Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Custer State Park Day 1




not too bad a road, a little washboardy in places

We headed to Custer State Park, one of our all time favorite parks, national or otherwise, located about 60 miles from the RV park we are staying in, Elkhorn Ridge RV park. We LOVE Custer State Park...it's beautiful, and there is lots of wildlife to see every time. The ranger station has very knowledgeable people working there, and they tell you where the latest sightings of the buffalo herds can be found.  

Today, they said, you have to go off the park loop road onto some gravel roads, and that's where you will find them. We have a four wheel drive truck, and that would be easy peasy to take a truck on those kind of roads. They are just dusty and dirty, usually, but not a problem for cars, either, so off we went.

We hadn't gone just a few miles, when WHAM! There were two big boys off to the side, grazing and lounging around by themselves. Guess they could have been big girls, too, who knows? Here's the bigger one of the two.

A little further down the road, and here comes the herd....


We just love seeing these big bison out in nature, and they just mosey along wherever they feel like it, cross the road whenever they feel like it, and just do their thing. We saw them laying down dirt holes that they've scraped out, and rolling around in the dirt. We saw babies walking dutifully along behind their mothers trying to keep up. 

And then, a trip to Custer State Park is not complete without seeing the begging burros. They are definitely NOT following safe distancing!


There are quite a few of them, at least half a dozen and they are used to being fed as you can see....


And then there are some, who are like, meh....


Here's something you don't see very often in the rest of the country!
We haven't seen any bighorns-yet! We will keep watching!

On our way out of the state park, we traveled the Peter Norbeck Scenic Highway. It's got several tunnels that you wouldn't want to take an RV through--of any size. Sparky wasn't sure we would be able to take the Dodge Ram dually thru, but we made it ok.

There's another tunnel you go through, and on a beautifully clear day, you can see Mt. Rushmore thru the tunnel. We couldn't see it today...some people actually lie down on the middle of the line in the roadway to get the best shot of Rushmore in front of that tunnel! Sparky did that years ago, but today, it was hazy, and Eldo wasn't having any of that!

Here is another one of the tunnels....They are all one lane, so watch out, here we come! Or there you go!

Until next time, see you later! Don't let the world get you down!



2 comments:

  1. We loved Custer, working there, seeing all the sites. Maybe one day we'll go back :)

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