Streaming Reflections: Custer

We arrived at Custer State Park in beautiful South Dakota on Monday, August 20th. Set up camp and sat back and relaxed for a bit. The state park is AWESOME and has outstanding amenities!!

Our campsite at Custer State Park Game Lodge Campground
Site #06E

Upon arrival, we were greeted by some of the natives...what a GREAT beginning to our Custer trip!!

Took this picture just a few steps from our campsite

Baby laying in background

On Tuesday August 21st, we visited Mt. Rushmore and took a drive down Wildlife Loop in the park. Saw some great sights at both places!!

Driving the Wildlife Loop, we saw Pronghorns (or American Antelope), Turkeys, Wild Burros and Prairie Dogs. Tracy said we should take the Wildlife Loop drive every evening!

Wild turkeys - family group of five to six
Had to wait on these guys to cross the road

Solitary male Pronghorn off the side of the road

Wild burros (actually, not so wild as we saw an individual walk up to them...)

Beautiful sunset captured on our way back to camp

Wednesday, August 22nd - We took a ranger guided bird hike; didn't see many birds as migration has begun. After the bird hike, we decided to take a trip into Rapid City to see Reptile Gardens. On our first night at the park, a curator from Reptile Gardens conducted a snake presentation right here at our campground - he brought live snakes including a prairie rattlesnake (which are native to this area). It was a great presentation, so we decided to plan a visit.

Turkey seen on bird hike - heard lots of birds, but couldn't get clear view to take pictures

We had to stop on our way back to camp after the bird hike as a herd of buffalo were crossing the road

Crocodile/Alligator wrangler at Reptile Gardens - he was great!

Eurasian Eagle-Owl at bird show

Tracy caught this red necked buzzard (actually a hawk) in flight coming right at him...
looks like he had his eyes right on Tracy!

And of course there were snakes at Reptile Gardens - this guy is some type of constrictor
And yes, he is just sitting on a limb right out in the open!

Thursday, August 23rd - We visited Wind Cave National Park and took a ranger guided cave tour. After that, we drove to the city of Custer for lunch, drove by the Crazy Horse Memorial and then took a scenic drive through Custer State Park on our way back to camp.

Visitor Center at Wind Cave National Park

"Boxworks" in the cave - 95% of known cave boxworks are in Wind Cave N.P.; the remainder are in caves outside the U.S.

Had to do some "ducking" to get through the cave!

"Popcorn" with feathery growths

We chose the Baker's Bakery & Cafe for lunch because the pizza joint was closed...
After lunch, we were SO GLAD the pizza joint was closed!!!

Prime Rib french dip on a homemade hoagie roll - Mmm-Mmm Good!
We also had them bag up some turnovers and cheese danish for the road - going to have to diet after this trip!!

Crazy Horse Memorial - it'll be a pretty good while before it's finished (probably not in my lifetime)

We decided to return to our camp via the Sylvan Lake park entrance
National Treasure-Book of Secrets was filmed on this lake - they used "movie magic" to place Mt. Rushmore behind the lake

From Sylvan Lake, we took the scenic Needles Highway
Went through a couple of one-lane tunnel bridges (one had a clearance of 8' 4" width and 12 ' 0" height!)
Very interesting road to say the least, but a "must do" in the park!!

When they say 5 MPH on a curve on Needles Highway - you better read and pay attention!!

Center Lake

Right before we turned into our camp, we had to stop as a small
herd of female and baby Big Horn sheep were crossing the road

The grass is always greener right next to the road...and sheep have the right-of-way!!

Friday, August 24th - Our last day at Custer State Park...we decided to take the kayaks out and go fishing. We debated about which lake to fish since Custer has several to choose from, but finally opted for Center Lake. While I basically paddled about and tried to bang fish on the head with a lure, Tracy actually caught dinner for us! He said that catching his two rainbow trout were worth hauling those kayaks thousands of miles!!