Explore South Dakota’s fantastic gem of a park, one of the best state parks in the country.Â
Somehow South Dakota has pretty, and I don’t understand it. There are little pieces of gorgeousness surrounded by miles and miles of boring cattle ranches. Custer State Park is one of those gorgeous places. I’m surprised it wasn’t turned into a national park decades ago.
Custer has prairies, Ponderosa Pine forests, needlelike mountains, valleys and lakes. Did I mention it’s gorgeous? Plus, there are bison, cute little chonky prairie dogs, bighorn sheep, pronghorns, etc. So much to see in this lovely park.
The Black Hills are famous for Custer State Park and, of course, Mount Rushmore. I visited Mount Rushmore on my way from North Dakota to Custer. It was a really quick visit, and I really don’t feel like writing about it, so let’s skip ahead to Custer. This will be two-parter. It’s hard to fit this amazing park into one post.
Jana Irving A herd of bighorn sheep decided to show themselves on my way back to Wind Cave National Park for a hike. I had visited that park the day before, which is only a short distance from Custer. I was currently heading to hike another trail. Later to return to Custer.
Custer has a huge Wildlife Loop on the southern portion of the park, which goes through some of the prairies of the park. Several trails are accessible in this area.
Jana Irving It was a bit of a rainy day.
Jana Irving It didn’t take me long to find this chonky cutie. My prairie dog fascination continues.
Jana Irving The first trail I hiked in Custer was the Prairie Trail. It crosses some prairie and some woods and was quite a nice 3-mile hike. Autumn has defiantly reached South Dakota.
Jana Irving It’s a bit of a rocky prairie. The trail crosses a bit of a ridge, resulting in some good views.
Jana Irving A prairie dog town from above. I actually resisted visiting this one somehow.
Jana Irving More fall colors.
Jana Irving More gorgeous views.
Jana Irving You can just make out the scenic drive between the trees.
Jana Irving Gorgeous even on a cloudy, rainy day.
Jana Irving More color towards the end of the trail.
Jana Irving Back on the Wildlife Loop. Custer has a couple large bison herds. They like to hang out in this prairie a lot.
Jana Irving The park also has a bunch of feral donkeys. They like to hang out by the overlooks where the bison hang out. That’s so people feed them. Don’t do that. I will return again to the Wildlife Loop.
The next trail was the Lovers Leap Trail. The way up was boring, but I really enjoyed the way back. It’s a bit strenuous going up but the rest of the trail was fine.
Jana Irving Just a normal Ponderosa Pine forest on the way up.
Jana Irving Cloudy day views from the top.
Jana Irving At the very top is a rocky outcrop with gorgeous views.
Jana Irving The Black Hills are quickly replaced by prairies.
Jana Irving The trail descends into a little, pretty hollow, complete with a stream. The boards are for easier stream crossings, but they also were surrounded by poison ivy. I’m currently immune to poison ivy and I want to keep it that way, so I tended to avoid the boards.
Jana Irving The poison ivy (the red or yellow leaves near the ground) did make the trails a bit prettier.
Jana Irving All the hallows and stream areas of the Black Hills are full of poison ivy.
Jana Irving Poison ivy should not be allowed to be this pretty. It sure is a lot easier to spot it when autumn rolls around.
Jana Irving Pretty, poison ivy lined stream.
Jana Irving Heading back into the Ponderosa Pine forest for a bit.
Jana Irving Pretty, non-poison ivy leaves.
Jana Irving I love aspens.
Jana Irving I drove back through the Wildlife Loop the next day after visiting the Needles area (next post). The bison were a lot closer this time.
Jana Irving Look at this little baby! So cute!
Jana Irving Time to eat.
Jana Irving Stockade Lake. I stayed in one of the nearby campgrounds. I stayed in an electric hookup loop, so I wouldn’t have to listen to generators. It just happened to have cell service. Happy coincidence.
Jana Irving The last trail I hiked was the Grace Coolidge Trail, named for the former first lady. The Coolidge family vacationed in the area. It’s a popular trail to go fishing on. I liked it because it was a nice, easy fairly flat trail.
Jana Irving The stream didn’t help me like this trail at all. */s
Jana Irving I did about half the trail. There are many stream crossings but there are board-bridges for the most part.
Jana Irving Very pretty.
Jana Irving There wasn’t as much poison ivy to avoid on this trail.
Jana Irving Fishing holes were created by putting in small dams across the stream.
Jana Irving Another fishing hole.
Jana Irving Cliffs are on both sides of the trail.
Jana Irving A few reflections.
Jana Irving Some of those fishing holes are bigger than others. A very pretty trail.
Custer is a great park. Tons of trails and tons of views. More views to come on the Needles Highway.
Check out my next update where I explore Custer’s Needles Highway!
or
Start at the beginning of this northwest Midwest road trip!
