Hidden Creek RV Park and Lodge

04/24/2026

🌌 Night Sky This Week: Through May 1st, 2026 🌠

Spring is definitely starting to make itself known in the night sky this week, and it’s a fun change to watch unfold. The evenings are getting longer, there’s still a bit of chill hanging in the air, and the stars are slowly shifting into their new seasonal lineup. It’s that in-between time where winter hasn’t quite let go, but spring is clearly taking over. Honestly, it’s the perfect excuse to step outside for a few minutes and just look up.
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🌙 Evening Highlights

After sunset, one of the first things you’ll notice is Jupiter shining bright and steady. It’s high enough to catch your eye right away and sticks around for most of the evening before slowly setting later in the night. If you’ve got binoculars, take a quick look, you might even spot its four largest moons lined up like tiny pinpoints of light.

Low in the western sky, Venus is putting on a great show as well. It’s brilliant and hard to miss, often popping out before the rest of the stars. It sets a couple of hours after the Sun, so it’s a fun challenge to see how early you can pick it out in the fading twilight. It’s more of a “two-anchor” sky—Venus grabs your attention near the horizon, while Jupiter stands higher and steadier above.

This week is also a good time to try for Uranus. Using binoculars, line up Venus and scan just to the southwest—you’re looking for a faint, bluish dot. It’s subtle, but pretty satisfying once you find it.
And if you’ve got a darker western horizon, keep an eye out for a faint glow stretching upward after sunset—that’s the zodiacal light, sometimes called “false dusk.” It’s easy to miss, but this time of year gives you one of the better chances to catch it.
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🌅 Early Morning Highlights

If you’re up early (or just getting home late), a little something is waiting before sunrise, too.

Saturn rises about 45 minutes before sunrise in the east. It’s still pretty low, so you’ll need a clear horizon to catch it.
Mars sits to the east and a bit below Saturn, making it trickier to spot for now, but it’ll get easier as the weeks go on.
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✨ Constellations

This is where the seasonal shift really stands out.
Looking overhead around 10 PM, you’ll notice a large backward “question mark” with a triangle trailing behind it—this is Leo the Lion. The “question mark” (called the Sickle) forms the mane, and the triangle makes up the hindquarters. The brightest star here is Regulus. On Saturday, the Moon passes just north of Regulus—close enough to make for a great pairing in the sky.

There’s some neat history tied to Leo, too. In ancient Egypt, when the Sun moved into Leo, it lined up with the annual flooding of the Nile—bringing life-giving water. That’s part of why lion imagery showed up so often in fountains designed by the Greeks and Romans.

Off to the west, Ta**us the Bull is starting to dip lower. You can still pick out its V-shaped face, with the bright orange star Aldebaran marking the eye. It won’t be around much longer in the evening sky, so now’s a good time to take one last look before it fades into the sunset over the coming weeks.
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If you get a clear night, even just a few minutes outside can be worth it. This is one of those times of year when the sky feels like it’s in transition—and you can actually watch it happen night by night.

01/28/2026

One of the quiet surprises of winter at a South Dakota campground is that the snow turns into a giant storybook. Even when the campground is still, and no animals are in sight, the ground tells you exactly who passed through during the night. A fresh snowfall is like a blank page, and by morning it’s covered with footprints, trails, and tiny clues left behind by wildlife.

Deer are often the easiest tracks to recognize. Their prints look like two long, pointed toes that form a heart shape in the snow. You’ll usually find them along tree lines, near brush, or crossing open areas between cover. Their tracks tend to move in fairly straight lines, as if they knew exactly where they were going. Sometimes you’ll also see spots where they pawed through the snow to reach grass underneath.

Rabbit tracks are fun to find because they look almost playful. When a rabbit hops, its two large back feet land in front of its two smaller front feet, making a pattern that looks like a “Y” in the snow. The trail often zig-zags as the rabbit darts from place to place, especially near brush piles, wood piles, or the edges of campsites where cover is close by.

Coyote tracks tell a different story. They resemble dog tracks but are more oval and compact. You’ll usually see claw marks, and the trail often runs in a very straight, purposeful line. Coyotes tend to conserve energy in winter, so they travel efficiently, often along paths, roads, or frozen creek beds. Sometimes their back foot lands right in the print of the front foot, creating a single, neat line of tracks.

Raccoon tracks are some of the most interesting to spot. They look like tiny human hands pressed into the snow, with five long toes clearly visible. Their trail often has a waddling pattern, moving from side to side. You’re most likely to find these near trees, water sources, or anywhere they might have been searching for food.

If you come across five-toed tracks that are smaller than a raccoon’s and seem to wander slowly, you may have found skunk tracks. Claw marks are often visible, and the trail doesn’t seem to be in much of a hurry. Skunks tend to roam methodically, especially on milder winter days.

Squirrel tracks can look a lot like miniature rabbit tracks. Their back feet also land ahead of the front feet, but the prints are much smaller and are often found at the base of trees. You may see where they’ve dug into the snow searching for buried nuts or seeds that they stored in the fall.

Wild turkey tracks stand out because of their size. You’ll see three long toes pointing forward and a smaller one pointing backward. These large bird tracks often appear in groups, showing where a flock traveled together. Sometimes you can even see faint drag marks from their wings in deeper snow.

Tiny mouse or vole tracks are easy to miss unless you look closely. These little prints are often accompanied by a thin line in the snow made by their tail dragging behind them. Their trails weave in and out of grass and sheltered spots as they search for food beneath the snow.

Every once in a while, you might come across round, cat-like tracks with no claw marks. These could belong to a bobcat, which is present in parts of South Dakota. The print is round with four toes and a padded base. Unlike dogs or coyotes, cats keep their claws retracted, so the absence of claw marks is a key clue.

Walking through a snow-covered campground becomes a quiet form of wildlife watching. Even when the animals themselves remain hidden, their tracks reveal where they traveled, where they searched for food, and how they move through the landscape. Winter may seem still at first glance, but if you look down, you’ll realize the campground is very alive.

10/23/2025

09/05/2023

"Exciting times at Hidden Creek RV Park! 🌟 With more visitors coming and new construction in the works, there's a lot to look forward to. Can't wait to welcome everyone to our growing community! 🏕️👷‍♂️

https://www.hiddencreekrvparkandlodge.com/

09/15/2022

Great place to stay during hunting season!

09/06/2022

Visitors ar the Park!