Black Hills - Sacred Lands, Sacred Stones

Tour registration, hotel check-in, welcome dinner and presentation at lodge

Arrive and check into the comfortable and rustic-style K Bar S Lodge, surrounded by pine trees and nature trails. This peaceful destination will be our ‘home away from home’ for the week as we explore the Black Hills area.

Tonight, we gather for a welcoming dinner with our group, with introductions and an overview presentation to prepare you for the journey ahead.

Group welcome dinner at lodge included.

Breakfast, Black Elk Peak hike, intention circle, boxed lunch, Sylvan Lake, dinner on own at lodge

Today Alex will lead the group to the base of Black Elk Peak. After gathering for an intention circle set amongst the wildflowers, we will hike the moderately challenging trail to the summit of Black Elk Peak, the highest peak in the midwest, where Black Elk received his Great Vision. With panoramic views of the Black Elk Wilderness below, we will commune with the expansive and peaceful energy of the peak.

 

Before heading back, take the opportunity to cool down by the shore at the spectacular Sylvan Lake. Dinner on your own tonight at the lodge restaurant, "The Pub".

Breakfast, boxed lunch, snacks & water included, dinner on own at lodge

Breakfast, crystal shopping, Badlands, restaurant lunch, group dinner at lodge, evening Star Talk

This morning, we start our journey at one of the area’s best local crystal shops, where you will have a chance to purchase a crystal of your choice that will serve as your personal talisman and communication device for the journey ahead. Among the many stones and gems found in the region, the Black Hills are home to beautiful and abundant Rose Quartz Crystals. Referred to as the “Heart Stone” in many parts of the world, Rose Quartz is known for its strong feminine energies.

Later this morning, we will take a scenic drive through the rugged, otherworld beauty of the dramatic Badlands National Park. As we depart the Black Hills, you will notice the verdant landscape gives way to a spectacular maze of jagged canyons, sharply eroded rock formations, and windswept buttes.

The Lakota call this region: ”Mako Sica,” meaning “land bad”, due to harsh environmental conditions such as ravaging winds, drought, and erosion from ancient flooding that formed the wondrous landscape. These same factors are responsible for creating the colorful and bizarre formations, gorges, spires, and pinnacles that the Badlands are famous for. Considered to be a sacred place by Native American Tribes in the area for thousands of years, we will listen for the stories carried by the winds from the ancient Stone Beings, and marvel at the beauty around us.

We will stop at a locally owned restaurant for lunch today, with lovely views of the surrounding landscape.

This evening, enjoy a group dinner upon return to the lodge, followed by a special evening star talk, led by Alex.

Breakfast, restaurant lunch, snacks & water, group dinner at lodge included

Breakfast, Mt. Rushmore, restaurant lunch, private face-to-face tour of Crazy Horse, group dinner enroute

This morning we will visit Mt. Rushmore National Memorial to view the 60-ft.-high granite faces of former U.S. Presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. We will continue to the Crazy Horse Memorial, the world’s largest mountain carving. This impressive and ambitious work depicts Oglala Lakota warrior Crazy Horse (“Tasunke Witco” in Oglala Lakota), riding a horse and pointing toward his tribal land.

Spending the afternoon here, we will enjoy a restaurant lunch onsite, and come face-to-face with this monumental work of art for a private tour.

These iconic stone carvings are true marvels of human ingenuity. While contemplating the divergent histories, perspectives, and controversies that surround the construction of both monuments, we will explore the relationship between human consciousness and the consciousness of Stone Beings and how humans and nature co-create together.

Enjoy a group dinner on the way home.

Breakfast, restaurant lunch, snacks & water, group dinner enroute included.

Breakfast, Mato Tipila (Devil’s Tower NM), boxed lunch, group dinner enroute

Today will be a big day! Leaving early this morning, we will travel across the Great Plains through grassland, canyons, and forested hills, from South Dakota to Wyoming, arriving at the astounding geological formation of Devil’s Tower National Monument, known as "Mato Tipila” or "Bear Lodge,” by the Lakota People.

Depicted in the iconic Steven Spielberg film, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” as a site for extraterrestrial contact, Mato Tipila, is a sacred site to the Indigenous People of the region, and has an intricate cosmology that weaves together the mythologies of both our human and Star ancestors.

We will enjoy a picnic boxed lunch together onsite, and further exploration of this captivating location, including its Star Lore, before gathering for our final farewell dinner on the way back to our lodge.

Breakfast, boxed lunch, snacks & water, group dinner enroute included.

Breakfast, boxed lunch, farewell group dinner at lodge

This morning we will set off for the lesser-known treasure that is Wind Cave National Park, referred to in modern Lakota as “Maka Oniye”, or “breathing earth”. This 33,000-acre, wild preserve and protected prairie hides one of the largest and most complex caves in the world. It is also a place of deep sacred significance to the Native Lakota people.

Prior to descending deep into the bosom of the Earth, we will hear the beautiful Emergence Story of the Lakota People. Below, we will be awestruck by the unique geological formations, the soothing silence, and enveloping darkness of this majestic underworld, where it remains a cool 53 degrees Fahrenheit year-round.

As we ‘emerge’ from the cave and back into the light, we will pause for a boxed lunch onsite, before driving the breathtakingly beautiful Custer Wildlife Loop Scenic Byway through 18 miles of rolling prairie grasslands and gentle hills, peppered with pines, in search of the majestic and protected, 1,500 strong free-ranging bison herd, pronghorn, deer, elk, and feral donkeys that inhabit the park.

Breakfast, boxed lunch, snacks & water, group farewell dinner at lodge included.

NPS Photo

Breakfast, check out, and departure on own

Breakfast included