Custer State Park

We still had an early start, but not nearly as early as yesterday! We drove to Custer State Park and drove along the needles highway. One of the highlights was driving through the needles eye tunnel. It’s 8’0” wide, and 9’9” tall. Bigger rigs than ours fit through it, but not much. With the mirrors pulled in Dave threaded the needle like a champ.

Then we headed to Sylvan Lake, a man made lake but incredibly beautiful surrounded by rocks jutting into the sky. We hiked first to Black Elk peak, the highest point east of the Rockies at 7,244 ft. Coming from Florida, we definitely felt the elevation at the start and as we climbed. The lake starts at 6,145 ft so over a thousand ft of climb in about 3 miles was a challenge but a good prep for our upcoming travels. We then finished the loop by continuing on to Little Devils Tower which required some scrambling. Thank you to Laura Rabenberg for the hike recommendations!

We stopped by the visitors center to ask where the best areas were to see the wildlife of Custer State Park. We enjoyed seeing the deer, big horn sheep, long horn cattle, chipmunks, prong horn antelope, and bison including LITTLE RED DOGS (aka bison babies)!!!! We happened upon a herd of at least 100 baby bison ❤️ love seeing the wildlife and exploring further.Read more