Since we are both retired now, we decided to extend our Montana & Wyoming adventure by going east- to South Dakota! We have never camped in SD so yes, it was another state on the map on the side of Tut. It was a far enough drive that we stopped in Casper, Wy for the night. We went to HQ BBQ for dinner and it was fantastic! They have won a couple awards for their Mac n cheese and it was truly good! Dave had to bring half his giant burger home!
As you head to Custer, you enter the Black Hills National Forest. In the middle of miles upon miles of prairie, these large mountains appear. They are full of primarily Ponderosa Pines and look dark from a distance, especially compared to the yellowish grasses of the prairie. So many pronghorn and prairie dogs everywhere!
When we got to Custer State Park we were very surprised at its size. We stayed at Legion Lake campground that had electricity. The park has several (8-9?) small campgrounds and several lodges. Some lodges were quite big but our campground had 20 sites. The camp hosts were overly friendly (!) and many of the people got together at night for big dinners, drinks and story telling. Needless to say, that was not us. We were rarely there in the evening since they had this Wilderness Loop Road and boy were the animals out at dusk! So many animals! We saw bison galore, pronghorn, a few elk, prairie dogs galore, wild burros, deer, fox and many chipmunks.
It was weird though seeing the bison at Custer. Custer does not have predators. No bear, wolves, and few coyotes. They may have a mountain lion. Bison were eliminated from the region in the early 1900s but reintroduced in the 1950s. And since this is prime prairie meets Black Hills country, they proliferated like crazy. So they hold an annual roundup and sell some every year. It was actually being held 3 days after we left. So every year the health of all the bison is checked (height, weight etc), the youngsters get microchipped and then however many are culled and sold. Some get traded to places like Yellowstone and Badlands since all the bison came from the “final” herd of only 1000 or so animals, and they are trying to get some genetic diversity out of that. Some get sold to ranchers also. But what is weird is that there are old, gray haired bison. There were a couple big cows with gray noses and beards and forelegs (sometimes called pantaloons). Also infirm bison (those will be culled during the roundup) – things you do not see in a place like Yellowstone where predation kills off those less than healthy.
We stayed in Custer SP for 5 nights because from there we were going to see several more National Parks and Monuments. Those will be coming up in future blogs.
