State to show off new Roughlock Falls

Roughlock Falls is an idylic spot in Little Spearfish Canyon. It’s just up from Savoy, also known as the Latchstring Restaurant. It has a great little picnic area, and on a hot day there is no better place to go wading. There was always lots of kids and dogs and grownups splashing around under the falls on Sunday afternoons.

For years, Roughlock Falls and the surrounding property was the property of Homestake Mining Co. But in 2006, the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Department bought the property. Last fall, the state began $500,000 in rehabilitation work.

Now, the GFP is ready to show off the improvements at the Roughlock Falls Nature Area, as it is now called. A ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house is scheduled for Sunday, July 13, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Jeff Vonk, GFP secretary, will be the keynote speaker.

Indeed, the state has done some great things down there. The best improvement, in my opinion is the walking path that takes you all the way down to the Spearfish Canyon Lodge. The GFP outlined other changes on its website:

* Improved trail system and accessibility
* Improved access to viewing positions (board walks)
* Shoreline vegetation restoration
* Defined stream access points
* Improved parking
* New bridges
* New vault toilets
* New picnic tables
* Improved interpretive signing

But I’ve also been a bit afraid that the GFP will turn it into some kind of Yellowstone-style freak of nature — paved paths, “Stay on the Trial” signs, “No Pets” signs, “This is a Fern” sign next to every fern, hand railings every step of the way and a Xanterra gift shop every 150 feet.

OK, I’m exaggerating. But you get my point.

The last summer when I was there, the path down below the falls was blocked by a chain-link fence. You could only peer down from above. Not good, because the best view is from below. That’s where all the great Roughlock Falls photos were taken.

I’m not sure how much access people have to the falls with the new GFP changes — less than in the old days, I suspect. But I also know foot traffic was kind of ripping things up down there.

“The place is becoming loved to death,” Harley Noem, regional GFP supervisor for parks and recreation, told the Black Hills Pioneer last winter. “It is amazing how much traffic goes up there in a day. We were having some severe impacts on the resources itself.”

He said the chain-link fence has been removed, but other, less intrusive barriers and a walkway are being put in to direct foot traffic away from the overrun areas.

“We knew people wanted to get into some of those areas, so rather than fence them out we tried to provide the access safely while at the same time preserving the resource.”

Has anyone been down there since the changes were made? How does it look?