Today we're "TOURIST"! We are going to Custer State Park which is our nation's 2nd largest state park. We want a early start so we can get our eyes full! We finish breakfast.... Lennie packs the picnic lunch while I take Otis out. Is that multi-tasking???
Okay heading to Custer State Park. State Park $$$$, but when you pay, it's good for a week, don't know if we'll go back again this trip? We will be driving on the Peter Norbeck scenic byway. The byway is named after the late S. Dakota senator, whose idea it was to build this byway. The majority of the byway, which consists of the Needles Hwy & Iron Mtn Road is located within the confines of Custer State Park.We start our drive on Iron Mountain Road where we catch our first glimpse of Mount Rushmore!
If you look closely, you can see George Washington peeking through the trees!
This is just a "sneak preview" of Mt Rushmore as we plan to go see the famous site up close & personal tomorrow! But it was interesting to see them from a distance,especially framed through they hwy tunnels!
Here's the tunnel....& here's the view!
The Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway is a true wonder!
Continuing our drive we reach the main gate, time to pay up. I was wondering when this would happen!
"Get your wallet out Len, it's time to pay up!"
We pay & before you know it I've got a real Kodak moment! We see our first herd of buffalo & we haven't even turned onto the 18 mile Wildlife Loop Road!
Bison can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds!!!
We stopped to have our picnic lunch & we could see "EVIDENCE" that a buffalo or two had picnicked before us!
It was a nice spot for a picnic
Poor Otis! He always goes under the picnic table & just patiently waits for a handout!
When the picnic's over we head out on the Wildlife Loop Road which twists & turns it's way through the prairie & Ponderosa pine studded hills that harbors many of the park's wildlife species. Two of the most colorful characters along the way are the prairie dogs & a band of the parks free-loading burros!!! We didn't see any prairie dogs, but we did see the burros!!!
The burros weren't afraid of anyone!
They went anywhere & everywhere!
As we were leaving, a burro walked up to our car, Otis, sitting on Lennie's lap at the time, did not like that burro looking in our window & VOICED his opinion!
We saw more buffalo herds, we even saw a buffalo trying to cross the road, I guess the grass was greener on the other side!?!
He just wanted to join his buddies!
This guy looks like he actually stopped & posed for me!?!
We also saw deer, but they didn't come anywhere near as close to the road as the bison & burros!
Still they couldn't escape the camera lens!
And now.....Needles Highway, a must-do drive when visiting the park! The Needles Hwy opened in 1922. It features towering granite pinnacles,
Check this out!!!!
now wait.......
LOOK CLOSE!!!!
Keep Looking!!!!
Yep.....that's a tour bus coming through!
The bus driver got a round of applause when he made it through!
This is the same opening that the tour bus just went through!
The beautiful Lake Sylvan!
Leaving Custer State Park we drive into Custer City. It is named after Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer-the man who led the famed 7th Calvary on a government expedition into the last unexplored region in the United States! Custer City doesn't just have a long arm of history....it also has SELF-SERVE yogurt & we were ready for a little treat!
After our small treat....we head back to the RV Park.From the hwy (U.S. 16-385) You can see on the mountainside (Thunderhead Mountain) the beginning of a sculpture of the great Sioux leader Crazy Horse.Crazy Horse was born in the Black Hills & is partially credited with Custer's sensational defeat at the Battle of Little Bighorn.!This sculpture of Crazy Horse is quite a story! The artist, Korczak Ziolkowski began working on this project in June 1948. Lennie, & I with our kids, were out here over 30 years ago. When we viewed it, I didn't know that the beginning construction began in 1948. Viewing it from the hwy, it looks at the same stage as it did over 30 yrs ago!?! Unfortunately the artist, Ziolkowski, passed away in 1982. However his wife Ruth, now CEO of the Crazy Horse Memorial, & 7 of their 10 children are carrying on sculpture's dream.The big question is, When is the Memorial Sculpture going to be finished? I read the answer to that question is.....No one knows when the sculpture will be finished, because there is no dead line?????In the meantime....you can go see this sculpture, such as it is, visit the gift shop, the Indian Museum. In the evenings during the season, you can watch a Laser Show, The Legends in Light, which shows what the sculpture will look like when finished. It promises to be larger than the Mount Rushmore sculptures! Crazy Horse Memorial is funded solely by private donations & admission fees.
Back at the RV we have dinner, clean up afterwards, walk Otis all in the nick of time!?! I just had just sat down at my laptop to blog today's events when I felt the motor home shaking??? Lennie stepped outside & says,"Boy....the wind is picking up! Ya think....I can feel the coach shaking!?! I continue on the blog, but the rocking is getting stronger. We go outside to put away anything that might fly away, & then, better to be safe than sorry....we brought both of the slides in. We just got back inside when the wind started roaring, I kept peeking out front looking for a funnel cloud! Then it went black in the coach!!! We'd lost power! Nooooo, the wind just blew our satellite Tailgater over so the TV went out!!!!!
What you can't see in this picture(camera works too good sometimes!) is that we're sitting in the dark with just the glow from Lennie's laptop. What I wanted you to see, is how nervous Otis is! He can't get much closer to Lennie!?!The wind is still blowing as the sun starts to set.
Then it starts raining!
Between the wind & the rain, I snap these pictures out the front windshield!
When it's over & we have TV again, I saw we were sitting through a storm with 60mph winds!!!
It's over now now, the storm clouds are moving out.....
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