Custer National Park

I was away from the internet for a while there--happy now to post the rest of the South Dakota photos.

Below are photos from our trip through Custer National Park. This park is your best bet in the Black Hills for seeing wildlife, especially bison.

Note I say, like an insider, "bison," not "buffalo," having learned that's the correct term.

We were all careful to do that in our car, which held Katie, Sam and me. I can't speak for the other car. 

So we were surprised when, upon entering the park, to hear the very friendly and helpful ranger tell us where we should keep our eyes out for buffalo. I guess she's given up on educating outsiders about the correct term.

We actually saw a single bison by the side of the road driving up a winding mountainside road on the way to Custer. We eagerly stopped and oogled it. Little did we know what lay in store.

And note that having just three days in the Hills, we had six slots--three morning, three afternoon--to fill, so this was the appointed time for Custer. And we were running a little late, given that we were hoping make it back to Hill City to pick up ingredients for grilling burgers. That wasn't to be--we ended up in a little diner in Keystone which turned out to be great. It included a very memorable waitress who actually warned us away from their "everything" soup, which she said smelled just awful cause of the cabbage.

Back to the wildlife. First we saw these antelope watching with the calm knowledge that they could easily outrun even a seven-year-old.

Then we first ran across a group of wild asses, as you can see below.

No, really. For wild, they were very docile, and were content to be petted by all and sundry.

And they didn't charge for having their photos taken with tourists.

Not long thereafter we started seeing bison. With a vengeance. Three or four loosely connected herds, close enough to be exciting without being alarming.

At least til we turned the corner. This was round about the time that the lightning storm moved in. This photo is a little deceptive, since the camera adjusted for the light--it was actually darker than this makes it appear.

The bison were crossing the road at several places where we were driving, slowly, carefully, not wanting to spook them. Because even in a car, you don't want to spook a temperamental, thousand-pound creature, much less a herd of them. As we inched forward, watching them cross all around us, lit by the occasional lightning strike, the odd calf would run across, chased by its mother, making us wonder whether that calf would inspire others to run. Fortunately we made it through without incident. (You think this is nerve-wracking, ask Paul about doing the same thing on a motorcycle.) The van ahead of us in the photo above belong to someone else. In our car at this point was Susan, Sam and I, and Susan and Sam agreed that this was a little more excitement than necessary.

We went from here up through the mountains again, up to a peak and down again along an immensely enjoyable road filled with tunnels and "pigtails." When we finally made it to the diner in Keystone, we felt like we'd earned it.