F17: Carousing in Custer

Wildlife View

This trip is more about animals than waterfronts, our Roadtrek (though we ARE loving it), sunsets, or sunrises, so a new category emerges. THIS is a favourite for this instalment:

Day 9, October 10

Well, it didn’t freeze last night! So far, the temperatures have merely hovered around freezing.

Oh, we did get a Thanksgiving Dinner (a little processed, but turkey and the fixings nonetheless!):

We did get our water and headed into town to see if we could get some Sturgis bling. But, everyone in town seems tired as the season runs down, so not much is happening. But I did get a “You betcha”(for all you “Fargo” lovers) from the cashier in the grocery store!

We headed towards Custer and made the nostalgic drive through Deadwood:

though we barely recognized it from about 20 years ago. The hotels and casinos are bigger and flashier, and it’s lost most of its charm.

So, on we drove beside snow-covered hillsides

and got to Custer State Park ($20 for a week pass). Our first stop was a view of the South Dakota Badlands, way off in the distance:

..and these little cuties:

We got to the Blue Bell Campground and reserved a site, then drove the Wildlife Loop (18 miles), twice!

I really want to see Elk, but when I saw the sign that said “Road Open to Cow Elk Hunters Only”, I was happy they were hiding. And we really wanted to see the Donkeys we remember from seven years ago, but they, too, were missing.

But we did have loads of Buffalo:

…Pronghorns:

…White-tailed Deer:

…Prairie Dogs:

…  and some Wild Turkeys:

We got to our site (#22, $28.51 Electric) and enjoyed this view from my chair:

Day 10: October 11

We were up and out early, hoping to see even more animals on the Wildlife Loop. And we weren’t disappointed!

The Anthem Debate continues in Prairie Dog Town:

Then, we saw a Bevy of Buffalo:

…a Murder of Magpies (full disclosure, this picture is from Theodore Roosevelt, but the Magpies here are all on the fly, and I had forgotten to post these before, so…):

…a Parade of Pronghorns (there were at least 28 in this group):

…and, finally, a Bunch of Burros (not Donkeys, we discovered) or an Assembly of Asses (my favourite title). Twenty-one of them! SO cute:

Sated, we decided to head into the town of Custer for some city life! Yep, groceries, t-shirt stores, and a delicious lunch at the Black Hills Burger and Bun Co. (David decided to forgo a Buffalo Burger in honour of our furry friends, and I chose chicken!). The town is mostly empty and most stores and restaurants are closed for the season. But there were some interesting sights:

We did all this within walking distance of the French Creek RV Park:

…where we’re staying for two nights (Site #8/#16, Full Hookups, Two nights for $34, Passport America). Here’s the view from my chair:

And before we headed to bed, here was our own little wildlife park:

Day 11: October 12

Another sunny start to the day and a drive to Hill City for a trip on the 1880 Train (Powered by Steam).

On our way, we got a good roadside view of the Crazy Horse Memorial, begun in 1948. We had seen it about 20 years ago, again in 2011 and then, today. Frankly, not much seems to have progressed in that time. but there it is a privately-funded venture with no government support. It will be magnificent one day!

We got to the train depot, and walked around:

David was in his element, talking trains with a rail guy:

While we waited to board, we strolled through Hill City (where Custer came to find gold! And where he shot an elk!). It’s another tourist town, mostly closed for the season:

“All Aboard” came at 1:15, and the train was reasonably full. It was a nice ride out to Keystone and back for about 2 1/2 hours.

Once back, we stopped at this multi-purpose facility for diesel (casino, laundromat, pizza, convenience store, etc.):

I missed seeing a Buffalo today, so this will have to do (they’re all over Custer):

We headed back to the French Creek RV Park for WiFi and this view from my chair (including Campground Bunnies). Some friends say that we are Trailer Trash when we travel. Is this what they mean?

F17: Travelling Through Teddy’s Park

Day 6: October 7

We had hoped for an early start, but the smear down the windshield that we thought was bird poop turned out to be raw egg! Were we egged? Or were we egg-dropped by a bird? The second, unbroken and very store-bought egg on the ground showed that we had been vandalized. A first.

After David’s amazing cleanup, we headed further west through Rugby, home of the Eagles Restaurant specializing in Broasted Chicken!

There are obviously no helmet laws here (I thought this guy looked like comedian Billy Connolly, whom I met once!):

In Towner, “The Cattle Capital of North Dakota”, the Gas station’s sign said “We have Cattle Vaccine”!

We headed south then west again on Highway 23 and right after we observed that we hadn’t seen an oil well yet, we saw our first in Makota. And the first of miles and miles of oil wells, large and small:

Along with the oil wells was also the change in the landscape. It had been flat for two days and now the hills began. Thankfully, we were able to escape the blight of oil wells on the scenery (for now anyway, if Trump and cronies have their ways on changing regulations about National Parks) and pulled into the North Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We got our annual pass, and I got my Parks Passport stamped (it’s been a year!).

The welcoming committee of the hills:

and the Buffalo greeted us:

We went straight to the Jasper Campground (Site 30, $7.00, No Services AT ALL), and I took a stroll and saw my Thanksgiving Turkeys:

Here’s the view of my chair:

Day 7: October 8

A gorgeous morning (and no eggs!). We headed out on the 14 mile scenic drive. We saw many Buffalo:

Bighorn Sheep (a chance sighting):

Mule Deer:

and some beautiful surroundings (I love Cottonwood trees):

At one lookout, we chatted with a New Yorker and fellow Newfoundland lover (in fact he and his spouse wrote a book called “This Marvellous and Terrible Place”). He is from New Zealand and his spouse is from Poland. He said their children were Kiwi Polish!

We decided to head to the South Unit of the park for the next couple of nights. We passed acres and acres of sunflowers (not so pretty; Vincent wouldn’t have painted these):

and St. Demetrius Ukrainian Catholic Church, in the middle of nowhere.

The Painted Canyon Visitors Centre yielded the view that we saw for the first time about 15  years ago:

And we saw our first Prairie Dogs of the trip:

Mandy saw them, too:

And so did a wily coyote:

We got to the Cottonwood Campground (#24, $7.00 No Services) and took a walk along the river:

Here’s the view from my chair (including horses in the distance):

Day 8: October 8

We got up early and had the best time to see the best sites on the scenic loop of the South Unit. We’ve had a few bird sightings: Ring-necked Pheasant, Eastern Bluebird, Wild Turkeys and several Hawks, none of which posed for photos.

It was a day of “bests”:

…Geological Formations (see the smiley face?):

…Lines of Animals:

…Mom and Baby:

In the last Prairie Dog Town in the park, this coyote came in, pooped in a animal hole then lay down beside another, seemingly ready for lunch. We moved on!

We decided to continue south towards Sturgis. After passing ANOTHER Ukrainian Catholic Church in the middle of nowhere (truly, the Lutherans rule here), we started to see a whole lot of nothing. The oil wells petered out and made way for equal opportunity ranches with crops, cattle sheep, some oil wells, more sunflower seeds, and bee hives!

Once we crossed into South Dakota (Mandy’s 26th state), things became more arid…and more vast. A whole lot of this:

led to this first view of the Black Hills:

We got to Sturgis, now mostly dead after the Rally and the summer bikers are gone, and checked into the Day’s End RV Park (#53, $13.25 Passport America, Full Services but they had just turned off the water since it may freeze tonight!).

Here’s the deer view from my chair:

A walk through the park showed the facilities for bikers during “the season”. Imagine every square inch of this empty beauty covered in Harleys and bikers!