Wind Cave, Badlands and Home

Wind Cave

Above Ground


Mixed grass prairie of the western plains and ponderosa pine forests of the black hills.


Bison, pronghorn, mule deer, prarie dogs, elk ... we saw them all on the way out in the morning.

Roosevelt Elk - we finally saw them!

We sat in the truck with the windows down and listened to the gruntings and groanings of the buffalo and the air was filled with the scent of the grasses and sage they were eating.  They came within several feet of us; running, babies scampering, doing their buffalo stuff - it was cool to just be there.

Pronghorns

Such cool looking creatures.  Their name comes from the bucks' large pronged horns.  If females have horns, they are small and unpronged.  They possess remrakable endurance and can run 40 mph or faster for great distances.

When they run, their front feet and their back feet stay together - sort of like a springing, hopping kind of thing.

On the way to Badlands, we made a wrong turn and ended up going through Custer State Park and the Needles Highway - what a beautiful area - so glad we found it - would definitely like to come back for further exploration.

 Tunnel we drove through

on the Needles Highway

another tunnel.

Custer State Park is unlike any state parks we have in NY.  Its an outdoor enthusiasts area -  camping areas, cabins, a resort and a number of lodges with fishing, hunting, hiking, boating, horse camp, rock climbing, mountain biking, etc.

Its home to all sorts of wildlife, including a Bison herd with a yearly buffalo roundup. 

The Needles Eye

Badlands National Park

South Dakota

Conservationist writer Freeman Tilden described the badlands region as "peaks and valleys of delicately banded colors - colors that shift in the sunshine ... and a thousand tints that color charts do not show

The Badlands is located on the edge of our country's Great Plains, and is part of the largest undisturbed mixed-prairie rangeland remaining in the US.  Surrounding Badlands is one of our country's largest grasslands - known as Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, which is home to our continents largest free roaming mammal - the Bison.

Within the park is one of the world's richest mammal fossil beds.

50% of the park is managed with the Oglala Lakota Nation, the 8th largest American Indian Reservation in the US.

Yellow Mounds

Badlands had lots of trails and areas to explore ... but we were just too hot.

We mostly just drove into the pulloffs and checked out the view from the truck.