Three black pine trees above red sun rising into orange grey sky along the Lover's Leap Trail, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA
The small, isolated Black Hills mountain range rises from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota, extending into Wyoming. The hills appear dark because of their tree-cover. Native Americans have a long history in the hills. The Lakota (Sioux) arrived from Minnesota in the 18th Century. They drove out other tribes, such as the Crow, who moved west. In 1868 the US government signed the Fort Laramie Treaty, exempting the Black Hills from all European-American settlement. After gold was discovered by Custer's Black Hills Expedition in 1874, miners swept into the hills and the US government re-assigned the Lakota, against their wishes, to other reservations in western South Dakota. Tourism is now the main industry of the Black Hills. Custer State Park, dating to the 1920s, is South Dakota's largest and first state park. It is located in the Southern Hills section of the Black Hills. The Lover's Leap viewpoint, above the State Game Lodge along Route 16A, is so-named after the traditional story of two native Americans who leapt to their deaths from its granite 's Leap is the high-point of a three-mile loop trail. A view towards a red sunrise over the Dakota Badlands.
Size: 4592px × 3056px
Location: Trail to Lover's Leap, near State Game Lodge, Custer State Park, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA
Photo credit: © robert harrison / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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