South Dakota’s Black Hills are full of natural wonders, and one of the most wondrous is the stunning feature known as Spearfish Canyon, a twisting, 22-mile gorge through which Spearfish Creek meanders. Deep within Spearfish Canyon, tucked back away from Spearfish Creek like a side room that could easily be missed, is one of the most beautiful and restful spots in all of South Dakota: Roughlock Falls.

The site got its name from early pioneers who had to “rough lock” their wagon wheels to keep them from speeding out of control on the canyon’s steep grades. Chains were used to lock the wheels in place and keep them from spinning, and the wagons would grind and slide their way down the slope.

A trip to enjoy slowly

A trip to Roughlock Falls can easily consume a morning or afternoon for a family. The easiest route to the falls begins in the lovely college town of Spearfish. From the city, state Highway 14A — the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway — winds into the heart of Spearfish Canyon. Lush vegetation and rocky outcrops are visible all along the way, and a starter waterfall of sorts — Bridal Veil Falls — can be viewed from the highway.

After about 12 miles, which will take a while given the slow speed of travel on the winding road and the opportunity to stop and enjoy breathtaking views, motorists will notice Spearfish Canyon Lodge alongside the highway. The road into the lodge also serves as the turnoff for the Roughlock Falls Nature Area. After turning right off the highway, it’s about one more mile on a gravel road. (On the opposite side of the highway, there’s accessibility to the canyon’s third waterfall, Spearfish Falls.)

Visitors to the nature area are greeted by ample parking and new restroom facilities. Wooden walkways leading to decks over Little Spearfish Creek are immediately visible, as is a concrete walkway headed down toward the falls. Picnic areas and benches offer peaceful resting spots.

An accessible natural wonder

The creek tumbles and bubbles over many small drops until it reaches Roughlock Falls proper — a drop of about 30 feet. Walkways, decks and bridges lead all the way to the bottom and offer numerous chances to stop, enjoy the view and breathe the fresh, misty air. Informational panels also line the walkways, sharing information about the area’s unique ecosystem and the many flowers, plants and wildlife found in abundance near the falls. Among the birds found in the Roughlock Falls area is the rare American Dipper, which can walk and swim underwater. In the creek, brook trout and brown trout serve as enticements to anglers.

At the bottom of the falls, a two-mile round-trip hiking trail entices visitors to continue their journey. On a nice day, there are few better spots in the world to be than the bottom of the Roughlock Falls Nature Area. Surrounded by canyon walls and evergreen trees and wildflowers, walking along a clear mountain creek, gazing at falls rushing down from above, visitors can experience some of the most serene scenery and silence available in the Black Hills.

Recent improvements

The site hasn’t always been as tranquilly perfect as it is today. Roughlock Falls, until 2006, was owned by the Homestake Mining Co. Visitors were allowed to view the falls, but only minimal infrastructure was in place and the falls were being loved to death. In 2006, the state of South Dakota used money from a mining-related environmental settlement to buy the Roughlock Falls area and some other Spearfish Canyon sites for $2.7 million.

About $600,000 in additional state money was used to spruce up the area and make it more accessible. Many of the walkways are raised above ground, which minimizes the impact of visitors on the highly erodible and delicate banks of the creek.

Incredibly, the site is free to visit, and there is no staff on hand. Visitors can take in the falls year-round (though in winter the paths are often snow-covered and can become treacherous).

As seen on the big screen

If the area seems strangely familiar, as though you’ve seen it before, there’s probably a good reason. It served as the backdrop for some of the final scenes of the 1991 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, “Dances with Wolves.” When Wind in his Hair shouts his farewell from high atop a cliff to Lt. John Dunbar (Kevin Costner), that’s the Roughlock Falls area serving as the set.

It’s no wonder the area was chosen for inclusion in the film. Doug Hofer, parks division director for the state Department of Game, Fish and Parks, summarized Roughlock Falls and its improved amenities this way in a 2008 interview with the Rapid City Journal:

“It’s beautiful. All the work really helped beautify one of the most beautiful spots in South Dakota.”

The three big slides at Watiki Indoor Water Park Resort in Rapid City, S.D.

RAPID CITY, S.D. — The height of the climb should have been the first indication that this was not going to be an ordinary trip down a ho-hum indoor water slide.

