by G. Moritz, Editor
The old maxim if you live in South Dakota goes thusly, “If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute, it’ll change.”
That has certainly held true this past week. Last week we had several days where the temperatures have risen above 30 degrees and on Wednesday morning, there was a wonderful frost that covered all the trees in a shimmering splendor.
This past Christmas the Gazette must have been good, because Santa left a brand new camera under the tree, so Wednesday, after several folks up and down Main Ave. strongly hinted that I should, I got outside with it and took some photos. Splitrock
Park looked so beautiful from the road that I was sorry it was closed for the season. I walked and drove around town for a while, just snapping photos.
Then, we had several more warm days. I had several folks comment to me that this felt like March, not January. All that balmy weather reduced our ice and snow content to near zero.
Then, a snowfall and chilling cold came in once again over the weekend, and on Sunday afternoon, my better half and our 4 year old were invited to take a walk in the woods with friends of the family, along Splitrock Creek upstream of the Park, on the site of the original Engebretson homestead.
We love to paddle our old canoe up the Splitrock Creek on a fine summer day, waving at the Bruce Rekstad as he pilots USS Jesse James up and down the watercourse on his tours.
Always popular with fishermen, now it’s become popular with the Sioux Falls Area Kayak Society.
As a visiting friend of mine from Washington State said to me when gazing on it for the first time, “Wow, this is amazing, I can’t believe this exists here. This is better than Falls Park, because you can actually boat, swim and play in it! This stretch of river must be a local treasure.”
To borrow another old maxim, since pictures are worth a thousand words, we want to show you what the Splitrock Creek looks like in reverse in a wintertime adventure in Garretson.
Some of these photos I took, but because sometimes I think a little, I handed the new camera to my wife. You see, back when we were at Augustana, I got an A in photography, but she got an A+.
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