By Scott Shephard

Given recent entries in my sporadic attempt to share my “story” and my photos with you, you might think that I have a fetish for brown, barren places. And I guess I do. As a person who lives in a state with 3 distinct seasons (Spring, Summer and Cold), I figure that if you eliminate the color brown from your palette, there are quite a few things you’ll never be able to paint in our wonderful state.

So today I am proud to offer you a view of Sheep’s Butte (aka Sheep Mountain) in Harding County, South Dakota. I’m guessing that most of you have never visited this place. And never will. Therefore, If you want, you can call this photo “Vicarious Experience in Shades of Brown, Orange and Blue.”

We didn’t drive on gravel roads for the better part of 2 hours to photograph this place, though. Our real mission was to visit what my wife Deb calls “Dots on the Map.” For seven years Deb has been visiting every city on the “official” state map of South Dakota. The count is up to 370 but the quest is not over.

Yesterday, we started our day by driving west to Camp Crook, which happens to be last city on the western stretch of Highway 20 (pictured yesterday). Because we could, after Camp Crook we ventured on to very dusty Montana backroads for an hour or so.

We took a break and in the afternoon we visited Reva (post office, church & C-Store), which is a few miles east of where we are camping. We then turned south on to gravel and visited Sorum (cattle ranch) and Zeona (church and 3 empty buildings). For most of the afternoon we were on gravel roads which at times were well maintained one lane roads. We encountered 1 other car the whole time.

And along the way we went by Sheep Buttes. I’d say it was a perfect day to be exploring NW SD.

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