As I labored upward, stairs kept giving way to more stairs, until I found myself nearly out of breath and standing atop a 41-foot tower — almost close enough to touch the ceiling of the massive, 30,000-square-foot Watiki Indoor Water Park Resort in Rapid City, S.D.

I had spent the first hour at the park with our 4-year-old daughter, swimming in the small pool, floating around the lazy river and exploring the Koko’s Kingdom children’s area. When my wife came down from the hotel room with our 2-year-old son after he woke up from his nap, I handed the kids to her and let my inner kid come out.

Telling my wife I wanted to test the park’s three bigger slides “to see if they’re safe for the kids to go down with us,” I began my ascent. Though my concern for the kids was legitimate, it wasn’t my primary concern. I wanted to see if the slides were as fun as they looked.

As I’ve said, the height of the climb up those stairs should have been the first indication of what I was about to experience, but I remained clueless. I guess all those other indoor water slides I’ve been down — the ones that are just fun enough for adults and just boring enough for little kids — have lowered my expectations.

Two of Watiki’s three big slides are tube slides, and the other is a body slide. I decided to try the body slide first. It was a weekday and there weren’t many people in the park, so I got the nod from the lifeguard as soon as I got to the top.

Wanting to look like a serious slider, I hopped onto the slide and threw myself into its tunnel in one quick motion, like a bobsledder starting a run.

The first thing I noticed was the lack of choice I had about going down the slide on by back or butt. The low height of the slide’s tunnel makes lying down the only option. “OK,” I thought. “I guess I’ll lean back and enjoy the ride.”

Just as that thought entered my head, I was swept along at a speed so surprisingly fast that it took my breath away.

“Gee,” I thought as the adrenaline started to course through my body, “this thing is fast.”

Then, another surprise: darkness. As the ride continued at just-this-side-of-terrifying speed, I entered complete blackness, which added a shocking new degree of thrill and suspense. I had no idea what was coming, and I was getting there awfully fast.

After a series of twists and turns in the dark, it was back into light as the descent continued. Finally, the last turn arrived, and I plunged feet-first into the pool.

As I gained my footing and stood up in the water, all I could say was “wow.”

I walked over to my wife and made two announcements.

One, “Our kids are too little for that slide.”

And two, “That … was … awesome!”

Largest indoor water park in the Dakotas

Watiki’s reputation has been spreading around South Dakota since it opened in 2006. With its attention-grabbing, glass-walled design, it beckons passing motorists on Interstate 90, just east of Rapid City.

Koko's Kingdom is the children's area at WaTiki Indoor Water Park Resort in Rapid City, S.D.

The water park stands at the crux of an L-shaped complex, adjoined by the La Quinta Inn and Suites and the Fairfield Inn and Suites. According to a report in the Rapid City Journal, there are plans to add “a 10,000-square-foot resort pool with swim-up bar, along with extreme-drop slides and a FlowRider wave machine. Work on that and a new hotel – either a Courtyard Inn by Marriott or a Springhill Suites by Marriott – is planned to start in 2012. Work on a new conference center will begin after the new Marriott opens.”

The water park sprawls across 30,000 square feet. The glass walls give the facility an outdoors feel, while the glass-like but darker material on the roof provides enough shade to dampen the harshest rays of the sun.

The water park’s main features are three large slides (one body slide and two tube slides); a lazy river; a shallow pool area with several basketball hoops and a rope-crossing apparatus; a hot tub; and a multifaceted, jungle-gym-style kids’ area with several slides, colorful plumbing mechanisms and a 300-gallon bucket that fills up slowly and dumps every 5-10 minutes. The park also features an arcade, a large table-and-chair area for adults, and locker rooms.

The slides

After zooming down the body slide, I tried the two tube slides. The entry for all three is atop the same tower at one end of the water park.

One of the tube slides resembles a giant toilet, and going down it in a tube made me feel like I was a character in the movie “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” Riders barrel down into the giant bowl and swish around a time or two until the current swiftly sucks the rider and tube into a pipe slide. It’s exactly what I imagine it would be like to be a miniature person getting flushed down a toilet.

The other tube slide features a standard, looping course that seems slow compared to the other two slides but would put most other indoor water slides to shame.

