After church yesterday afternoon, with thunder rumbling overhead, we took the Jeep to Rockerville Road to explore the backroads of the Black Hills. We had the dog and a picnic dinner, so essentially nothing was lacking!
Had it been dry, we would have gotten out and done a little hiking, or at least picnicked outside, but we drove in a steady drizzle and the dirt road was muddy and puddled. Not to mention, wet and muddy dog doesn’t smell very pleasant, and the backseat of the Jeep would have been pretty uncomfortable with a muddy Trixie sitting on our laps. The higher the road climbed, the louder the thunder got. We nearly bottomed out the Jeep once or twice, in places where the road was slick and deeply rutted, but Dad’s an experienced driver – Those places were the most fun, of course!
We followed a side road for a little ways, right as the sun burst through the clouds. Dad stopped so I could get some pictures, and the aspen trees along the road caught my eye, sparkling in the rain, with the sunlight behind them and shining through the raindrops, making the leaves like glass. 
I was with a coworker recently on a walk over our lunch hour, and I had my camera along. I showed her a picture I took while on our walk, and her response was, “How do you see that?” Well, you have to look for it. You have to determine to see beauty – If you look, it is there. “The heavens declare the glory of God!” There is so much beauty to revel in – Sometimes it is almost overwhelming, like the beauty of the aspen trees, and other times it is subtler, and becomes apparent only with a change in perspective. The knee-high, rain-wet grasses along that muddy forest service road seemed pretty mundane, until I crouched down in the mud to see the sun is glistening behind the golden stems. Then a whole new world of beauty opened up!
It was a sun-spangled, rain-washed world.
Beautiful is that which is good, that which is undefiled, that which is pure. Beautiful is that which gives evidence to God’s created order. Beautiful is that which gives evidence to God’s love and care. Beautiful is that which gives evidence to God’s power and His might. Beautiful is that which points to God’s knowledge and wisdom. Beautiful is that which honors God.
The Psalmist wrote: “One thing have I asked of the 
Every time I go on a hike, or take a drive through the Hills, I am confronted with the beauty of the LORD. Some days, I am more sensitive to it than others, more aware or willing to wonder. He draws my eye to those things of beauty that He has showered through His world, and my heart aches. I am struck by the beauty of the LORD, the glory of His creation, the love He has lavished on us in giving us so beautiful a world to live in, to taste, to see, to hear, to touch, to smell, or in giving us senses at all. Everything we see, including the fact that there is even such a concept as beauty, is evidence of Someone who is greater than I am, evidence that Someone instilled in each human the knowledge of a Creator God. We can suppress that knowledge. We can deny it. But that knowledge is there. 
Over the last year or so, ever since arriving in the Black Hills and beginning to attend church in Custer, I’ve been learning more and more about God’s sovereignty, even over the little things. I think as Christians we often forget the little things, even though it is those little things that are so often present for us to enjoy, reminding us of the goodness of our Savior. If every good and perfect gift really is from God, and if God truly is the standard of beauty, then those delights I enjoy while marveling at the sunlight caught in flower petals or the shimmering gold of early yellow leaves or the spots on a fawn, then those delights are gifts from the loving hand of God. If something draws my mind to Jesus Christ, then that is a gift and should be cherished. 
For the Christian, we should set our minds on those things that glorify God, those things that cause us to consider Him. We should cultivate eyes that see His beauty, a heart that yearns for His beauty, and lips that speak of it. Philippians 4:8 commands: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
Mom, Sarah, and I had some entries in the Custer County Fair, and we were tickled with the results! Mom got 3rd place in portrait drawing, and Sarah got 1st AND 2nd place in portraits, AND Best of Show! How exciting! I entered a jar of chokecherry jelly, which won 1st place in its division, and I entered a crocheted shawl, which won 1st and Best of Show. I also got Best of Show in photography! Ironically, the Best of Show picture was taken with a little broken point-and-shoot. 
County fair open class exhibits are a fun way to see what other area artists and craftspeople are up to, to get ideas and to get feedback on one’s own work. There are so many talented and skilled artists in this region!
This morning while Dad was down in the crawlspace working on our plumbing, Trixie sneaked in and pulled a few stuffed animals out of storage – Stuffed animals that were supposed to be “keepsakes.” Being the generous person that I am, I thought I could pick up a stuffed animal for her from Goodwill when I went in this afternoon. She’d chewed the faces off her couple of stuffed animals, and disemboweled her favorite one, so it seemed right that a new one was in order. 
So I found this hideous blue and yellow stuffed fish – It had plastic eyes, which I thought she might like (she loves to go straight for the face), and lots of appendages to chew on. 
The long and short of it: she loved it. For all five minutes that it survived. Sure enough, she went straight for the face, after whipping it around to break its neck. Within two minutes, she had popped off the little plastic eyes, and about three minute later, we looked out the window and she was surrounded by white stuffing, and meticulously pulling out the rest. She completely gutted the fish. 
It didn’t last long, but it was a nice idea.
The views were beautiful – Sunlight sifted through the pines in the higher elevations of the trail, then through an emerald canopy of deciduous trees as the trail dropped into the canyon. Birch trees and huge granite boulders lined the trail. Splashes of wildflower color sparkled here and there, and there must have been roses earlier this year, since there were rosehips! Little gems of the wildflower world.
We saw a mama and baby mountain goat pair down closer to the creek, and seeing them so close was quite the surprise! We’ve seen them near Big Falls at a distance that nearly required binoculars, but this darling pair was no more than 20 yards away! God has designed His creatures so beautifully. It was amazing to see the little baby scrambling around like a pro with his mama.
It was rather quiet at Big Falls when we went, which was a nice change from the usual. Weekends are not recommended for Big Falls, since that is when the younger, rowdy, bikini-clad, beer-drinking, smoking crowd tends to show up. But there were only a family or two and a young couple there, and it was fun to watch them deliberate and try to get up the courage to jump off the Falls into the pool below. Sarah and William climbed up to a good vantage point for watching the deliberations.
Once again, Trixie came with us for the hike and she loved it – When she is better trained and we can trust her to come when called, we’ll be able to let her swim and run around by the creek. She was great on the trail, though, where the distractions were fewer. She is becoming quite the hiking buddy!
Keep an eye out for garnets along the trail – I read in a book on gemstone hunting that the Big Falls/ Battle Creek canyon area is a great place for garnet hunting, and this proved true. The girls and I are seasoned garnet hunters, and the best garnets we have found have been in the vicinity of Big Falls! Yesterday did not disappoint!
Song Dog Journal 