Custer State Park

We spent late Friday afternoon driving thru part of South Dakota's Custer State Park.  It's one of the best state parks in the country, in my opinion.  It's got great views, wildlife, and places to pull off the road and get out to photograph and explore.  Since we were camped in Hermosa on the west side of the park, we went in through that side on SD-36 and took the wildlife loop first.  It's mostly high plains that the bison like so the driving is easy with lots of curvy roads, but easy.  We saw bison, prairie dogs, wild burros, and antelope.  We'll probably do this loop again either early morning or dusk to try to see more wildlife.

After we came out of the loop, we took the Needles Highway which is more challenging.  Lots of narrow roads, switchback, and steep climbs and descents.  Since there were trees on the outside the drive around the switchbacks was easier to me visually, so not as much panic as San Juan Skyway. We even went up to the top of Coolidge Lookout on a gravel road.  Great views, but that ride was a little hairy.  We even made it through the Needles tunnel. I had measured the width of the truck and it was 96", so with that tunnel being officially at 100", I had 2" to spare on each side.  I slowly inched through and there was a guy from Tennessee standing there watching me who had just driven the tunnel in exactly in the same model Ram 3500. We stopped and talked to them and took some more photos.  There wasn't much traffic so we could stop and stage pictures.

After the Needles highway ended, we went toward Hill City, Mt. Rushmore, and Keystone.  We drove past the KOA Mt. Rushmore that we had camped at in 1993 with the kids.  Still looked the same except for a huge central office complex that was new to me.  Also went past the entrance to the Mt. Rushmore Monument and it was still busy late in the evening.  Went into Keystone and it had a lot more tourist trap establishments that in 1993 for sure.  Made it back to camp in time for drinks and dinner.

I'll post something on Mt. Rushmore separately but we will make multiple trips there; one in the morning sun and one at the evening lighting ceremony.  Need to get a clear night for the second visit.

Photos are on Flickr.