By Scott Shephard

The word "ancient" is relative. In Europe an ancient ruin might be a castle dating back as much as a 1000 years. But in South Dakota, the Native Americans were largely nomadic. And the white folks have only been around for a couple of centuries. There are no man-made structures that can legitimately be called ancient.

But the "ruins" in today's photo may be millions or even billions of years old, giving a broader meaning to the idea of what is old.

Having said all of that, I do like how the outcropping in upper part of this photo looks somewhat like a fortress and when the light hit it just right shortly after dawn this morning, I knew I had a good photo opportunity.

I should say that what drew me to this area is that it is atypical of much of the Black Hills in that there is no forest here. That's because a fire ravaged this area more than a decade ago.

The fire left the land stark and somewhat alien. Come back in another 100 years and you may see forest again. . .

Canon 5DIII f/16.0 ISO200 35mm (5 exposure HDR using HDR Efex Pro 2)