Burros and More of Custer

The burros in Custer are not native to the Black Hills, they are descendants from the herd that once hauled visitors to the top of Harney Peak. They were released into the park and have made it their home. These 3 were just out in the meadow grazing on some sweet grass.

This guy just finished mooching some food from us tourists. He saw some kids going out to the other burros so he decided to see what they had. Oh, by the way, he managed to eat almost a whole bag of baby carrots that I brought for them. The remaining few I tossed into the meadow for the other to find later.

Here's the group that went out to terrorize the burros.

As we left this group and traveled up the road, we came across this guy slowly meandering down the middle of the road. Of course he stopped a car that tried to pass by him to see if they had anything to eat. Thankfully for me I happened to have some crackers and bread pieces left over (just in case).

Another tunnel along the Needles Highway.  

The scenery is fabulous. The rock formations are fascinating. One just wonders how these were formed.

It is suggested that you drive with your window open and honk your horn before trying to enter the tunnel here.

Just a long, skinny tunnel here.

More of the interesting rock formations. There are nooks and crannies throughout some of these rocks where you can walk around and through them. You just have to be careful because this is on top of a mountain, you can see the air in the middle of the rocks here and its a long way down.

This is the famous Needles Eye rock formation so named for the opening which was created by wind, rain, freezing and thawing. Some people were climbing up and around the eye.

The eye itself. Isn't is something great to see?

Another tunnel (these folks parked on the other side and decided to walk through it).

This is Sylvan Lake. It's a very nice picturesque area. There were numerous people out milling about the lake, some having picnics, etc.

Where's the Buffalo?

This poster was inside the Visitor's Center in Custer State Park.

This is the site we first saw as we drove up the road. We wondered why the cars were stopped. As we continued we found out. What a delightful surprise.

We just stopped and watched in amazement as these massive animals came up the hill and crossed the road.

Mom stopped and waited until her baby caught up with her.

The herd was moving from one side of the valley across the road to the other.

These buffalo were awsome to watch, totally in control of the situation.

This by far has to be the largest herd of buffalo we've ever seen.

Look at the different size of the animals.

Mom and her little one. 

Excuse the dirty windshield, the dirt roads are dry and dusty. These guys were right in front of the Jeep.

I wasn't about to get out of the car here. I even rolled up the window just in case one of these guys wanted to get personal.

One of these two were mad and started snorting at us. Needless to say we weren't about to get out and have a discussion as to what the problem was.

Look at the massive herd scattered across the meadow.

As we drove around the park, this buffalo found himself a nice waterhole and decided to sit down and rest a spell.

Meanwhile the antelope in the same area weren't too concerned about him. 

Photo out of sync. Mom and baby taking a break on the road.

Iron Mtn. Rd. Hwy 16A

This is the famous road that goes through the Black Hills and down to Custer National Park. The sign speaks for itself. Needless to say you do not want to take a full-size motorhome on this road. There is no place to turn around easily.

We have seen tour buses go through a couple of these tunnels but it is a really tight fit and close call.

We have concluded that the forest service people stack up the loose brush and shrub into these piles for the animals so they can build nests and homes in them. They are all over the forest.

The famous Mount Rushmore heads. The shadows weren't working with me on this picture.

Unfortunately we were going in the wrong direction and there was no place to stop at the tunnel where you can see the heads as you exit the tunnel. 

I'm not sure what's going on here. As we approched this tunnel we saw these two groups of bikers (one on each side). Don't know what's up. Any ideas?

Maybe it was a photo op for them and/or they were waiting for their friends or something.

It's a nice sign isn't it? 

The rolling hills were stunning with the green grasses.

Inside the Visitor's Center there was a small wildlife display.

This little guy caught my eye, he appears to be having a bad hair day. I can relate to that.

You can see the entire area was preparing for the arrival of bikers for the Sturgis event. This was inside Custer State Park which is quite a distance from Sturgis.

Even though it wasn't close, you can see there were several motorcyclists who decided to stop and have lunch and maybe one or two of those $2.00 cold beers. 

Drive to Sheridan Lake & Flying T

Panoramic view of Sheridan Lake and beach. Just one of our scenic drive days.

This is on the high road above the lake. There are open ranges in some areas. These cows weren't sure what we were doing, we just stopped to let them cross the road.

As you can see this cow was keeping an eye on us.

Same cow he just kept watching us.

We ran across this area on our drive. It was really pretty. I'm guessing this is a gated community and the mail people do not want to go up into the hills because it is quite a lengthy drive and the cabins are all over the mountain.

This is an RV park that we came across driving down the mountain. There is also a supper club up here called the Circle B where they have chuckwagon dinners, horsebak riding, and entertainment.

We opted to go to the Flying T for our chuckwagon supper and show (close to the RV park so we could have a couple of beers). Also, it was highly recommended by some of the locals here.

We two monkeys outside the supper club. Taken by a nice couple that we met who live here locally and come to this place every other week for dinner and the show.

Inside the club. The band was setting up and tuning their instruments. They didn't start the entertainment until after supper was served.

The band was quite good. In fact, the second guy from the left used to be on the Hee Haw TV Show  (Buck Owens and Roy Clerk for those who aren't familar with this kind of music). A couple of the men are retired teachers, etc. and this is their new part-time profession and hobby in the summertime.

Of course, you always have to have audience participation. Here these 2 poor souls were picked out of the crowd.

Heeeeeeeeeee Hawwwwwwwww! They played their make-shift instruments quite well.

Audience applause for all the entertainers. Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

A photo of this huge waterpark which was just down the road from where we stayed. Needless to say it was quite a busy place because of the high temps (unusual for South Dakota).

A view of Hwy. 16 that goes through downtown Keystone. This is a tourist town with lots of things to see and do from panning for gold, hiking, there's a cave here that you can go through, miniature golf, zip line ride to name just a few (along with museums, etc. for the less-active). 

You can see some of the bikers who came to the area early to also play tourists with the rest of us folks before going up to Sturgis.