Custer State park

[doc]

For you guys headed west this coming season, perhaps you need to take a look at the Black Hills and Custer State Park near Custer South Dakota and Rapid City SD. We were there in CSP for almost 3 months as hosts in one of the campgrounds in the park. I have never seen a state park with nicer or cleaner shower/bathrooms. The park staff are super nice and will bend over backward to please you if there happens to be a problem. They have electric sites at several of the campgrounds in the park now, but also maintain at least one CG with no facilities other than flush toilets and showers.

Custer SP has a tremendous amount of wildlife that is easily seen from road ways. These include buffalo that pretty much have the run of the entire park and especially like the green lawn at Game Lodge CG and Lodge. There are also Bighorn Sheep, antelope, white tail and mule deer. Elk also inhabit the park but are harder to find than the other members of the deer family. Mountain lions have established a foothold and there were numerous sightings last year. A female and three cubs were seen early one morning along Hiway 16, the main highway through the park. Marmot and prairie dogs abound here as well as the red and gray squirrels that fuss if you invade their territory.

Though not as majestic as the Rocky Mountains, the Black Hills offer many breathtaking views. Eye of the Needle and Cathedral Spires up near Sylvan Lake are very popular. There are tunnels that give pause to automobile drivers and yet tour buses pass through regularly. Rock climbing is encouraged and if you are not into that, there are miles and miles of trails to explore.

Sturgis is just a motorcycle ride away from the park and the bikers at the annual rally there love to ride the Black Hills highways and the Iron Mountain Road and Needles Highway inside the park. Buffy does not like motorcycles very much and has been know to charge the ones who aggravate him. As a local said, "watch his tail, if he is swinging it he is getting ready to charge or DIS-charge". A 2000 pound buffalo bull is nothing to mess with, so look all you want, but keep your distance.

Rushmore and Crazy Horse, two of the best reasons to come to the Black Hills, are just a short ride from Custer City and Custer SP. You will be impressed with both places.
So if you are thinking of The West, come on out to South Dakota and visit with us this summer and fall. http://www.sdgfp.info/Parks/Regions/Custer/index.htm

doc and Ms C