Day 19 - Custer's Animal Safari

It was a cold one last night.  It got down to 29 degrees and only warmed up to the 40's today.  When we were up in the mountains and the wind was blowing, you were glad to have a coat on.  The good thing was, it was sunny and we had a great day so the temperatures didn't mean a thing to us.

We spent the day driving three scenic drives in Custer State Park.  We saw so many animals that after a while, unless it was an animal we hadn't seen already, we kept on driving.  Custer Park was rounding up the buffalo within the park.  We saw a small part of a roundup.  Every fall, usually in late September, they round up the buffalo, brand them, and separate them into a group to keep in the park for the next year and a group to auction off for breeding purposes or to slaughter.  Their goal is to have 900 in the park when this process is over.

The first drive was the "Wildlife Loop".  We saw prairie dogs, buffalo, turkeys, coyotes, pronghorn antelope, whitetail and mule deer, and Custer Park's famous burros.  The burros stood in the middle of the road and tried to convince us with their sad eyes to give them some cookies but we resisted.  The Wildlife Loop was mostly through meadows so the animals were easy viewing.  The meadow was so beautiful because of the fall colors.  The meadows were brown, orange, gold, and yellow.  Some of the animals really blended in to their surroundings.

Next, we took the "Iron Mountain Road".  It had three tunnels cut through the stone of the mountain.  We were able to see Mt. Rushmore through  the tunnels but that was as close to Mt. Rushmore that we got today.  We saw a tour bus coming through one tunnel.  That is one brave driver!

The last drive was "The Needles Highway".  It was spectular!  There were two more tunnels, curves weaving back and forth, narrow roads, and beautiful views of huge rock formations like Cathedral Spires, Little Devil's Tower and Needles Eye.  I posted pictures of the spires and needles eye.  Around every 15 MPH curve was something beautiful and breathtaking.  It was on this drive that we saw our last animal, the Mountain Goat.  As we came out of a tunnel, there were four goats moving up a rocky wall in front of us
We were gone from camp for eight hours but only drove 140 miles, most of that we were driving 15 to 30 MPH.  Tomorrow we will actually be going to Mt. Rushmore.  It will be our last day here.  I'm so sad!

Buffalo

Prairie Dog

Pronghorn Antelop

Whitetail Deer