June 11th ~ South Dakota ~

Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park

Yesterday we had been so enamored by Custer State Park that we decided to return to see more of it. The southern portion of the park has a Wildlife Loop where buffalo can often be spotted.

WILDLIFE LOOP

Custer State Park also butts up against Wind Cave National Park at its souther edge. At one point we got off of the loop and headed onto an unpaved Red Valley Road.

Red Valley Road

WIND CAVE NATIONAL PARK

I’m not sure just where we passed from one park into the other, but the scenery continued to impress.

I think we were in Wind Cave National Park here

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Coming upon a colony of prairie dogs made our afternoon. There were quite literally hundreds of them. We laughed at their antics, listened to the sentries give the warning, and fell in love with the babies.

Praire Dog babies

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Somewhere we passed back into Custer State Park and came upon several herds of buffalo, mostly off in the distance. And then as luck would have it, we saw several magnificent beasts right next to the road.

Buffalo!

The males are 6.5 feet at the shoulder and can weigh 2000 pounds!

Tim and Shirley

National Park #3

PAINTED BUFFALO OF CUSTER

The town of Custer is cute and we slowly drove through. They have a collection of painted buffalo along the main boulevard and I snapped pictures of several of them.

Painted buffalo

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GRATITUDE MOMENT: Today I am grateful for my husbands quick wit. He has had us laughing throughout the day, sometimes near the point of tears. If laughter is the best medicine, we should both live to a ripe old age.

Tomorrow we will break camp once again and head further north toward Deadwood and Devil’s Tower. We invite you to tag along with us.