There are several slides in the Koko’s Kingdom area, too, which were just slightly too big and fast for my 4-year-old daughter to handle consistently. I took her down one of the slides several times on my lap and then sent her down on her own. She made it down with a smile the first time, but she lost control of her body the second time and got a little scared, so we went back to playing in other parts of the park. In a year or two, I’m guessing she’ll be up to speed on everything and able to keep up with her older cousins, who came to swim with us and spent an evening rushing down every slide in the park.

The nice thing about WaTiki is that there are plenty of other things to do if you have little kids who are intimidated by one or more of the slides. On the other hand, if you have older kids, they can go off on their own and be happy and safely occupied for hours on end.

Unique features

The roof over the park is retractable, as is a portion of the roof over the adjoining Sliders Bar and Grill. Another unique feature of Sliders is a kids’ slide that makes a loop over the bar. A portion of the slide is made of transparent material, so diners and drinkers can watch kids zipping through.

Odd as this may sound, I found one of the best features of the water park to be the flooring. The entire park floor is covered in a rubbery material that is porous enough to soak up puddles, grippy enough to prevent slipping and soft enough to be gentle on feet. I’ve been at other water parks with concrete or rock-like flooring that is terribly uncomfortable to walk on and even worse to fall on. The difference between the flooring at WaTiki and most other water parks is akin to the difference between beds at cheap hotels and luxury hotels.

While checking in at the Fairfield Inn, we grabbed a copied newspaper clipping from a pile on the front desk. The clipping was a story from two weeks earlier by the Rapid City Journal about the failure of some Rapid City-area hotels to meet state-imposed bacteria standards. WaTiki was not on the list of hotel pools that failed a test over the summer. In fact, WaTiki was cited as a leader in pool safety:

Rich Dunkelberger, chief executive officer of ISIS Hospitality in Rapid City, said the indoor water park WaTiki recently installed a $100,000 UV light filtration system that zaps bacteria.

“It’s an amazing way to eliminate bacteria without chemicals. We used to have to use chlorine much more and now we don’t,” Dunkelberger said. “It’s like an insurance policy that the water will be clean and people won’t get sick. In New York State it’s a requirement to have UV treatment.”

New York installed the law as an emergency code in response to a cryptosporidium outbreak at a Seneca Lake State Park water park in Geneva N.Y. in 2005. The outbreak reportedly sickened 4,000 people and led to a class action lawsuit.

Read more: http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/many-hotel-pools-sink-below-state-standards/article_4bcb4a2c-d84e-11e0-a833-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1ZYzw6GoT

Accommodations

Room 261 at the Fairfield Inn and Suites features two balconies, including this one, overlooking the WaTiki Indoor Water Park Resort.

There are only two poolside hotel rooms available at WaTiki. Both are on the second floor of the Fairfield hotel, with balconies that provide a view of the entire park.

We stayed in the Fairfield, in a suite graciously provided free of charge through an arrangement with the owners of this website (full disclosure: WaTiki is an advertiser on SouthDakota.com).

I’ve already told you that the WaTiki’s body slide took my breath away. Room 261 at the Fairfield — “the presidential suite,” as one hotel worker informally called it — had the same effect on my wife.

The two balcony suites are separated from the other rooms at the Fairfield by a large door at the end of a hallway. Over the door is a sign that reads “WaTiki Balcony Suites,” and walking through that door feels kind of like entering the penthouse level of a high-rise. Beyond  that door is a small room with doors to the two suites.

Our suite had a kitchen, dining area and living room that opened onto two sliding-door balconies overlooking the water park. There were two bedrooms, each with their own bathroom. The master bedroom had a shower and a large whirlpool tub. In addition to the bathrooms in each bedroom, there was another half-bathroom adjoining the living room. The bedrooms and the living room were all equipped with their own large flat-screen TVs.

I checked the Fairfield website, and the price of what appears to be our suite is $350 a night. It’s well worth the price if you can afford it.

Location, other details

You can’t beat WaTiki’s location. It’s at Interstate 90 Exit 61, on the eastern doorstep of Rapid City and the Black Hills. Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer State Park and many more attractions are located within an hour’s drive, making WaTiki a perfect headquarters for a Black Hills vacation.

Providing further convenience for motorists is Elk Vale Road, the street that intersects with I-90 at Exit 61. Elk Vale skirts around Rapid City and becomes Catron Boulevard, which continues to skirt around the city until it intersects Highway 16, the road that leads out of Rapid City and toward Mount Rushmore.

