A Day In the Life of a Day Use Gate Worker

(Lake Sheridan, South Dakota) 68 degrees, sun, sudden hail storm and rain

Day Use Booth (North Cove) 

Part of our responsibilities as camp hosts is staffing a Day Use booth five days a week.  Our campground is located at Sheridan Lake, a very popular area for fishing, boating, and swimming. If you are camping the admission is free.  Otherwise, all visitors are charged a $6 parking fee. 

There are two booths; one is near the campground and another at the marina.  Both are very busy on the weekends, not so much during the week. 

There is no electricity at the booth, so at times it  can be very hot.  I take a book to read on weekdays and the minutes go by very slowly.  Here is my view out the booth window. A book about John Muir is keeping me entertained right now.  He saw such beauty in trees and rocks.  I try to look for it too and listen to the pine trees sing.

Dealing with the public can be entertaining at times and it certainly requires a lot of patience.  Some folks are pretty creative in trying to avoid paying the parking fee.  Some excuses include:

• I just need to check to see if my friend is here
• I’m only going to stay for a few minutes to eat lunch
• I’m from the tribal nation and this land used to be ours…why do I have to pay a fee
• Can I just take a look… I promise to come right back out
• This is federal land…I pay taxes… why should I have to pay a parking fee

And my personal favorite...

• Car packed full ot teenagers all in bathing suits who just want to "look" at the beach

For the most part, I just grin and bear it.  The answer is always no, but I try to be pleasant about it.  There are some folks who can be quite memorable.  During busy times it can be very hectic with cars and boats going in all directions.  You have to handle a lot of money (cash or check only) and balance your ticket receipts at the end of the day. 

Today around 3 p.m. a sudden storm whipped up out of nowhere.  Suddenly big drops of rain fell which turned almost immediately into hail.  Good grief…in late July.  The beach folks quickly left or drove their cars under cover to avoid hail damage.  So with that good excuse I closed up the booth and went back to the campground. 

We did have some damage to our a/c cover on our motorhome.  Otherwise, everything was ok.  Lots of campers were not so lucky.  This area for some reason has frequent hail storms when it rains.

So that's all the scoop for today on being a day use gate attendant.  :)

Spectacular Spearfish Canyon

(Spearfish, South Dakota) 72 degrees, cloudy, scattered showers

“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature.

It will never fail you.”

Frank Lloyd Wright

 

Check out this spectacular canyon.  On our day off today we drove to Spearfish Canyon.  It was lush and beautiful.  Hugh granite cliffs were along both sides of the road interspersed by several waterfalls and babbling brooks.  It was a spectacular 20 mile drive. 

We stopped and hiked the Roughlock Falls Nature Trail.  It was an easy hike to a very pretty waterfall.

 Roughlock Falls 

There were lots and lots of wildflowers along the trail and roads.  There has been so much rain in this area and everything looked so beautiful. 

We stopped in the city of Spearfish and the D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery.  It is located in the city park and was built in 1896 to propagate, stock, and establish trout in the Black Hill and Wyoming. It is now a museum and no longer is used as a hatchery.  However, there are lots of fish in the ponds and we saw kids having fun feeding them.

This museum is staffed mostly with workampers.  We talked to several of them and most have returned for several seasons.  The area was beautifully maintained.

We enjoyed walking the grounds and toured some of the exhibits.  Admission was free!

Railcars used to transport fish across the country

The workampers stay at the Spearfish City Campground.  We had seen the campground advertised in workamper.com.  The sites for them are along a pretty creek and the campground was very nice.  Rates are $32/night for a full hook up site.  It is a great location for touring this area. 

We made a couple of quick stops along the way.  Deadwood was at one time the most unlawful town.  Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane were several of the characters who lived here.  It is now mostly a gambling town.  We were here three years ago and it has certainly grown.  We had lunch at Lil Diamond, Kevin Costner’s restaurant.  He fell in love with this area when filming Dances with Wolves. 

Deadwood

Wild Bill Hiccop’s was killed is this saloon while playing cards

On the way back we quickly drove through Sturgis.  It is getting geared up for the big yearly rally that starts on August 8th.  Soon it will be lined with motorcycles up and down the streets. 

Sturgis

We will certainly return again to spend more time in Spearfish.  It was one of our most favorite road trips. 

Sheridan Lake Kayak

(Hill City, South Dakota) 75 degrees, blue sky

Sheridan Lake

Today was our day off and it seemed like a great day to take out our Sea Eagle kayak and explore Sheridan Lake.  During the week is the perfect time for a paddle, however, weekends are way too busy with speed boats and jet skies to attempt it.  There is a great boat launch is our campground and soon we were off. 

