Moonshine Gulch Saloon

Hi all,
 The weather here has been on and off, many days of rain and cool 60's with a couple nice 80 degree
days mixed in. It is great seeing lush green fields and trees but planning days off with something to do in the rain gets tough. Oh well, guess we can't change the weather.
 Campground is starting to run full most nights. We get request from campers to change sites to be close to other family and wonder if they couldn't be together when they made the reservation how they think we can put them together now. Switching is about impossible as everyone's stays are different. We have 42 sites and average about 16 out each day with 16 new ones arriving. And different from most campgrounds it doesn't change on weekends, just as many leave on Friday and Saturday. And Sunday is no big exodus day.
 Monday we took a short ride to explore Lakota Lake, it is located along Iron Mountain Road north of the park. In Black Hills National Forest it is just a day use only park. The water was quite muddy from all the recent rains. I cast a few times and managed to land one decent trout which was released. Might be a good lake for the kayak someday.

 Wendy and I were talking the other day that we had seen less wildlife in our campground this year compared to last year and then just later that day I caught this nub buck sneaking a snack from our birdfeeder. One other day he walked up not even caring I was cleaning the truck nearby. A couple days from then I spotted some movement through the pines and saw this doe with a couple newborn fawns. They looked pretty fresh to me.

  We did get out for a good truck ride the other day. I had wanted to go up and see Pactola Reservoir, it lies between Hill City and Deadwood. With all the rain in the area I wanted to see how bad the big reservoir looked. They have a nice visitor center by the lake showing pictures of the valley before the lake was formed to prevent reoccurring flooding. The lake is awesome sight along 385 and is up 7 feet from the recent rains just enough to close the boat launches.


 After that we meandered through the National Forest aiming for Rochford for lunch. We had rode bikes on the Mickelson Trail to Rochford last year and were later told we missed great burgers at the local bar there. First off Rochford was founded in 1877, as gold was discovered in 1876 in Little Rapid Creek. The town grew to a population of 500 by 1878 and by 1900 was down to 48. Today about 25 call it home. It has two current businesses and a small fire department.
 The local bar The Moonshine Gulch Saloon is quite the place indeed. It looked interesting from the outside and the inside upheld the image. Money tacked to the ceiling in one area, hats on another and shirts signed by what I assume locals in another area.. There was a mix of antique and assorted memorabilia about and we can't forget a few brassieres to put the finishing touch.
 Quite the family run business we were greeted by a boy of about 10, ordered our meal from grandpa, got served by a girl of about 12 and think the dad was the cook. And the family dog was napping on the floor nearby.

about all there is to Rochford

 We ordered cheeseburgers and one order of fries, the burgers were good and one order of homemade fries was plenty for two.
 We continued our exploring drive and checked out Deerfield Lake. It is a pretty lake that has two national forest campgrounds on it.

 Overall  we had a great day checking out new places.