Day 5 - Black Hills - Needles Highway

After a restful night, we arose to a beautiful Black Hills day. We decided to head south from the Rafter J Bar on Rte. 87 into Custer County. Our goal was to drive the Needles Highway and then take the Wildlife Loop through Custer State Park. Shortly after crossing US 385 onto Rte. 87, the road began to climb, and we were cautioned by a sign about steep grades and narrow tunnels.


A short drive took us through a narrow tunnel carved in the rock to the entry station for Custer State Park. Not far beyond was the visitors center and Sylvan Lake, a beautiful man-made lake. The lake is beautiful, and is surrounded by tall rock formations. The lake appears to be warm and good for swimming, as evidenced by a number of people who, against the rules, were jumping off rocks into the water. On any visit back to the Black Hills, we plan to stay for a few hours. However, we needed to push on to the Needles Highway. The road is an incredible engineering feat, completed in 1922.

The views from the Needles Highway are simply incredible. Unique rock formations line the roadside and made us want to stop repeatedly. The picture at the left is but a sample of what can be seen on the Highway. Other pictures I took on the route can be found at my Pbase.com site.

After winding down from the heights of the Needles Highway, we came to the "Wildlife Loop." This is the road, we were told, were we would most likely be able to see... wildlife. We weren't disappointed. Initially, we were wondering where the wildlife was, as we passed a number of open places that looked as if they would be excellent Bison habitat. Then, came upon a group of 10 or so Bison, just off the roadway. We stopped and I took lots of pictures. Luckily, I had a 2 mb card in my camera, as just around the bend, we encountered a herd of at least 15 Bison. There were on both sides of the road, and began passing directly in front of the car. The big guy at the right walked within 5' of the front of the Suburban, and Erika urged me to "GET IN THE CAR NOW!!!" as I was standing on the running board trying to catch a better shot. Further along the road, we saw a number of Pronghorn Antelope and a Prairie Dog Village or two.

We under-estimated the time it would take to travel Custer State Park. We'd talked about trying to visit and tour Wind Cave National Park, and we drove down there, near Hot Springs, SD. The closer we got, the more haze we saw and smoke we smelled. A Ranger at the park told us that a lightning strike 2 days before had sparked what then was a 5,000 acre fire burning south of Hot Springs. By this time, it was 4:00 pm, and the next tour was not set to leave for another 45 minutes. We opted to head back to camp at the Rafter J Bar Ranch for dinner. We'll have to catch Wind Cave next visit.