Day 8--Rushmore, Custer State Park and more

Mount Rushmore

Antelope in Custer State Park

Bison in Custer State Park

Prairie dog moms, Custer State Park

Prairie dog pups, Custer State Park

Remember me telling you yesterday about meeting Dan Dickey, owner/manager of Desperados restaurant in Hill City? As we were leaving, Smoky asked Dan about the places we were planning to visit today and whether Dan thought Custer State Park was worth visiting. Dan enthusiastically recommended Custer SP, saying it was his favorite place to go of all the nearby parks.

Based on his recommendations, we decided to do a quick "drive-by" of Mount Rushmore and spend more time in Custer SP. Dan was right! Custer SP was a great place to visit. We drove the wildlife loop and saw antelope and bison in several different parts, both mule deer and white tail deer, a passel of donkeys, and a bunch of prairie dogs. We were suspecting that we had come to early for the young bison calves, but toward the end of the loop, we saw a group with several young. The prairie dog villages sported lots of young pups. One mother was in the middle of the road going up to each car that paused in front of the village. With us, she tried the passenger door first and then went around to the driver door. We didn't feed her, but obviously some people had been doing that. Smoky got quite a number of great images of these animals. The scenery in the park was really beautiful, and it was very quiet and peaceful.

It was mid-afternoon before we left Custer. While we were in the park, we received a phone call from the motel where we were supposed to stay tonight, saying that the town had a major water main break and they didn't expect the motel to have any water. We cancelled and started looking for another place to stay.

Luckily it is still early in the season, and we found a room in Sundance. It was a little further away from Devils Tower, where we were planning to stop both tonight and tomorrow, but we took it gratefully! The drive from Custer to Sundance was a little over 2 hours, according to our GPS. We started out and shortly thereafter ran into road construction. Highway 16A was having major renovations, and we were delayed considerably. Once we made it through the construction, it was smooth sailing (almost literally, because the road was practically empty!) to Sundance.

Sundance is a quiet, small town in a spectacular setting. We had a delightful dinner at the Longhorn Saloon and Grill on Main Street, and left immediately for the 35-minute drive to Devils Tower. I was really tired from the day's activities and the hours of driving, but was I ever so glad I went with Smoky to Devils Tower. It was such a great experience, it deserves its own blog entry! 

—Shann