Buffalo!
Custer State Park, South Dakota.
Again - can't upload pictures on this wi-fi and can't even access the bandwitch I need through cellular data (I'm on a 1x) so I'll write, and add pictures later. It takes me many tries to get this to publish...ahhh, nature. I love it but would miss my technology.
On Day Four we headed to Custer State Park near Custer, SD. If you come to this area, THIS is the highlight of the trip. The parl itself is about a 20 minute drive from where we're staying. We drove all day around the park. With sharp hairpin turns and sharp drop-offs (Dad's frequent reminders of "If you go off here, we're gonna be goners"), we creeped around at 15 mph or less. Our mission was to find buffalo and wild donkeys and we succeeded! Part of the park contains the Needles Highway. It is named that because of the rock structures in long spires that can be seen all along it There are a couple one-lane tunnels and just before the first one, there is a small opening allowing for parking so you can get out and take pictures. AMAZING place! Mallory and Ian explored and did some rock climbing while Dad and Carol and I kept our feet on the ground and took pictures.
We stopped at got some supplies/souvenirs part way through and they told us to go to the visitor center where they keep track of where the Buffalo herds are for the day. Success! We climbed a hill and all of of shouted. Buffalo! We were on a little dead-end road so people just pulled off and watched. They are massive animals! There were lots of calfs so the herd's future looked secure.
Now, we were on the quest for the wild donkeys. We got on a perimeter road called the Wildlife Loop (sounded promising) and it seemed to go on forever! The scenery was gorgeous. Now out of the rocky spires, we were in a land that looked like the Windows background picture on your computer. Or, I couldn't get the Telletubbies song out of my head because it looked just like the land that Tinky Winky and his colorful friends occupied. (by the way - NOT a good song to keep humming!) We saw a couple cars stopped on a side gravel road...Donkeys! People feed the donkeys so they're very friendly. Friendly enough that one stuck his head in the car!
We kept driving and driving and rounded a corner to something on a hill. I shouted STOP STOP there's something up there. It's a deer, a fancy deer. Hahha. I looked it up in the wildlife of the park and found it was a Pronghorn. It looks like an antelope. Driving on, we decided that we'd spent the whole day there and were ready to try to find our way out of the park and back home. We came over a hill and WOW, on the state highway that was our exit was a massive herd of buffalo. It was probably ten times bigger that the first herd we had seen. They were everywhere, including on the highway. We got just what we were looking for - lots of great animal pictures up close. We sat in this traffic jam for probably 30 minutes while the buffalo meandered back and forth across the highway. Inch up a little and then have a massive beast stand directly in front of you. Or look out your side window and have that huge (stinky!) animal close enough to touch. Thankfully my new car stayed untouched.
A very memorable day!
Again - can't upload pictures on this wi-fi and can't even access the bandwitch I need through cellular data (I'm on a 1x) so I'll write, and add pictures later. It takes me many tries to get this to publish...ahhh, nature. I love it but would miss my technology.
On Day Four we headed to Custer State Park near Custer, SD. If you come to this area, THIS is the highlight of the trip. The parl itself is about a 20 minute drive from where we're staying. We drove all day around the park. With sharp hairpin turns and sharp drop-offs (Dad's frequent reminders of "If you go off here, we're gonna be goners"), we creeped around at 15 mph or less. Our mission was to find buffalo and wild donkeys and we succeeded! Part of the park contains the Needles Highway. It is named that because of the rock structures in long spires that can be seen all along it There are a couple one-lane tunnels and just before the first one, there is a small opening allowing for parking so you can get out and take pictures. AMAZING place! Mallory and Ian explored and did some rock climbing while Dad and Carol and I kept our feet on the ground and took pictures.
We stopped at got some supplies/souvenirs part way through and they told us to go to the visitor center where they keep track of where the Buffalo herds are for the day. Success! We climbed a hill and all of of shouted. Buffalo! We were on a little dead-end road so people just pulled off and watched. They are massive animals! There were lots of calfs so the herd's future looked secure.
Now, we were on the quest for the wild donkeys. We got on a perimeter road called the Wildlife Loop (sounded promising) and it seemed to go on forever! The scenery was gorgeous. Now out of the rocky spires, we were in a land that looked like the Windows background picture on your computer. Or, I couldn't get the Telletubbies song out of my head because it looked just like the land that Tinky Winky and his colorful friends occupied. (by the way - NOT a good song to keep humming!) We saw a couple cars stopped on a side gravel road...Donkeys! People feed the donkeys so they're very friendly. Friendly enough that one stuck his head in the car!
We kept driving and driving and rounded a corner to something on a hill. I shouted STOP STOP there's something up there. It's a deer, a fancy deer. Hahha. I looked it up in the wildlife of the park and found it was a Pronghorn. It looks like an antelope. Driving on, we decided that we'd spent the whole day there and were ready to try to find our way out of the park and back home. We came over a hill and WOW, on the state highway that was our exit was a massive herd of buffalo. It was probably ten times bigger that the first herd we had seen. They were everywhere, including on the highway. We got just what we were looking for - lots of great animal pictures up close. We sat in this traffic jam for probably 30 minutes while the buffalo meandered back and forth across the highway. Inch up a little and then have a massive beast stand directly in front of you. Or look out your side window and have that huge (stinky!) animal close enough to touch. Thankfully my new car stayed untouched.
A very memorable day!
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