We arrived at Custer State Park on Tuesday and camped at Game Lodge Campground. Our campsite was overlooking to a beautiful creek on one side and the mountains on the other.

For those of you who are geographically challenged, Custer State Park is located in the Black Hills of western South Dakota. The park is around 71,000 acres of is very diverse in its landscape. As we drove the different scenic roads, we went through open prairies to pine forests to aspen groves and pristine mountain lakes.

We drove the Needles Highway which is a 14 mile road with spectacular scenery through pine and spruce forests, meadows, aspen groves and rugged granite mountains. It took us about 4 hrs to drive this highway because it was so scenic and we stopped a lot to take pictures. We stopped at the Needles Eye formation which is a unique rock formation created by wind & rain and freezing and thawing. It looks like the eye of a needle. There are several tunnels on this road that only 1 car can get through at a time. We were amazed to see a tour bus going through with only inches to spare.

We also stopped at Sylvan Lake and walked around the lake. It was a beautiful pristine mountain lake surrounded by huge rock formations.

The next day we drove the Wildlife Loop and saw quite a variety of wildlife (reminded us of Caves Cove over in South Carolina). We saw herds of Bison (they don’t refer to them as buffalo here) crossing the roads. The bison are huge and they don’t get out of your way, you just have to wait form them to move. We also saw wild turkey, mule deer & white tail deer, pronghorn antelope & big horn sheep. The wildlife was everywhere and not afraid of the tourists.

We hiked the Prairie Loop Trail which was a hike 3 miles through a mixture of prairie grasses and pine forest and small creeks. Wildflowers of yellow, purple, blue & white were everywhere. The elevation was around 4400 ft so we are getting acclimated to the higher elevations slowly as we head toward Glacier National Park.

We rode to Mt. Coolidge overlook which is at 6023 ft and saw an incredible view of the area. It was a little cloudy but with binoculars you could see the Crazy Horse Monument.

We then drove the Iron Mountain scenic road. At certain parts you could see Mt. Rushmore. We are headed to Horsethief Springs campground tomorrow which is very near Mt. Rushmore. We will tour that area for the next few days.

 


Bison have the righaway in Custer State Park!





Abundant wildflowers!



Sylvan Lake



Prairie Loop Trail Hike


Our Campsite (next to the creek!)





More Photo Postcards from us to you!   What a beautiful country! 
God Bless.