Retired Nomads: Custer State Park & Wind Cave National Park

Aug 15

We were up at 5:00 to get to the wildlife loop in Custer State Park. The navigator took us not to the main entrance, but a side entrance on a dirt road past ranches. We saw several deer before we even entered the park. We came in on Lame Johnny Lane.

Then we found the wildlife loop and came to a buffalo road block. We have seen lots of bison on this trip, but these were really fun to watch. There were a lot of young males playing at locking horns and leaping and running. One in particular was really wound up, he bucked round and round in circles before he took off trying to start trouble with anyone that would tolerate him. I think the old bulls just rolled their eyes and were thinking “those were the days”.

2 young ones crossing the road

the Wildlife Station Visitor's Center - close to where we came in from Lame Johnny Lane

these guys were almost in the parking lot of the visitor's center (which was not open, but you could use the outhouses)

We continued on the Wildlife Loop.

Red-winged Blackbird

Loggerhead Shrike

we came across a couple of Pronghorn

We came across 5 white tailed bucks and one doe together. The doe ran across the road in front of us, but the bucks stayed

The next stop was a drive up to a lookout where you could see Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse. Binoculars were needed or you could use their viewers for a quarter. Visibility was a bit smoky, but we found both of them. It was a nice teaser for sites we would visit later in our stay.

Rushmore - about 20 miles away

Crazy Horse - about 20 miles away in another direction

Back down to the Wildlife Loop we came across a lone buffalo and those adorable Prairie Dogs.

Blue Bell Lodge & Resort - also a General Store near there

The drive continues through some beautiful scenery as we continue to look for wildlife.

we found more Prairie Dogs

yeah, that's it, right there.....

Next we came across a bunch of burros and despite the warnings not to feed any of the animals, it was apparent that they were used to getting food. One came right up to me. There was another car that had burros stick their heads into all of the car windows. They are not native to the Black Hills, but they are descendants from the herd that once transported tourists to the top of Black Elk Peak. The rides were discontinued years ago, but the burros were given a home in the park and visitor's adore them. Who doesn't love a cute donkey?

the one in the middle came right over to me

"give me all your snacks and no one gets hurt"

the young one headed right for the mud

more Bison

We wanted to take a break in the middle of the day and visit wind cave. The navigator took us on another back road. It was a numbered road, but it really was a one lane “cow path” with lots of ruts. It took us past lots of Pronghorn and tons and tons of Prairie dogs. We stopped to have our picnic lunch amongst them. Then we spotted a Burrowing Owl amongst the Prairie Dogs.

Pronghorn

Burrowing Owl

more Pronghorn

Wind Cave was very interesting. The National Park has lots of wildlife on the prairie grasslands and forested hillsides of one of America's oldest national parks. We saw deer, Pronghorn, Buffalo and Prairie Dogs along the drive. Below the prairie sits Wind Cave, one of the longest and most complex caves in the world. It gets the name Wind Cave from the barometric winds at its entrance. The unique feature of this cave is boxwork, a formation rarely found elsewhere.