Day 31: Custer State Park (Eric)

Day 31 (June 29, 2021): Our next day in Custer State Park involved getting up with the sunrise to go on a Buffalo Safari Jeep Tour. While we had already seen a fair number of buffalo at this point, we were excited for the opportunity to see more from the safety of a vehicle. The Jeep Tour goes on roads not accessible to the public, so your chances of seeing wildlife are greater than sticking to the park roads. 

The ironic thing is that as we were heading to the pickup point for the tour, we spotted a group of female bighorn on the road. The roads in the park can sometimes be a little hairy as deer and other animals can be found on the road. We managed to avoid hitting any animals, and these bighorn trotted past us. Some of them were wearing a kind of tracker, probably used by the park rangers. Anyway, our morning had already started with a wildlife sighting before the tour even started. 

The tour itself was amazing as our driver knew how to handle a Jeep and brought us within a few feet of the largest herd in the park. There were probably at least 500 buffalo - males, females, and babies - all around us. It was difficult to decide where to focus our attention. While we took a number of pictures, they will not capture the emotions that being surrounded by these amazing animals evoked. I highly recommend doing a tour of some kind if you’re planning on visiting the park. 

After the Jeep tour, we stopped by the cabin to check on our Bitey and eat a good breakfast at the Blue Bell Lodge before heading up the Needles Highway to Sylvan Lake. 

The Needles Highway is a beautiful but slightly hairy drive up into the Black Hills ending at Sylvan Lake. This is all part of Custer State Park and is a highly-recommended adventure if you visit the park. The Needles themselves are eroded granite pillars that make this drive particularly scenic…

The coolest and scariest part of the drive is a famous tunnel called the Eye of the Needle. It is a particularly narrow tunnel that can only fit cars going one direction. The tunnel is so narrow that both driver and passenger can literally reach out and touch the walls as you drive through the tunnel. What made our journey through the tunnel also interesting is that apparently mountain goats like to lick the walls of the tunnel as there’s moisture and minerals they enjoy. It’s a frequent occurrence, and they block traffic which makes passing through the Eye impossible until they are cleared which apparently sometimes isn’t an easy task. There are no park rangers directing traffic nor managing the goats, so it is up to the visitors to do both. It made for an interesting journey. 

We didn’t capture any pictures of the goats as they were scared off by the time we passed through the tunnel, but we did have to wait quite a while for this to happen, and apparently, one stubborn goat kept coming back. 

Here’s a picture I found on the internet of the goats licking the walls…

Here’s a picture we took of our drive through the Eye as we were being blocked by the aforementioned stubborn goat…

We finally made it through the drive to Sylvan Lake without damaging our car or any goats. The lake itself is quite a sight to see as it is a beautiful alpine lake. 

 

Our primary purpose in coming to the lake was to complete one of the more popular hikes in the park, the Sunday Gulch Trail. It’s interesting to note that while the parking lot of the lake was full (we had to create our own spot), and the lake was particularly crowded, the trail itself, while popular, was still not as busy as we were expecting. What we’ve noticed during our travels to popular parks is that if you’re willing to do a little bit of hiking, you can escape the crowds. 

Anyway, the Sunday Gulch Trail is nothing short of amazing, but it is labeled as strenuous, so be prepared if you decide to complete the trail. The trail is a loop, and we took the online advice to start in a counterclockwise direction to complete the most challenging part first. It involved hiking over boulders  and across streams and waterfalls using railings to help you. Even with the railings, it was still an adventure. 

The rest of the trail is also amazing with some cool views and beautiful scenery. Of the hikes we’ve completed on this trip, this one was my favorite. Jenny liked it too, but she didn’t enjoy the strenuous aspects of the hike as much. 

And it also had some cool flora and fauna…

The final stretch was mostly uphill and had us both fatigued by the time we finished. Be forewarned that the strenuous label is accurate and that we’re not convinced that all of the mileage signs associated with this trail are accurate, or it at least felt that way. 

Making it back to the lake and crowds was a welcome sight…









After finishing this challenging hike, we decided to reward ourselves with an early dinner at the Sylvan Lake Lodge Restaurant which was the best dinner we had while in the park. The lodge itself is worth checking out and has some amazing views of the surrounding area. 

This concluded another remarkable day which left both of us ready to get some rest as we were planning on getting up early to revisit Wind Cave National Park with the intention of being able to tour the caverns.