Six Strings & Seven Seas: Jim Madsen's Home on the Web

Ah...the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota - home of Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane and of course Rocky Raccoon.

I have a lot of other Black Hills stuff under Skiing and Fly-fishing, so look for more specific info there.

If you're thinking of spending any amount of time out there let me know - I can put you onto a number of other different places and activities.

The Black Hills cover an area 125 miles long and 69 wide in western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming. They include rugged rock formations, canyons and gulches, open grassland parks, tumbling streams, deep lakes, and caves. Trees and plants from the Rocky Mountains, eastern woodlands, northern forests, and the Great Plains converge at this biological crossroads. The forest cover and forage sustain a wide variety of birds and four-legged animals, including elk, deer, bighorn sheep, and mountain goats.

These mountains have power, or, as South Dakota conservationist Peter Norbeck says, value beyond gold. For many people, from past and present Native Americans to today's visitors, the Black Hills have been a special place for physical and spiritual renewal. Paha Sapa. Lakota Sioux for "hills that are black." But that's the surface translation. The deeper translation is "the heart of everything that is."

There are about 300+ miles of bike trails in the Black Hills - and another 300+ miles for just hiking. There are numerous walk-in fishing areas as well. And if you just want to get away from it all? Then go looking for one of the 600 ghost towns in and around the Black Hills.

Go south a couple of hours and be in the middle of "Dances With Wolves" bison land where a herd of 1,500 roam freely in Custer State Park.