Day 4: Still Making Up Our Plans

With a short drive west from the Badlands, we quickly reached the Black Hills region and Custer State Park. Our original plan was to have an easy day of driving the rest of the way out of South Dakota, however, one of the random Ohio couples that we met the night before highly recommended that we visit Custer State Park. Since we were already so close to the park, we figured that we might as well spend a day there; anyways, we put up with the flat, boring part of the state, so I felt like if someone recommended a beautiful part of the state, we had better see it.

I will say, Custer State Park was most certainly worth the time. There were winding roads that not only lead us through the hills and forests of the park, but they also swung by some great hiking paths. Occasionally off of the main road there would be side roads that veered up a hill or wove back by a lake and one of these side roads took us to the top of Mount Custer. It’s a beautiful drive going up the mountain and the views from the top were even more spectacular. From the top, I could see snow-capped mountains in the distance, the darkened land that had been torched by a fire some months before and I had 360° views of rolling tree-covered hills that continued on for as far as I could see.

Top of Mount Custer

After coming back down the mountain, we returned to Needles Highway. Our road once again weaved through the hills and trees, but we were slowly making our way to flatter ground. While most of the park seems to be within the forest, there is a large portion of the road that takes you onto more flat, open grasslands. This area was just a picturesque as the Badlands area had been, the one major difference being that there were buffalo everywhere. At first we just saw a couple that were roaming through the grass, but as the cars in front of us were hitting the breaks, we noticed that a whole herd of them were just a few yards away. Buffalo/bison (whichever is the correct term) are kind of funny yet terrifying animals. Their chests are broad and deep and they are basically the size of a small car, they have massive heads with little (in relation to their body size) horns and their powerful legs always look just a little too short and stubby. For the most part, they seemed to take very little notice of the cars and people, even when I yelled because I got hit by a giant flying beetle, the buffalo took zero notice. The ‘field kittens’ as I called them, most definitely took their sweet old time crossing the road though, but when you look like that, I think you become well aware that you could take a nap in the road and no one is going to tell you otherwise.

Since we were at Custer in the spring, this meant that we were seeing the buffalo/bison during the time when they shed their fur. Whole patches were missing from some of them and if you think your golden retriever sheds a lot, you could probably make an entire Air Bud sports team from one buffalo’s shed. Visiting the park in the spring also meant that we got to see the baby buffalo and oh my they were so adorable.

As it became midday, Mom and I decided to leave Needles Highway and we pulled off at Sylvan Lake to grab some lunch. This little oasis in the middle of the Black Hills turned out to be my favorite part of Custer, with it’s blue lake and towering rock formations, I would also say that this has been one of my favorite picnic locations (although I do have many other great contenders). While we were already stopped, Mom and I took advantage of the opportunity to stretch our legs and to get some hiking in. There was a 9 mile hike that lead away from the lake and up towards the mountains and it sounded easy enough. Within minutes of beginning this hike, we had a hand full of people pass by, except they were going the other way. In fact, the further we went, the more we kept having people pass by, but not a single person was going the same way as us, they were all returning to the lake. About halfway up our first big hill, we came to realize why no one else was attempting this hike in the middle of the day, when the sun was directly above. Even with frequent shade from the trees it became real hot real quick. It was insanely humid and tiring and you would think that we probably learned our lesson about this one, but nope, we totally did the same thing again on our most recent trip.

So that afternoon we only hiked about 4 out of the 9 miles, but the parts of the trail that we were able to reach were great. At the top of the second or third large hill, the ground leveled out more (as it tends to do) and we were able to get some great views, which always makes the hike feel as though it were worth it. Personally, when I try to remember or think back to a particular hiking trail, I find it difficult to distinguish one trail from another, so I tend to take lots of pictures and I try to remember something unique about each path. For this trail, it is incredibly easy to set it aside from others because the ground often contained quartz, which when the afternoon sun hit it, made the whole trail look like it was sparkling, just like Edward (someone had to make the joke).

Sylvan Lake

Now exhausted from our hike, we returned to Needles Highway and entered the part of the highway with the tunnels, the most famous of which is the Needles Eye Tunnel. This tunnel, which is only 8’ wide and 12’ tall, is basically the same width and height as a coach bus, and I know this because as I watched one drive through the tunnel, I don’t think a single sliver of light could squeeze through. There were two more tunnels on the highway and they were slightly larger, but only by an inch or two. I find it kind of insane that no matter how tight the tunnel is or how windy the mountain road is, there will always be a coach bus or large camper attempting to drive on the road anyways. I give major props to these people because even in our mid-size Ford, we rarely had extra room on the roads we took.

To wrap up our time in the Black Hills region, we drove by the *kind of* record breaking Crazy Horse Memorial. Due to the time of day and us being tired, we did not actually go up to the memorial, but the sculpted head is so large, we could see it quite well from the road. For comparison, the head of Crazy Horse is 87’ high and the heads at Mount Rushmore are 60’ high and when the memorial is completed, assuming the dimensions remain as planned, it will become the world’s second tallest sculpture. I wouldn’t mind one day going back and seeing the sculpture up close, but considering how Crazy Horse has been under construction for 70 years and only a fraction is completed, I’m not really in any big hurry.

Crazy Horse, as of June 2017. You can see the heavy equipment for size comparison.