In and Around Custer State Park

Finally getting caught up on some blogging here. Here's a bit of a re-cap.

We got to Custer State Park last Wednesday night and stayed through till this morning. The park is amazing. The wildlife is incredible; coming right up to the car or in the campground. We saw bison, antelope, big horn sheep, prairie dogs, deer (so big you wouldn't believe), burros that wouldn't move out of the way . . . no doubt I'm forgetting something here. We took a couple of really nice hikes. One up to Cathedral Spires and the other along a ridge line. We were able to take Kona on the second one and he loved it--getting to trudge through streams along the way. He is such a good travel companion and puts up with anything we throw at him.

Yesterday we went out to the Badlands. Talk about a stark contrast to the Black Hills! No doubt any pictures or film we took won't give it justice. It was a long day but definitely worth the trip as we don't have anything like it back East.

Today we began our journey to Yellowstone. Only a small piece of the travel (about 60 of the 240 miles) was on highway so it was slower going. Mountains of Big Horn State Park also slowed the pace down as some spots were a 6% grade. Tomorrow we'll make our way to Yellowstone. We're at a cute little campground tonight. Very clean and homey. The service is great and the people are so friendly. A total population here in Ten Sleep of 362! It probably makes much of its revenue on campers like us since it is almost exactly half way between Custer and Yellowstone. If you're wondering it gets its' name from the American Indians. I guess there was an Indian village near Casper and one here; it took them ten nights (or "sleeps) to make it here--hence "Ten Sleeps." Two Videos to watch on this post