trail is in a largely wooded area so it would be fairly shaded in the warmer months, and as you climb there is usually at least a moderate, cooling breeze (that can be downright chilling in the cooler months). 

Portions of this trail are open to horses as well so be watchful for the equines (and be careful not to step in what they leave behind). 

The portion of the trail we completed was of moderate difficulty, was well-developed, and was fairly wide.  There weren’t many rocks/large steps to negotiate and while there were few trail markers, they weren’t needed as the path was evident. 

It should be noted that the lower part of the Horsethief Trail is frequently wet and muddy so waterproof shoes/boots are suggested.   In the winter/early spring, thanks to snow-melt and the nearby creek it is often extremely icy and slick.  This portion of the trail is located in a canyon under a canopy of trees so it doesn’t get much sunlight to melt the ice.   We have seen several inches of thick, hazardous ice on this trail in the early spring that required our Yaktrax to navigate safely.

Other trail loops in the Black Elk Wilderness

If you’re up to the challenge, a loop can be made of this trail using the Horsethief Lake Trail to the Grizzly Bear Creek Trail to the Centennial Trail (Trail # 89). This will then eventually take you back to the Horsethief Lake trail almost at the Trailhead (the loop can be completed in either direction).  This entire loop would be around 10 – 12 miles.  While this is within our ability level, we weren’t sure about the steepness/difficulty of the remainder of the trail, and daylight was growing short so we chose to stop at about the halfway point, have some lunch along the creekside, and return the way we had come. 

Numerous trails connect throughout the Harney (Black Elk) range. Depending on your skill level and how long you are willing to commit to being out in the wild you can hike any combination of these, ranging from a simple hike of a few hours to a backpacking trek of several days.

For those non-locals who may be wondering why I keep referring to this area as the Harney (Black Elk) range, I’ll explain.  Harney Peak is the highest mountain in the Black Hills (and the tallest east of the Rockies).  It stands out among the surrounding peaks of the Harney Range.  The Black Elk Wilderness area comprises much of this range. 

Black Elk was a Lakota, Holy Man who lived around the turn of the century, the Wilderness area is named after him.*  A few years ago, it was decided that Harney Peak would be renamed Black Elk Peak in honor of this great man and as a tribute to the local, Lakota culture.  As it has been such a short duration of time since the change, many of the books/maps regarding this local area (and the signs currently posted) will still carry the former name of the mountain/range.

*If you’re a history buff or just interested in American Indian culture, I highly recommend the book Black Elk Speaks by John Neihardt.  It’s a biography of the Holy Man’s life based on interviews Neihardt completed with him in his final years. It is a very interesting, fairly objective account of a man growing up in a changing world.  It discusses Black Elk’s nomadic life before General Custer and his soldiers arrived and the way this life changed after gold–or as Black Elk called it, “the yellow metal that makes white men crazy”–was found in the Black Hills.

Below are two pics that Mr. Trekker took of our hike:

Rock spires rise above the green, pine forest, all under a clear, blue sky
The granite spires surrounding the canyon we were hiking in
A fall scene. A small creek running through dry grass and bare trees, with green pine trees in the background, all under a clear, blue sky.
Grizzly Creek

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For more information on other trails available in the Black Elk Wilderness, click here.

Have you hiked this portion of the Black Elk Wilderness? Tell me what you thought of the beauty here in the comments! 

 

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A fall scene. A small creek running through dry grass and bare trees, with green pine trees in the background, all under a clear, blue sky. 

Pin reads, "Great Hikes in the Black Elk Wilderness. Several hikes not to miss on your next trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota."

 

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