Loved the Needles Highway and the wildlife: saw the burros, bison, pronghorns, prairie dogs. Went late August and the weather was great. Nice scenary.
Loved the Needles Highway and the wildlife: saw the burros, bison, pronghorns, prairie dogs. Went late August and the weather was great. Nice scenary.
We did a lot of activities in and around Custer State Park. --horseback riding, jewel cave, needles highway, mount rushmore, crazy horse and wildlife viewing. We did not see much wildlife when we drove through the park after lunch (the 3 kids- 10, 10, 11- actually fell asleep looking for animals) . Only a few buffalo in the distance. Once we got to needles highway and the tunnels it was an exciting, enjoyable drive. Hubby wished he has a sports car to drive around!
try to stay at one of the lodges in the park, they are awesome. so much to do at this park. there are organized activities, or you can go out on your own. park employees are helpful, a beautiful park with all the scenery and free-roaming animals. close to Crazy Horse, you don't want to miss the night show.
Custer State Park was the last thing that we wanted to do on our trip. However, it was raining and we were not able to do our other activity. We chose to drive Needles Hwy. OMG!! How wonderful!! We stopped along the way and climbed rocks and took in the view. The road is many many miles and we almost (literally) ran into a donkey walking on the road!!! We stopped and it stuck itself into our car... At one stretch, there were bison at every turn. The Long Horned sheep were on the rocks, the deer and the antelope were playing, and even some elk. It could not have been a better choice even though it was dreary outside.
This definately has to be included as part of your trip to Mount Rushmore. We included it as part of a full day going to Jewel Cave first, then Crazy Horse, then Custer State Park and back to Crazy Horse for the laser show at night.
We all enjoyed the bison walking on the road and in close proximity to the road.....probably 200 of them. We asked a couple of rangers as we drove through the park where the bison were and they were able to tell us where to go. When we arrived there was a ranger there making sure the cars kept moving but some of the bison just walked down the middle of the road.
The kids really enjoyed climbing at a couple of different spots especially where we saw some people repelling on some high rock formations. We took the wildlife loop and then took some of the gravel roads off the wildlife loop road. There was no one else taking these road and we saw more wildlife on those roads such as whitetailed deer that barely moved when you drove up by them and stopped. We comtemplated returning another day but weren't able to with the many other activities we were planning in the area.
Our recommendation would be to drive the loop from west to east as when you drive north towards keystone and go through the 3 tunnels, Mount Rushmore is perfectly placed in the tunnel opening as you drive through.
One of the best Parks that I have ever been too. The drives are wonderful (Iron Mountain Road, Wildlife Loop, Needles Highway.). Go earlier in the day to see the most wildlife.
Plenty of places to pull off to view wildlife and plenty of restroom locations. You could spend a several days driving around if you stopped at every interesting thing in this park.
I have been to the Great Smokey's National Park and that is no where near as nice as this park. Better roads here and better maintainance.
Only negative was some locals who drive through the park as a cut through. They tailgate and honk if you slow down.
Well worth the $15 per car admission.