Admission to the water park is basically $7.50 apiece, per day, with varying discounts for members of the military (Ellsworth Air Force Base is nearby), “observers” (non-swimmers) and hotel guests. Season passes also are available.

Hours are shortened in the winter, when the water park doesn’t open until 4 p.m. on weekdays. On weekends and throughout the summer, the park is open all day.

The management advises people to bring the following items to the park:

• Towels;
• Appropriate swimwear;
• Money for the arcade, Koko’s Concessions and lockers;
• Any necessary toiletries for the showers;
• A swimwear diaper for all children that are not potty trained;
• Waterproof sun block.

I would add one thing to the list: An expectation of surprisingly fast and thrilling rides down some fantastic water slides. Once you’ve been to WaTiki, you’ll want to experience the thrill of those slides again and again, whether you’re a kid or just a kid at heart.

So, below is my humble opinion of the top five best restaurants in Rapid City. I’ve kept the picks to locally owned eateries.

Also, if you’ve eaten somewhere you loved, hit me up in the comments section.

5. Minerva’s — So, I said locally owned, but technically, Minerva’s in a chain, albeit a regional one. Minerva’s is always a solid choice if want a little fancier meal of great food in a great atmosphere. Also, if you’re looking for a Sunday brunch, Minerva’s is hands down the best. If you don’t leave so full you hate yourself, you’re doing it wrong.

4. Colonial House — Two words: caramel rolls. Not just any dry, tasteless rolls, either. These are the best in the Hills. And the rest of the food is equally as delicious. Most everything is homemade — or tastes that way — and the menu offers pretty anything you can imagine.

3. Delmonico Grill — Trendy and fancy, my husband and I tend to save this restaurant for special occasions like birthdays or anniversaries. It’s one of those rare restaurants that has a big-city feel without seeming pompous. The food is always great, and if you go, make sure to have the French onion soup.

Murphy's Pub & Grill is perfect for lunch or dinner. (Photo by Ryan Soderlin, Rapid City Journal)

2. Murphy’s Pub & Grill — This bar and grill recently reopened with a completely revamped interior with a lunch and dinner menu, as well as a full bar, that is hard to beat. The atmosphere alone is worth a trip, but the food is equally fantastic. Try the fried pickles. You can thank me later.

1. Tally’s Silver Spoon — I mentioned Tally’s in a previous post, but it’s worth another plug. This little café in downtown Rapid City serves an amazing breakfast spread until 2 p.m. They’re dinner menu can be fancy, but you can also get a solid burger there, too. As an added bonus, Tally’s really tries to use local food in their dishes. Also, I’ve no idea where they get their coffee, but it’s the best restaurant coffee I’ve ever had. And their ice cream’s incredible, too. Actually, pretty much everything’s awesome.

What about you? What’s your favorite spot in Rapid City to eat?

Now, as a slightly less literal-minded adult, I can more fully appreciate these eroded granite pillars and spirals. In fact, my favorite hike in the Black Hills is right along the portion of Needles Highway that cuts through a large chunk of Custer State Park.

The "needles" along the Cathedral Spires trail rise up like other-worldly formations. (Photo by Hillary Dobbs-Davis)

Cathedral Spires is a popular hiking spot for thousands of visitors and locals alike. But even though many people travel this particular trail, it never feels crowded or overused. In fact, the trail meets all my criteria for a perfect hike.

First of all, it has a great name. Cathedral Spires. I don’t who was doing PR for this trail back in the day, but you’d be hard pressed to find a name that’s as picturesque as it is poetic.

Second, it’s fairly challenging without making me feel like I’m going to die. The first half of the hike that takes you to the end of the trail will most likely get your heart rate up, but you’re likely to be so caught up in the scenery, you might not notice. Also, it’s not a particularly long hike; round trip, the whole thing takes just a little over an hour.

Which brings me to the third – and most important – factor: it is beautiful. The Black Hills are themselves quite amazing, but Cathedral Spires takes beauty to a whole different, other-worldly level. You’re surrounded on all sides by these incredibly high rock walls. And as you move deeper into the woods, the needles start to appear in a way that makes you swear you’re not on planet Earth anymore. On the return trip, you’ll come to a spot where everything opens up, and you can see the surrounding Hills and trees for miles.

A note about some of those trees. It’s likely on the drive along Needles Highway that you’ll notice some dead trees. A lot of dead trees. We have the mountain pine beetle to thank for that. The state and federal government have pledged to spend about $4 million to fight this invasive pest. Whether or not it’s enough or in time remains to be seen.

