Our Last Day in South Dakota

CATHEDRAL SPIRES
A group of granite pillars located in the Needles that have been designated a National Natural Landmark.

While in Custer State Park, we traveled the scenic Needles Highway which winds through pine forest and around granite spires called "the Needles."  The route snakes through several small, one-way granite tunnels that we just barely fit through.

I don't know how this bus made it through the tunnels.

As you come out of this tunnel you can see Mount Rushmore off in the distance.

On our last day we rode to Mount Rushmore and walked the President's Trail.

There was work going on right on top of  President Roosevelt's head.

George Washington
"I am sure that never was a people, who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifested during our Revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them."





Thomas Jefferson
“We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”




Theodore Roosevelt
"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people. "






Abraham Lincoln
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. "

Beautiful Day for a Walk Around the Lake

Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park

This is part of the trail around the lake.

Sadie loved this little walk.

We camped in the Sylvan Lake Campground which is about half a mile from the beautiful Sylvan Lake.  The lake is surrounded by massive rock formations and ponderosa pine trees.  It's really hard to capture the beauty of this place in pictures.  There was a wedding party getting ready for an evening wedding next to the lake.  Great place for a wedding but it was so windy and cold - I felt sorry for them out there.


Several trailheads begin at Sylvan Lake and one of them takes you to the top of Harney Peak, the highest mountain east of the Rockies.  The view is suppose to be very impressive, overlooking the Black Hills and with a view of Mount Rushmore.  We didn't take that trail but did take the mile trail around the lake.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.  ~John Muir

Custer State Park and the Wildlife Loop

Our next stop was Custer State Park near Rapid City, S.D.  This park covers 71,000 acres and is the second largest state park in the country.  The scenery is beautiful and diverse with prarie grasslands, lush green forests, serene meadows, fishing lakes, and majestic mountains with towering peaks. There are several campgrounds and lodges inside the park and we stayed at the Sylvan Lake Campground. 

The park is home to a herd of 1500 free roaming bison.  Elk, mule deer, white tailed deer, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, mountain lions, 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 big guy was not with the herd in the Wildlife Loop, but just walking near a campground on his own.  I sure wouldn't want to meet up with him in my campground!

This is at prarie dog town. I don't know what they eat here but there must be plenty of it!

We loved these little burros. They would come up to your car to see if you had a treat for them. Some people were feeding them carrots or apples.

We saw lots of these Pronghorn Antelopes.

 We missed the Annual Buffalo Roundup by a few weeks.  Each year the herd is rounded-up for branding and vaccination.  Thousands of spectators gather each year for the weekend's events which include an organized stampede of buffalo and an arts festival.

The Wildlife Loop is a must see if you ever go to Custer State Park!



Beautiful Praries of South Dakota

I though South Dakota was a beautiful state and would love to go back and spend more time there. Our first night there we stayed at Vermillion Lake State Park which was very quiet and peaceful and looked like a great place to fish. The next day we traveled west all day on Interstate 90 across beautiful prarie and grasslands. It was just gorgeous weather and you could see for miles. We saw sign after sign advertising Wall Drug in Wall, S.D. so we just had to stop and have our five cent cup of coffee. Also enjoyed a $4.00 ice cream cone!

Loved all the old farms with interesting looking barns!

Here we turned onto I.H. 90 which seemed like the top of America to us. We live near I.H. 10 so this is a long way from home!

This is the first time I had ever seen a real pumpkin patch. It was just in their front yard. Wish we could have found a whole field of them.

Interstate 90  is the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at 3,099 miles and is

the northernmost coast-to-coast interstate. 

Just beautiful "Big Sky Country!"