Category: Trips

Custer State Park

Custer SD – September 2021

Custer State Park is a beautiful drive. Lots of scenic vistas, and most famously – a lot of easy-to-see wildlife!
Sunset on the Black Hills
Buffalo in the distance. They are on the road a lot, but not for us on this trip.
White-tail deer
Wild donkeys
Mule deer
Herd of elk in the distance.
More elk. They were off in the distance a bit, but this was a very popular spot for the tourists. The road was jammed with people getting a glimpse of the elk. It was pretty cool.

Needles Highway

Custer SD – September 2021

Sylvan Lake
Needles Highway is an incredible road – hairpin turns, dramatic granite formations, tremendous overlooks. This highway is not very long, but the tight turns and awesome sights are worth the slow driving! These granite towers are on both sides of the road, sometimes just one side with views of the Black Hills on the other side.
Driving through the “Eye of the Needle”, a tunnel through the granite. Very tight for larger vehicles.
Mary Jean was here as a child. We have a picture of her at this tunnel from 1954.
The Black Hills
Cathedral Spires
This was the inspiration for Mt. Rushmore.

Crazy Horse Memorial

Crazy Horse SD – September 2021

Crazy Horse Memorial
As designed, this is what the Crazy Horse Monument will look like when complete. The effort is dependent on sufficient funding, which is not available at this time. Projected completion date is undetermined.
There is an Indian Heritage museum at the Crazy Horse site. It contains many artifacts. These are a pair of moccasins hand made by Grandma Lone Wolf from SD in the 1920s.
Conchita Pueblo Drum by Red Bird from NM.
Beaded Buckskin dress from the 1890s.
Headdress
Birch bark canoe, sealed with pine pitch and treated with pine pitch.
Thunderbird and Killer Whale Totem. The legend goes that the killer whale (orca) swam into the bay one day and scared off the salmon, so the people began to starve. The people called out to the Thunderbird for help. The Thunderbird swooped down and picked up the killer whale with its claws and took it out to sea. The salmon soon returned and the people were no longer hungry.

Buffalo!!

Wind Cave National Park SD – September 2021

So I was hoping I’d get to see a buffalo when we went to South Dakota. Well, I saw thousands! It is amazing for an east coast guy to see!

My first buffalo sighting!
They do not seem to care if cars come by.
This one looks like he was posing for me!
And of course there are many prairie dogs. They do not seem to be afraid of people.
This one was definitely posing for me!
Buffalo at sunset.

Toadstool Geologic Park

Harrison NE – September 2021

Toadstool Geologic Park is a collection of badlands formations found in the Oglala National Grassland of Nebraska. The rock formations found in this park formed 38-24 million years ago and are related to the same rocks in South Dakota’s Badlands National Park. These parks also share many fossil animals, like ancient dogs, horses, and rhinoceroses. Many of these fossil animals went extinct and do not have modern analogues. Perhaps one of the most exciting preservations in Toadstool Geologic Park is the .75 mile-long trackway that reveals an ancient pursuit of hungry entelodonts chasing two species of rhinoceros down a stream channel. (Information from NPS site – I couldn’t remember all that!)
Replica of a sod house built here in 1930.
Inside of the sod house. This replica was rebuilt in 1984.