Regardless, take a trip through Needles Highway and walk along the Cathedral Spires trail sometime this fall. In the contrast of the beauty of the spires and the destruction of the beetles is a lesson, not just about the importance of good forest management but also about how nature has a its own way of working things out.

If you go

The Cathedral Spires are in Custer State Park along the Needles Highway, 2.5 miles east of Sylvan Lake.

South Dakota, unlike its neighbor to the east, is not known as a land of abundant lakes.

In the northeast corner of South Dakota, there are so many lakes you’d think you’re still in Minnesota. Heading west or south from there, the lakes get fewer and farther between.

The scarcity of lakes in much of South Dakota is part of what makes the few good ones so appreciated by the state’s residents. In central/eastern South Dakota, one of those few nice lakes is Lake Mitchell.

Lake Mitchell was created by impounding Firesteel Creek sometime around 1930. For decades, the lake served as a reservoir supplying the water needs of Mitchell residents. In modern times, the city built a Missouri River pipeline, so the lake is now mostly a recreational destination and serves only a backup water-supply role.

Like many prairie lakes, Lake Mitchell is prone to algae breakouts during hot, dry spells. The last couple of years, there has been so much rain in the Mitchell area that algae outbreaks have been avoided. Partly due to that good fortune, and partly due to the dedication of local residents, Lake Mitchell is undergoing something of a rebirth.

Hiking trail

A new Lake Mitchell Advisory Committee has gotten serious about improving the lake. One of the committee’s best projects has been the refurbishing of long-dormant hiking trails along the undeveloped portions of the lake shore. I recently hiked one of those trails with my 2-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter.

The trail stretches between the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village and the Kiwanis Woodlot Park, a distance of about three-fourths of a mile, and intersects what’s known locally as “the amphitheater” along the way. The amphitheater is a big, grassy, half-bowl formation that was built along the lake shore by Depression-era public works employees as a place for concerts and other gatherings.

What I love about the trail is that when you enter it, the trees and the seclusion are enough to make you feel like you’re in a state park, even though you’re within the city limits of Mitchell. Throw in a few close-up views of the lake, and you’ve got a great little hike. For people coming by on I-90 and stopping at the Corn Palace, hiking the trail would be a great way to bust up the boredom of the road, breathe some fresh air and get some exercise. Additionally, there are several nice places to have a picnic at the Woodlot Park end of the trail and at the amphitheater. And if you’re planning to visit the Indian Village, hiking the trail from Woodlot Park is kind of a neat, unorthodox way of getting there.

Other recreational opportunities

Beyond the trails, Lake Mitchell is obviously a good place for on-the-water recreation such as fishing, water-skiing, canoeing and kayaking. There are various places to put boats in the water, including an especially nice boat ramp on the lake’s south side.

There’s also a fishing bridge situated next to a playground on the lake’s west end, a handicap fishing pier on the lake’s east end, two beaches on the lake’s north side, a great campground, and group-rental facilities such as the Lake Mitchell Day Camp. Bordering the lake on its south side is Lakeview Municipal Golf Course, one of the best municipal courses in the state. And all around the lake are public access areas marked with green signs.

It’s the wide variety of recreation available at Lake Mitchell, plus its easy access within the city limits of Mitchell, that makes it one of South Dakota’s undiscovered treasures.

Pioneer Auto Show is a massive collection of classic cars and antiques. Located along Interstate 90, it’s a favorite stop of tourists on their way to Mount Rushmore. “American Pickers” stars Mike Wolfe and Colby Cushman spent a day in August rummaging through the dozens of buildings on the grounds. The anticipated air date is during the spring of 2012.

Hansen Wheel and Wagon Shop describes itself as “a family owned and operated carriage and wagon manufacturer established in 1978 and located on the plains of the Dakotas” that provides “the most historically accurate horse-drawn vehicles anywhere this side of the 1800s.” The shop recently announced on its Facebook page that a crew from “How It’s Made” plans to spend three days filming wagon-making and stagecoach-building, with the show to air at a later date.

Check out the following news release from the state Department of Agriculture about one of this year’s novelties at the State Fair, which runs Sept. 1-5 in Huron. Also, see below for a video with some highlights from the 2010 fair.

