Tag Archives: Pronghorn

CUSTER STATE PARK – Custer #South Dakota

CUSTER STATE PARK

Custer State Park is a South Dakota State Park and wildlife reserve in the Black Hills. The park is South Dakota’s largest and first state park, named after Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer.  The area originally started out as sixteen sections, but was later changed into one block of land because of the challenges of the terrain.  The park began to grow rapidly in the 1920s and gained new land. During the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps built miles of roads, laid out parks and campgrounds, and built three dams that set up a future of water recreation at the park. In 1964 an additional 22,900 acres were added to the park.  The park covers an area of over 71,000 acres of hilly terrain and is home to many wild animals.

Custer State Park MapThe park is home to a famous herd of 1500 free roaming bison.  Elk, coyotes, mule deer, white tailed deer, mountain goats, prairie dogs, bighorn sheep, river otters, pronghorn, cougars, and feral burros also inhabit the park. The park is famous for its scenery, its scenic drives (Needles Highway and the wildlife loop), with views of the bison herd and prairie dog towns. This park is easily accessible by road from Rapid City.

The popularity of the park grew in 1927, when U.S. President Calvin Coolidge made it his “summer White House” and announced from the Black Hills that he would not seek a second full term in office in the election of 1928.
~wikipedia

Wild Life Loop Road

Wild Life Loop Map

South Dakota is a ruggedly beautiful land to explore.  High on our list of favorites is Custer State Park.  The whole park is absolutely beautiful.  The Wildlife Loop road is so convenient.  It is very easy to drive and the wildlife sighting are frequently and plentiful most of the time.

Wildlife Loop Road travels through 18 miles of open grasslands and pine-speckled hills.  This beautiful land is what the park’s wildlife calls home. Depending on the day, you might see bison, pronghorn, whitetail and mule deer, elk, coyotes, burros, prairie dogs, eagles, hawks, and a variety of other birds.  A medley of colorful wildflowers and prairie grasses surround the road, making for a picturesque drive.

Our trip in late July 2017 was another memorable one filled with wildlife, scenery and of course, the burros.

The Bison

We had a bit of a rain shower when we found the bison.

Pronghorn Antelope

Burros

Prairie Dogs

Other wildlife and scenery

EXTRA

 

South Dakota – Black Hills – Day 6

SD – Black Hills / Custer State Park | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7

untitled-IMG_1299-1299A quick peek outside around 11:30 p.m. gave us a good idea of what was in store for us on Day 6.  We were so glad we moved from the tent to a cabin.  The scene was all too familiar – the first snow – but it was way too early.  Snow is not necessarily what I want to see on September 11th, but it was quite beautiful and hard to get too upset about.  The fresh blanket of snow was going to make for lovely photos.  We awoke to an accurate forecast – about 6″ of fresh snow fell overnight.  It was a bone chilling 27 degrees as promised.  It was brrrrrrr-eautiful!

I made short work of the snow on car with the broom from the cabin – no brush in the car this time of year.  It just didn’t feel right turning on the heated seat this time of year, butt it felt alright soon enough 🙂  We headed into town for our coffee and bagel at the 1881 Bank Coffee House.  This was our third visit.  As the name implies, the store was originally a bank; the interior is quite nice.  The coffee was wonderful.  The bagel situation on the other hand had issues every day for some reason.  Two of the three days a cream cheese or butter was missing each day and this day one was toasted and one was not.  FYI, the dash defrost barely provides enough warmth to reasonably heat up a bagel.  Check your bagels before departing 🙂


The Scenery

We didn’t really have a plan for today.  We didn’t know what to expect from the snow fall.  We ventured into Custer State Park to see what we could find.  The fresh blanket of snow was quite pretty.  Back-roading was out of the question today; we tried.  The roads were snowy, wet and extremely muddy.  We made it as far North as Pactola Reservoir (last photo) on the main roads and decided to head back to the park to look for wildlife.  We ran into a group of long horns that where pretty lively in the fresh snow – especially the little one.  Cute lil bugger.

The Wildlife

We explored several Custer State Park roads today in addition to well-traveled Wildlife Loop Road.  4 Mile Draw Road (CSP 7), Swint Road (CSP 5), Fisherman Flats Road (CSP 2) and Oak Draw Road (CSP 3) were all nice to drive.  You never know what is around the next corner.  We were pleasantly surprised to stumble upon several Mountain Bluebirds having just read about them at the Wind Cave National Monument.  We found more Elk, but the herd was not any closer than earlier days sightings.  The buffalo and pronghorn looked great against a snowy backdrop. //Custer State Park map//

Here is a video clip from heading into Custer State Park the morning after the snow fell.