I finally made it to the Black Hills in the Winter, visiting in January of 2021. I had hoped to venture to new areas by snowmobile, but there wasn’t enough snow for them, so had to just travel on the roads. I’ve always wanted to explore the Hills with snow on them, and while there wasn’t much snow yet this year, the snow does give the area a very different feel.  Most of the snow I found was in the Deerfield Lake area, well up the road above Hill City.  I also went to see Mount Rushmore after dark, which I also hadn’t done before–it is lit up and really glows.  There are some tunnels on the Iron Mountain road that the monument is visible through, so I stopped and took some photos on those as well.

The entire area has a different feel to it in the Winter, as there are very few people around.  Everywhere I went, I had the freedom to set up wherever I wanted and I didn’t have to worry about people in the images.  That was nice.

Deerfield Lake

Iron Mountain Road tunnel view

Iron Mountain Road tunnel view

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Mount Rushmore

A view from Deerfield Lake road.