If South Dakota didn’t have a claim on Custer as a State Park, I’d wager that it would be a National Park. And it would be one of our favorites. The whole Black Hills area is amazing – you’ve got Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Badlands, Wind Cave, and Custer is the jewel of all of it. When we plotted out our trip (before pandemic), we knew our visit would overlap with the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Although there were literally thousands of bikers making their way around the park, they were all courteous and kind. Plus, as mentioned elsewhere/before, our approach to RVing and hiking, keeps us appropriately socially distanced.
We visited Custer in August 2020
Getting There
Custer State Park is easily accessible from Rapid City, but if you’re in an RV, you need to pay attention to the tunnels. We stayed near Mt Rushmore for a couple days at Horsethief Lake campground (A+) which was super convenient and gorgeous. This photo is from the campground, showing the Milky Way over the lake along with the lights from Mt Rushmore in the distance. Cool. Next, to get to our campground in Custer at Sylvan Lake (also A+), the map gave us 3 choices. But, in a nearly 11′ high RV, we could only take the longest route through the town of Custer due to low clearance tunnels on the Needles Highway and on Iron Mountain Road. Fortunately, with our scooter Ruby Sue, we were able to enjoy the thrill of those roads.
Getting
Around
Even though Custer is about 50 miles south of Sturgis, you wouldn’t have known that with the number of bikers who were also touring the park. There’s a reason why they love Custer – the roads/rides are phenomenal. We drove the Needles Highway every day from our campground to the Wildlife Loop at the core of the park. The road twists and turns with cool landscapes and animals all around. It seemed like there was the same bison sitting near one point off the road on our trips into the park. We named him Jerry. On the other side of the park, we also drove Iron Mountain Road, which is an engineering marvel, both for the creation of the road in such a steep area, but for the tunnels which face Mount Rushmore, just outside the park. We liked this road so much, we drove it on consecutive days so each of us could drive Ruby and the other could be the less attentive passenger. Lastly, the Wildlife Loop inside the park is great for seeing wildlife, but we learned about an even better way to find and observe the animals.
Head to the
Interior
There is a small Wildlife Center along the Wildlife Loop that does a great job keeping track of where various herds of animals (mostly bison) are in the park. When we visited, the rangers believed that with all the motorcycle noise, many of the bison had moved away from the Loop and into the interior of the park. Fortunately, Custer has several dirt roads that bisect the park and fortunately, Ruby Sue loves dirt roads (at least we hope so). The wide open expanses seem to go on forever and then you come around a corner and there’s a herd of bison. Our first trek through the interior dropped us into the middle of a large herd along with a handful of automobiles. I was grateful for the cars, so I could “hide” behind them when we were getting a bit close to the bison. As long as we moved slowly, they never seemed to mind. It was glorious. As it turned out, this was the day that a woman along the Wildlife Loop road got too close to a calf and got tossed by an adult bison including losing her pants. One of the things we learned at the Wildlife Center was that the bison’s tails will raise up if they’re about to charge. We noticed that they also do this when they poop. We did have a scare on our second trip to the interior. We found a small herd along a road where they found water to drink. They were all taking turns until the big male decided it was his turn. The dynamic was cool to watch. Anyway, as we left this herd, we wound our way through a small canyon and came up behind a bison family. As the momma and baby walked down the road away from us, the daddy was stopped, facing us, and looking rather ornery (but no raised tail). We gave them plenty of distance, but then noticed that several bison were coming over the hill behind us. We had to quickly turn Ruby around and go back the way we came in so we wouldn’t be trapped. We actually did this act twice as the bison coming in the back of the canyon seemed to travel in waves. Finally, we ended up trailing the group through the canyon until it opened up to a valley that had hundreds of bison. Just Wow! We hung out there for about an hour just watching and photographing peacefully. The whole time, we only had one other couple join us. They were from Boston and Rainy made quick friends taking awesome pics of them with the bison in the background.
Lovers’
Leap
We got a lot of miles in on Ruby Sue while in Custer, but we wanted to get at least one good hike in too. We picked the Lover’s Leap Trail which is a good moderate 4 mile loop. We were hoping for some great vistas near the top and were not disappointed. But it wasn’t easy to find. Near the top there’s a historic marker, but you have to scramble up some rocks for the panorama overlook. I don’t think everyone know this. We asked one couple if there were any great overlooks and they said they were ok. This was awesome. I think they missed it. You could see all the way to the Needles as well as all the way to Black Elk Peak (the highest point west of the Rockies until you get to the Pyranees in Europe). On the way up, we also saw a couple of deer fighting. They were on their hind two legs and almost boxing each other with their front hooves. And on the way down, we were delayed by a herd of bison blocking our way out. Such is life in Custer.
I can’t wait to visit Custer again. Everything about the place was awesome. We saw lots of bison, bighorn sheep, antelope, and donkeys. Rainy even noticed that the bison looked healthier than other parks. Likely true as they manage the herd more directly including selling off part of the stock each year to local ranchers to ensure balance within Custer. They have an annual roundup each September where they herd up the 1000+ bison into a stockade to perform various health procedures, record keeping, and to manage the above mentioned sale. We hope to see that roundup someday. If you’ve always wanted to visit Mount Rushmore, but thought it was too far out of the way, Custer makes it all more than worthwhile. This park is a must visit.
