March 25, 2018 - Even though March is generally pretty wet here, this year it has been unusually snowy, so there were still patches of snow and ice on the trail.
There also were a lot of downed trees on the trail, but nothing that couldn't be easily navigated around. The day was cool, around 40 degrees and overcast, but still a pretty nice day.
The trail begins at The Big Pine trail head which is about a quarter mile past Horse Thief Lake and winds it's way for 5 1/2 miles through the Black Hills until you end up in a valley below Mount Rushmore.
Great views along the way
A side trail is then taken up to the National Monument where you can enter the monument if so desired.
It should be noted that there is no admission fee into the monument but there is a parking fee, so if you hike to it like we did, you can enter for free. We decided to just walk the road back to our car, and since it was not tourist season, the road was pretty quiet and it was a nice walk. The whole trip was 9.3 miles and took about 4 1/4 hours.
