Blogs from Custer State Park, South Dakota, United States, North America

Today was another day in Custer State Park. The park has two distinct halves, one mountains and one prairie. I saw the best of the prairie yesterday, so I headed for the mountains. I wanted to get out of the car and climb, which meant Harney Peak. The peak is the highest mountain in the Black Hills. As the tourist authorities love to point out, it is also the highest mountain between the Rocky Mountains and the French Pyrenees! To the Lakota, the peak is sacred, the Center Of All That Is. The forces that regulate the universe meet on the peak. Honored elders would climb the peak to receive visions of the future. These days, park visitors climb it by the url=http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/travel/escapes/... read more

Where the antelope play. . . . . Awoke this AM in Scotts Bluff, NE (pop 3,456) to fog! First clouds I'd seen since leaving VC so I asked one of the locals -- why fog -- and they said because they were close to the river -- later saw the "river", it is about 10' wide and don't understand the fog. In any case, unlike Santa Barbara fog, it dissipated in about an hour and I then headed North along state road 71 towards Custer, SD. Beautiful road, 60mph, clear - - - REALLY clear. In 75 miles, I saw zero towns, 12 vehicles (all going south) 8 of which were pick-up trucks, 12 pronghorn antelope, 1000 black angus and about a dozen ranches or farm houses. That's it. All grassland, rolling hills, no trees ... read more

On day two we went to the Crazy Horse site and it was incredible. This is a privately funded project and although progress seems slow it is hard to conceive what they have already accomplished. Everyone should tour this project. We also went to Wind Cave which was interesting but not the prettiest cave we have ever seen. ... read more

Just like any other Midwesterner, trying to get through the winter months, I’m often guilty of not taking full advantage of all the wonderful winter activities there are here in the Black Hills. Many of which can be found right in my backyard. After a recent trip to Custer State Park, I have vowed to never sit home bored during the winter months again. Recently, a close friend of mine and I took a weekend trip down to Custer State Park with the intent of partaking in a snowshoe excursion. We left on a snowy Saturday morning from Spearfish, which is only about an hour north of Custer State Park. Initially, we wanted to take the scenic route through the hills on Hwy 385, but due to the less than desirable driving conditions, we decided to ... read more

Tuesday, September 15, 2009 Yep; today was Custer State Park day. How to best spell Custer State Park? P-u-l-c-h-r-i-t-u-d-e! We drove around a lake and such, and here and there, up and down. Very few places are level in CSP. And the roads are twisty, curvaceous and narrow. With an early start, we saw that we avoided getting held up in a major black-topping project where crews and machines were sitting, waiting for the union start to work whistle went off. We were beneficiaries of the “whistle-bit” union rule. We drove on the Park’s Wildlife Loop, anxious to see some critters. Well, we saw some vehicles looking at each other, and then some bicyclists looking at us. It was a long ride before we saw our first wildlife. But after awhile, we came across a gang ... read more