Day 4: Custer State Park

After our afternoon at Mount Rushmore, we veered off the itinerary and went to Custer State Park.  The park is 71 000 acres and has 2 main sections: the Wild Life Loop and Needles Highway.  We started on Needles Highway and the scenery was absolutely amazing. It is named after the granite needles that are all around, I've never seen anything like it.  It is a very narrow road with cliffs on either side at some points.  There were one-lane tunnels too, where you had to stop and honk your horn while driving through so nobody from the other side drove through at the same time!  I enjoyed the views, but Dane was very stressed driving it because of the twists and sharp turns and hills, while avoiding bikers on every corner.  So his opinions are probably a little less positive than mine.  In addition to not going when the bike rally is on, I would also not recommend not going in a packed Honda Civic and a very heavy roof rack... I don't think Gary (the car) was very impressed.  

 The Needles Eye Tunnel

The second part of the park we went to was the Wild Life Loop.  Apparently there are herds of buffalo and other animals, but we mainly just saw motorcycles.  And donkeys, which were ADORABLE.  They stuck their heads in the car windows wanting food, and you could feed them out of your hands.  We didn't drive the whole loop, because we still had to drive to our next hotel and had one other spot to stop at, so that may have been why we didn't see as much as we thought we would.

Overall, I thought Custer State Park was absolutely beautiful.  It would have been nice to have a few days there, and taking our time on the Needles Highway and Wildlife Loop on two different days.  But definitely worth the $15 for the car to get in!