SD – Black Hills / Custer State Park | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7
A 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.
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Wow! Excellent work Dan! Those panos are amazing! 🙂 Thanks! I’ve been to Wyoming but never during winter time! I like it better with snow! 🙂
Thank you. A fresh blanket of snow is beautiful early in the season…around February it become less magical as you are yearning for Spring 🙂
The wildlife looks great with that covering of snow, though it boggles the mind to have snow in September. You’re really covering a lot of ground on this trip and I’m enjoying your amazing images.
Thanks Mike. Weather is often unpredictable at higher elevations. I recall a trout fishing trip years ago when I was passing through the Big Horns just west of Spearfish, SD on July 3 – I encountered a blizzard! I wasn’t too worried, but those on their motorcycles where freaking out a bit. Thankfully there was a place to pull off and wait out the weather. One hour later I was in the Wind River Canyon and it was 90 degrees. That was an interesting weather shift.
I agree that Sept. 11 is way too early for snow. But you made the best of it and captured some spectacular shots.
Certainly did not want to see the fluffy white stuff this early in the season. However, it was extremely beautiful!n Great job as usual baby!