Our Cross-Country Adventure, Day 26

Today is our last day in Custer, South Dakota. The tourist season is just about over in Custer. Many of the hotels, restaurants and stores were closed with signs, “See you on April 1^st.” We made plans for the day and as usual, those plans don’t always work. We had breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites and headed out to drive Wildlife Loop Road in Custer State Park. The road is 18 miles long and the speed limit is 25 mph.

Our first encounter was with a couple of mule deer. I had the chance to take a couple of photos, but we had some fog and it made visibility marginal. We went along for a few miles and didn’t see anything. We hoped that we were not going to be skunked once again.

We both saw some motion off the side of the road and there were twenty or thirty wild turkeys walking through the woods. I took a few photos and again the fog was not our friend.

A little further down the road and we found our first herd of bison and it was a large herd. We stopped and I took more photos.

This was going to be bison day as we encountered another herd that had taken control of the road. It was fun to watch. A bison goes wherever a bison wants to go and we yielded to their superior size. You can see that the fog was thick.

We finished the wildlife loop with no other encounters except for some more bison. We both had our fill of bison and decided to try another scenic route – Needles Highway. This route is 14-miles long and it is a real challenge. The roads were very narrow, and the turns were very sharp.

But before we got to the Needles Highway, we encountered three mountain goats standing on the side of the road at an intersection. I was sure that they were mountain goats as the photos that I have seen show the goats with furry white coats. When I researched the goats, I found that they shed their winter coats starting in June. I was happy to find out what type of goat they were.

There were times when I would have to pull over to a turnout to allow another car to pass. I can’t even imagine attempting to take this road in the summer. Custer State Park’s brochure describes it this way, “It is a spectacular drive through pine and spruce forests, meadows surrounded by birch and aspen, and rugged granite mountains. The road’s name comes from the needle-like granite formations which seem to pierce the horizon along the highway.”

The road also has two 1-car tunnels. They are something to see and experience. They are not very long so it is usually easy to see if anyone else is coming. It was easy today but at the height of tourist season, it must be mayhem.

The drive ends at Sylvan Lake which is another site to behold.

After our white-knuckle drive, we went into Custer for lunch at the Beef & Bun. It is a nice little restaurant that serves very good food.

I had some trouble finding Iron Mountain Road. My car’s gps kept taking me in a direction that I didn’t want to go in. I tried my luck at reading the map supplied by Custer State Park and ended up going in the wrong direction. I finally figured things out and we were on Iron Mountain Road which ends at Mt. Rushmore National Monument.

This roadway was like the Needles Highway but without the needles. The road is 18-miles long. The park brochure describes it like this: “Constructed in 1933, only a portion of this road lies within the park, but it is must-see. Along the highway, visitors will find wildfire exhibits, pigtail bridges, magnificent Black Hills scenery, and tunnels that frame Mount Rushmore. It was a beautiful drive through lush forest on a slightly wider road. We encountered long-horned cattle on a private farm and a herd of at least twenty mountain goats.

Ronnie and I were not wowed by this road as we were with Needles Highway, but it really impressed us in the end. Like Needles, it has two 1-car tunnels.