Little Si was my choice for a first post-COVID hike.

Doing a bunch of hiking, then lazing around ill, and then trying not to push myself too meant that this was the first post-COVID mountain I’d climb, and I’d say it was a good choice.

It was fairly short, fairly moderate (though it has some steep and rocky sections), and.. only fairly crowded on this particular drizzly Saturday in February. I had thought about going elsewhere, but I had hoped the weather conditions would help ensure that the hike would be less crowded.

I think you can imagine the elation and joy I felt when after spending nearly two weeks quarantining in my apartment, I was suddenly able to be in the outside world again.

And so, I felt as though I was seeing my surroundings with fresh eyes again. The city was having moments of glorious sunshine in between fits of drizzliness. The temperature was rising, flowers were blooming. And fate compelled me to check out one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions when I was looking at replacing my increasingly scratched glasses. (Yes, that’s what two years of wiping condensation with my shirt when I entered an indoor space with a mask did to ’em.)

Besides this, of course, I’ve gotten sundry joys from birding and going on a few recent hikes, but those have (or shortly will have) their own posts.

This is my photographic perspective from various corners of the city. If things seem weird… it probably means that I’m experimenting.

No more words, just images.

I made it to the Black Hills of South Dakota. A place that was profound, beautiful, kitschy, and touristy in equal measure. A place that was simply gorgeous.

So, what was happening in the Black Hills in mid-September of 2021?