Legislators to Show Cattle at State Fair

PIERRE, S.D. – Around 20 of South Dakota’s legislators will try their hand at showing beef cattle at this year’s South Dakota State Fair.

The 3^rd annual Legislative Showmanship Competition – a friendly showmanship competition among state legislators – pairs legislators with a youth livestock exhibitor from their district. The youth partner “fits” the animal, prepares it for competition and offers the legislator a crash course in livestock showmanship. The legislator then shows the animal in the show ring.

The top legislative showman will receive a gold belt buckle sponsored by First Dakota National Bank and have their name engraved on the “Legislative Showmanship Champion” traveling trophy (won by Rep. Charles Hoffman in 2010), which will be presented on the Grandstand stage before the evening’s performance by Ronnie Dunn. The winning youth partner will also receive a prize.

“This friendly competition is a great way for the legislators to understand the hard work that our youth put into showing livestock at the State Fair,” Walt Bones, South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture said. “It also gives the legislators some bragging rights among their fellow colleagues.”

The Legislative Showmanship Competition begins at 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 3 in the 4-H Livestock Complex. The competition is a joint project between 4-H, FFA and the South Dakota Department of Agriculture.

Agriculture is South Dakota’s No. 1 industry, generating nearly $21 billion in annual economic activity and employing over 143,000 South Dakotans.  The South Dakota Department of Agriculture’s mission is to promote, protect, preserve and improve this industry for today and tomorrow.  Visit us online at http://sdda.sd.gov or follow us on Facebook.

Hope your summer was a good one and that your autumn’s even better.

Enjoy.

There’s no experience quite like the LifeLight outdoor Christian music festival near Sioux Falls.

I was there in 2006 with my wife. The daylight hours weren’t all that great, because it was hot, windy and dusty. But when the sun went down and the Newsboys came on stage, the atmosphere was electric. The energy that pulsed through the crowd — which I recall was near 100,000 — was like nothing else I’ve ever felt. I don’t listen to contemporary Christian music very much, but that night I became a fan of the Newsboys and definitely felt I had a spiritual experience.

The 2011 festival begins at noon Friday, Sept. 2. There will be three days of music, speakers, food, merchandise, skateboarding, the arts, camping and more.

“Many people are looking for hope and healing and a change in their life or circumstances,” Alan Greene, evangelist and co-founder of LifeLight, said in a recent news release. “Whether it’s economic, family, emotional or physical issues, we believe people will experience hope at the festival.”

This year’s festival will feature best-selling author Francis Chan on Saturday night and a special Heaven/Hell Event on Sunday night with Don Piper, “90 Minutes in Heaven” author, and Bill Wiese, “23 minutes in Hell” author.  The festival will again host the Sunday morning community worship service, which for the first time includes a tribute to the military, followed by a message on hope delivered by Alan Greene.

Joining the speakers and over 100 bands on six stages will be recording artists Tenth Avenue North, Jeremy Camp, Sanctus Real, Hawk Nelson, Brian Head Welch, Blindside, Fireflight, Britt Nicole, Sidewalk Prophets, Chris August and more. For a complete festival lineup, go to http://www.lifelight.org/festival.

For the second year, the festival will be held at its permanent home on over 200 acres near Worthing, S.D. (47468 280th Street, 12 miles south of Sioux Falls, S.D.).

New this year is the family stage called Kaleidoscope, permanent electrical hookups, a skate park and an addition to the barn (360 Stage) making it a loft with an art gallery.

“We are moving toward our goal of a park-like setting, offering something for everyone at the festival,” said Julie Klinger, festival director.

Because the LifeLight Festival is funded by local individuals and businesses, admission to the Festival is FREE. As always, the festival will provide opportunities for attendees to give to people in need, particularly with a focus on ministering to the war-torn people of Juarez, Mexico, where LifeLight supports a full-time missionary and church.

Founded in 1998, LifeLight Communications is a faith-based, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that facilitates numerous concerts, mission trips, tours, and other outreach events by partnering with churches, businesses and other ministries. The LifeLight Festival, held annually on Labor Day weekend, is the organization’s largest event, drawing approximately 300,000 people over three days.

If you’re planning to attend LifeLight this year, here’s a helpful map: http://www.lifelight.org/images/tinymce/File/Festival/2011/Media/11-Program%20Map%20Web.jpg.

– Some information in this post taken from a LifeLight news release