City: East Custer, SD

Category: Parks & Recreation

Address: Us 16/16A East

Description: One word defines all of Custer State Park: big. With 71,000 acres of ponderosa forest, towering granite peaks (including North America’s tallest mountain east of the Rockies, the 7,242-foot Harney Peak), and grassy prairie, Custer is one of the largest state parks in the country. And then there are the bison, the largest land mammals on the continent. Custer State Park has about 1,500 of the animals in one of the largest free-roaming herds of bison in the world. It’s fitting that these great one-ton reflections of nature’s might reside here, for only a group of such powerful animals would suit such a powerful mountain landscape.Custer State Park was the idea of Peter Norbeck, a popular US senator and the governor of South Dakota from 1916 to 1920. Originally from eastern South Dakota, Norbeck visited the Black Hills in 1905 and conceived the idea of establishing a wild game park in Custer County. Legislation was passed in 1913.A practical man, Norbeck planned that timber production and resource management would help keep the park self-sustaining. Today camping fees, revenue from buffalo sales, entrance fees, concession revenue, and timber sales generate the multiple-use funds that maintain the park and its facilities. Custer State Park is self-funded on a day-to-day operational basis, although major deferred maintenance projects are sometimes funded by tax dollars.If you’d like to stay in the park, you have your choice of four resorts: the State Game Lodge (where President Calvin Coolidge stayed during his 1927 summer vacation), Legion Lake Resort, Blue Bell Lodge, and Sylvan Lake Resort. Both Legion Lake and Sylvan Lake resorts rent boats, kayaks, and hydrobikes, and you can reserve a mountain bike at Legion Lake. Each resort in the park has dining facilities and a store or gift shop where you can purchase food or a souvenir. Read about these resorts in the Accommodations chapter.There are also seven modern campgrounds, two primitive and two group campsites, and the French Creek horse camp, which has corral space. You can read about these facilities in the Campgrounds chapter.At Custer State Park you can cross-country ski, fish, hike, and climb the rocks. Scale Mount Coolidge to its 6,023-foot peak and get a look at the Badlands 90 miles away. Or travel back in history at the re-created Gordon Stockade, where, in the summer, you can watch daily activities as they were carried out in 1874 by gold-seeking pioneers. Both Mount Coolidge and the Gordon Stockade are on the west side of the park. We recommend you pick up maps and brochures at the visitor centers or the park entrances, which will make everything easy to find.When you’re ready for a break from your own activities, there’s plenty of daily organized entertainment in the park (summers only, though). You can enjoy educational programs, slides and films, guided nature and historic walks, informal lectures, and fishing demonstrations. Some great programs for kids are offered, too, including a Junior Naturalist Program that teaches children about nature. Call the Norbeck Visitor Center for more information about these programs.At Blue Bell stables you can sign up for trail rides or overnight pack trips (see the Recreation chapter) or go on the Old-Fashioned Hay Ride and Chuck Wagon Cookout (with cowboy fixin’s). If motorized transportation is more your speed, try the Buffalo Safari Jeep Tour and Chuck Wagon Cookout Adventure, which start at the State Game Lodge. These activities are daily summer happenings. Each attraction and resort area is well marked with highway signs and easy to find on park maps. Some activities require advance reservations; call the general information number to inquire about hours and fees.The State Game Lodge has a rotating artist-in-residence program for wildlife and western artists. In the gallery off the lobby, you can watch artists create, browse through their displayed work, and take home an original work of art.Theater lovers will want to take in a summer theater performance at the Black Hills Playhouse (see the Arts chapter). Poetry buffs will enjoy a pilgrimage to Badger Hole, the carefully preserved cabin that was the home of Badger Clark, South Dakota’s first poet laureate. It’s open in the summer from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Memorial Day to Labor Day. Admission is free with your park entrance license.You can take a scenic drive along the Needles Highway (14 miles), which wanders through the Needles formations, granite spires that point to the sky. The Needles Highway is closed in the winter (approximately Nov 1 to Apr 1, depending on the weather).Or try Iron Mountain Road, which winds between the intersection of US 16A and SR 36 and Mount Rushmore. Along that route you’ll see the marvelous pigtail bridges, artistically engineered creations designed by Governor Norbeck that switchback up steep hills. The 70-mile Peter Norbeck National Scenic Byway is another great drive; there’s more information about it in the Attractions chapter.A drive on the Wildlife Loop is a must. Its 18 miles go directly through the areas most often frequented by the park’s wildlife. Try it in the early mornings and evenings when you’re likely to spot white-tailed and mule deer, pronghorn antelope, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, wild turkeys, and prairie dogs. You’re less likely to see the elk and coyotes, but you might get lucky. You’ll see many birds, including—quite possibly—hawks and golden eagles as well as small mammals such as squirrels, chipmunks, and skunks. You might even see a snake or two.These roads were designed as scenic drives. Take your time, enjoy the scenery, and don’t travel too fast. As Governor Norbeck himself said about the scenic byway, “You’re not supposed to drive here at 60 miles an hour. To do the scenery half justice, people should drive 20 or under. To do it full justice, they should get out and walk.”While driving on the Wildlife Loop and Iron Mountain Road, you’ll eventually be slowed by a wily burro (or two, or several). Do be careful and watch out for them. Attempted escape is not recommended, sometimes not even possible. These guys will simply stand in front of your vehicle and solicit handouts. Or they’ll poke their big heads in your window and stay there awhile, keeping you effectively trapped. The burros are not indigenous; they are the descendants of those brought to the park in 1927 to take visitors to Harney Peak. The park management discourages feeding the critters. Roll up your windows and enjoy watching them until they become bored and let you pass.The 1,500-head bison herd is the park’s main attraction. You may find the animals standing in the road, too, or grazing alongside. In the spring the little red calves are born. They are shy, and their mothers are protective, but (from your car) you can get some good pictures. In Oct the herd is rounded up, corralled, vaccinated, and sorted during the Buffalo Roundup (more about this in the Annual Events chapter). Of these, about 950 are returned to the park to winter (that’s the amount the range can support), and the rest are auctioned in Nov. The sale provides income for the park and helps control the herd population. Custer State Park is open year-round, and you must purchase an entrance license to enjoy it. An annual license is $28, and a second license for another of your vehicles is $14. You can also purchase a temporary license good for up to seven days for $6 per person (six and older) or $15 per vehicle. Your entrance license allows you to enter any state park or state recreation area during the term of the license.