I traveled into the Black Hills of South Dakota to pay my respects to a friend who recently died and is buried there. I biked into the Hills on the Mickelson Trail, (which is a marvel) and when I got closer to the gravesite some new friends, Sylvia and Ben, met me along the trail. They knew where the grave was and after loading the bike and gear into the pickup we drove to the site, paid our respects and then drove on to Custer, SD. They wanted that I should see this beautiful, sacred to the Native American people spot in the middle of the tree covered Black Hills. There’s almost no trees in this one area…Pe’sla, so it’s special or sacred…just this large area of grassland. This is my attempt to capture it.

It’s 9″ x 12″ using pencil and watercolor on cotton paper and will be gifted to Ben and Sylvia.