Yesterday was an absolute gorgeous day, low 70's, and bright sunny sky. Custer State Park is
located about 12 miles west of our campground and decided to take a leisure drive and hopefully find a nice easy hiking area. Custer State Park is world renown for it's buffalo herd, the wildlife, the scenic views. And I have to say that spending 6 hours in this park yesterday, I could go to this park every day, it is that beautiful, raw, natural, stunning. 5 minutes into entering the park we were stopped by buffalo, yep - they did not want us to go by. I think the diesel engine in the truck is a bit annoying to their ears - one big bull walked right by Dave's driver door and shook and
splattered him, his camera, and the windows with muck. They were wallowing/drinking in a pond and just wanted to let everyone know that this was their park, not ours! And they are ugly, smelly, noisy animals. Huge! You are warned that buffalo are not friendly - to keep your distance - and you see the people in the car in front of us, out of their cars taking pictures? Stupid people. Then we came across the begging burros, a group of wild burros that are the remnants of the pack animals brought into the park during the 1930s to help build the roads. And beg! Wow, had to keep the windows up because they would stick their nose right into the car to
get food. And the flies! Open your window a crack and the flies coming zooming in. Onward down the Wildlife Loop Road and at some point we have to make a decision - continue on the road or go find a hiking trail. We opted for the hiking trail and drove to Sylvan Lake. But,
the road we traveled, Needles Highway, was awesome! We had to drive through 3 tunnels and the road was so narrow to get to Sylvan Lake that each car had to creep by each other, and the scenery! Fabulous! I literally hung out the window taking picture after picture. I felt bad for Dave
because he had his eyes glued on the road where I was just oohing and awing. Couldn't believe the sights I was seeing. We got to Sylvan Lake and decided to take the 'easy' hiking trail and we felt that if that was 'easy' wonder what the strenuous (they had one of those also to Haney Peak) would have been like? The mile hike around the lake was stunning also. We found a hidden waterfall inside the rocks of the mountain and tried to take pictures of it but I don't think they came out good. Lots of people out for a holiday stroll but we didn't feel rushed or harried. I would love to spend lots more time here in the park. On the way home I drove so Dave could see what he missed and he was amazed at the sights, each turn in the road was something more breath-taking than before.
located about 12 miles west of our campground and decided to take a leisure drive and hopefully find a nice easy hiking area. Custer State Park is world renown for it's buffalo herd, the wildlife, the scenic views. And I have to say that spending 6 hours in this park yesterday, I could go to this park every day, it is that beautiful, raw, natural, stunning. 5 minutes into entering the park we were stopped by buffalo, yep - they did not want us to go by. I think the diesel engine in the truck is a bit annoying to their ears - one big bull walked right by Dave's driver door and shook and 
splattered him, his camera, and the windows with muck. They were wallowing/drinking in a pond and just wanted to let everyone know that this was their park, not ours! And they are ugly, smelly, noisy animals. Huge! You are warned that buffalo are not friendly - to keep your distance - and you see the people in the car in front of us, out of their cars taking pictures? Stupid people. Then we came across the begging burros, a group of wild burros that are the remnants of the pack animals brought into the park during the 1930s to help build the roads. And beg! Wow, had to keep the windows up because they would stick their nose right into the car to 
get food. And the flies! Open your window a crack and the flies coming zooming in. Onward down the Wildlife Loop Road and at some point we have to make a decision - continue on the road or go find a hiking trail. We opted for the hiking trail and drove to Sylvan Lake. But, 
the road we traveled, Needles Highway, was awesome! We had to drive through 3 tunnels and the road was so narrow to get to Sylvan Lake that each car had to creep by each other, and the scenery! Fabulous! I literally hung out the window taking picture after picture. I felt bad for Dave 
because he had his eyes glued on the road where I was just oohing and awing. Couldn't believe the sights I was seeing. We got to Sylvan Lake and decided to take the 'easy' hiking trail and we felt that if that was 'easy' wonder what the strenuous (they had one of those also to Haney Peak) would have been like? The mile hike around the lake was stunning also. We found a hidden waterfall inside the rocks of the mountain and tried to take pictures of it but I don't think they came out good. Lots of people out for a holiday stroll but we didn't feel rushed or harried. I would love to spend lots more time here in the park. On the way home I drove so Dave could see what he missed and he was amazed at the sights, each turn in the road was something more breath-taking than before.
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