There was a little bit of breeze and a small chop but we found it to be good exercise.  

Dakota Point

These granite cliffs are very busy on weekend.  Kids jump off of them into the water.  Today to was easy to admire their beauty. 

Lots of wildflowers were blooming along the banks. 

The picture below is of the North Cove marina that we work at on weekends.  We sell day passes to folks who want to use the area to swim or picnic.  There are also group camping sites at this location. 

Our camping loop (Woodsey) can be seen in the picture below.  I had posted some of the campsites in yesterdays post. 

We enjoyed the paddles and then went to Rapid City to see the new Harry Potter movie.  It was the last in the series and full of action and suspense. 

Tomorrow we are planning on going to Spearfish and Sturgis.  Check back soon and happy trails.  

Spectacular Drive Along Needles Highway

(Black Hills, South Dakota) 96 degrees, very hot

We took a spectacular drive along the Needles Highway.  This is certainly a special place to add to your “bucket list”.  The drive twists and turns among the huge granite needles and is really something to behold. 

This area is located in the Black Hills National Forest and Custer State Park.  The eye of the needle area had some great trails we want to check out in the future.  There were several people climbing the needles – something I don’t anticipate participating in anytime soon but it was fun to watch.

Tunnel leading to the eye of the needle

 

Eye of the needle

 

The tunnels on the Iron Mountain Road were designed to give you a view of Mount Rushmore as you drive through them. Cool!

Look carefully for view of Mount Rushmore…can you see it?

View of Mount Rushmore in distance

We visited this area three years ago and noticed a big change in the pine forests.  The pine beetle has attacked many of the trees in this area.  The brown areas in the picture below show some of the devastation. The forest service has thinned some areas to try and decrease the destruction and sprayed some areas. There was much resistance to these efforts and in a year or two, once all these trees fall, most of this area will be barren for a long time. 

Earlier in the day we stopped in Keystone to visit the Rushmore Borglum Museum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore. 

Gutzon Borglum 

 

It was a very interesting exhibit ($10/person) and you could view it at your own pace by using a audio headset.  It was amazing to learn that he did not start this project until he was 60 years old. 

 One of his trial models

 

A close-up of how he sculpted the eyes

 

The work  commenced in 1927 and was completed in 1941.  Twenty five men usually worked at a time. His son, Lincoln, finished the last six months of the project after his fathers sudden death. 

 Other sculptures of famous men and women

The museum was very interesting.  It was a bit dated and worn but certainly very informative.

New Camp Host Position–Sheridan Lake National Forest

(Hill City, South Dakota) 78 degrees, cloudy

Camp Host John @ the marina helping to park boats

We were very fortunate and were recently offered a camp host position at Sheridan Lake.  It is a large National Forest campground (129 sites) that is wrapped around a beautiful lake. It is located about 15 minutes from Mount Rushmore.  Originally we were offered a volunteer position but after only a few days a full time camp host position became available. 

Sheridan Lak

 

We are responsible for the Woodsey Loop (29 sites) that are along the lake. It is a primitive campground that has lots of trees and wild flowers. 

Wildflower meadows

 

No hookups except water

 

Each site is very large, usually level, with a picnic table and a fire ring.  Due to our sites being on the lake it is very busy and sold out most of the time.  

Lakeview Site

 

Some have a fishing spot right at your site

 

Our site has full hook ups and nice view of the lake.  Our responsibilities include cleaning the sites after the camper checks out.  This is mostly picking up garbage and cleaning the fire ring.  You would be amazed at what some campers leave behind.  Obviously they were not in boy scouts (leave your site better than you found it). 

We also make sure campers are following the rules such as having their dog on a leash, not parking on the grass, quiet after 10 pm etc.  After the main booth closes in the evening we also check in any late campers and collect fees. 

There is also a day use area that has a beach and marina.  We work that booth at times collecting fees to use the area.  One of us works that area and the other monitors the campground as needed.  It is very busy and it certainly does require a sense of humor and a lot of patience. 

We have worked here for two weeks and really like it.  In compensation we receive our site for free and $175/per person/per week. There are three other couples and two singes hosts.  One couple takes care of the pit toilets (38) and mows grass.  The others either work the main booth or are camp hosts like us.  Another great perk is a VIP pass that gives us free or a greatly reduced price for most area attractions. 

Our employers are a concessionaire who manages 38 campgrounds in the area.  Most of them are National Forest parks.

We will tell you more about our experience in future posts.