For many of us, trampling through the canyons and pathways across the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota is the only real way to fully appreciate the beauty and mystique of these hills. So when we learned a couple of years ago about the popular Moon Walks hosted by Black Hills National Forest, we gave it a try and fully enjoyed it. This season, we'll try to document some of the walks. This is the schedule for the remainder of the 2009 Moon Walks.

JULY 11, 2009 - UNDERGROUND WILDERNESS
Saturday evenng, July 11th at around 6:45. A good-sized group of Moon Walkers have arrived early to prepare for their third outing of the year -- a hike up to Ice Cave. It's located about 22 miles west of Custer.

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That's Amy Ballard of the U.S. Forest Service visiting with early-comers. For the first time this year, the Moon Walk was spared rain or fog. Good thing! This proved to be one of the longer walks of the year.

Amy chats with wildlife biologist Brad Phillips, who works out of the Hell Canyon Ranger Station in the Black Hills National Forest. A native of California, Brad went to school at Humboldt State University in Arcata, situated along the northern California coast. In addition to being a wildlife biologist, he's a "caver." We understand that's the preferred term -- rather than spelunker -- for folks who like to explore caves.

We really thought that the rather isolated location of this Moon Walk might discourage folks and that only a handful of us would show up. Wrong! By the time we arrived -- around 6:45 -- there was already a huge throng chomping at the bit to get caving.

The first mile or so was a rather mild uphill grade. That's Brad Phillips in the colorful vest, leading the way for some 150 folks spread along the trail behind him.

Don't know who the young man with the walking stick is -- but he more or less set the pace for the group. And it was a brisk one! There was no breeze, and the roadway we followed most of the way provided easy hiking.

This shot gives you a sense of the trail we followed and the number of folks who joined us. The Moon Walks have gained a wide following of participants from all over the region. While most of the folks sport South Dakota license plates, we've seen vehicles from Wyoming, Nebraska, and other states.

One of the joys of these hikes is the opportunity to visit with the experts who lead them. While discussions about caves was the orderof the day, we'd learn much about flying mammals and flowers!

The trailside was bedecked with plenty of wildflowers on our trek to Ice Cave. This is a member of the Lupine family of flowers. I snapped a photo of it as we began our final ascent to Ice Cave. A co-hiker identified it as Silver Leaf Lupine. We also saw Prairie Smoke and Wild Geraniums.