Custer, South Dakota-Custer State Park Game Lodge Campground

MAY 05-08, 2016

On our way to Custer State Park, we took a break at the Air and Space Museum on the Ellsworth AFB.

It wasn't too large but had some nice exhibits.  I enjoyed learning more about the Berlin Wall, reading the story of a WWII POW and watching a video on the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) and the kids of course loved the cockpit and flight simulator.

The bad news is that we got to Custer State Park before the season officially began but the good news is that we got to Custer State Park before the season began!!!! There is so much fun to be had here that wasn't available to us but we still had plenty to do and see and it was really nice to avoid the crowding that ensues during the summer months. Even though the visitors were few while we were there, there were still many delays on the roads to get anywhere due to everyone stopping to view the wildlife. In that respect, it reminded me a lot of the Smokey Mountains where a bear sighting would clog the roadways.

Custer State Park is located in the Black Hills and is South Dakota's largest state park at over 71,000 acres. One of the things that makes it so popular is its' abundance of wildlife including a herd of over 800 bison. The day we arrived, this is what we saw right behind our campsite!

Not only did we see quite a few herds of buffalo, but we also saw pronghorn antelope, prairie dogs and elk.

The funniest were the “begging burros”. They are fed by tourists often and come quickly to the windows for food. 

 Its blurry but I love this picture because you can easily see how much fun Jordan had with them.

We visited their brand new visitor's center where we learned a little more about the park and bison. It is really sad to read about the decimation of the bison. I can't remember where I first saw the image but if you have never seen the picture of the men standing on or around the pile of bison skulls, click here. It truly leaves an impression.

We drove the Wildlife Loop Road and had to check out Needles Highway. The bridges were fun even though we only had a few inches on either side of the truck!

 (the needle)

I wish you could zoom in on this picture because if you could, you would see that Mt. Rushmore is perfectly framed through the tunnel opening.

We made it to Mt. Rushmore but after the visitor's center had closed for the day. Fortunately, we had studied ahead ;)

Then we also visited the Crazy Horse Memorial and spent a few hours exploring their museums. I hope that one day I get the chance to see it finished but I am not so sure I will. The project began in 1948 and is far from being finished. For reference, Mt. Rushmore was completed in 1941 after 14 years. However, Crazy Horse receives no outside funding and just the head of Crazy Horse is the size of the Mt. Rushmore sculpture. In the beginning, the original sculptor worked solo. Several of his children now work at the memorial. So here is what it looks like now,

and here is what it is supposed to look like when completed.

The kids were able to each bring home a rock that was from the blasting of the memorial!

We also visited Jewel Cave National Monument and Wind Cave National Park. Both were interesting but I preferred Jewel Cave. The big reason for that may be that we were on a tour with only 2 other people so we could hear the ranger speak, ask all the questions we wanted and he took the time to stop and show us things on the path. The Wind Cave tour was the complete opposite.

(the crystals in Jewel Cave)

(boxwork formations that can be found in both caves)

(a soda straw formation about 4 ft long!)

After our hour plus tour, we stopped in the visitor's center and saw this wall.  It is a map of the cave.   In the center, you can see some little black boxes that show where we went on our tour.  Great image to get some perspective of how huge it really is!!

(the opening that led to the discovery of Wind Cave)

Another really cool place we visited was the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs. I was completely in awe by this place. Of course, we have seen dig sites before and we have seen fossils before but NEVER before have we seen the two together. The mammoth bone fossils you see in the pictures are real! They have been preserved in some way but they are real and exactly where they were discovered. They have removed some fossils but there are still plenty to check out and they know there are still many more deeper down.

This location was originally a hill that was planned to be removed because it was felt to be unsightly but in 1974 when they began to do so, they hit a mammoth tusk. Since then, they have recovered 122 tusks (at least 61 mammoth) and fossils from other animals including a giant short faced bear, camel, llama, prairie dog, wolf and fish. Interestingly, three of the mammoths are woolly mammoth and the remaining of them are the humongous Columbian mammoths. AND they are all young males except for one that was an older male.

(how the kids measure up to a Columbian mammoth)

The belief is that this was once a warm spring sinkhole and that either the mammoth slipped in or were just unable to get out due to the incredibly slippery shale that made up the walls.

(Locate the pelvis in the center and then follow it up and down.  You can see most of the mammoth skeleton.  He is positioned as though he is trying to climb out.  For perspective, those white containers are five gallon buckets)

The tour guide (on our private tour) said that they find enough specimens during a one month dig that it requires the rest of the year to catalog it all!!

And last but not least, we did some hiking. We hiked through the cold and wind to Little Devil's Tower. 

It was a nice hike with great views of the cathedral spires and surrounding areas.

It was so windy though that once we made it to the top of Little Devil's Tower, that we made the kids stay lower for fear that they would be blown over. Even Greg and I were having trouble keeping our footing!

Here are a couple more pictures from the hike that Greg did on his own.

Our time was short but fun!  We are off to......