September 6-7, 2023 - Keystone, SD

Wednesday, we drove to Boxelder just outside of Rapid City to pick up our mail from our mail forwarding service, Americas Mailbox.  We then went to Rapid City to do some much-needed shopping for groceries and supplies.  It was again cloudy and overcast and the smoke here was worse than yesterday.

After dinner we hiked across the road from the campground to Spokane Ghost Town.

The mining town was founded in 1890 and thrived until the mine closed in 1940.  It is unclear when, but the mine’s buildings burned down, while others which were deemed unsafe were destroyed by the U.S. Forest Service.  A watchman stayed in this house until the mid 1980’s when the town was officially abandoned.

This is all that is left of the school.

The foundation for the bunkhouse for the mining company.

This was a very interesting place and a nice hike in the forest.

Thursday, we drove to Custer State Park and stopped at the East Entrance Visitor Center and then drove the Wildlife Loop.  The park covers 71,000 acres and has an abundance of wildlife. We hadn’t driven very far when we came upon a huge herd of bison a short distance from the road.  The herd was very spread out and this picture shows just a few of them.

Farther down the road we saw some burros in the road and this momma and baby just off the road.  These burros are not native to the Black Hills but are descendants from the herd that once hauled visitors to the top of Black Elk Peak.  The rides were discontinued years ago, and the burros were released into the park.

We stopped at the Bison Center which was opened in 2022.  There are displays on the history of the Custer State Park bison herd. The corrals that are used in the Buffalo Roundup every fall are also located here.  We ate lunch in the picnic area and could see a herd of bison in the distance.  Custer State Park has one of the world's largest publicly owned bison herds.

At the end of the Wildlife Loop, we turned onto the Needles Highway that winds its way to Sylvan Lake.  The views of the needles were beautiful.

We encountered a thunderstorm during our drive.  At times the rain was coming down so hard we could barely see - still the scenery was breathtaking.

The cars in front of us stopped while we were in Needles Eye Tunnel (8’ wide and 9’9” tall) so Nancy was able to jump out and get a picture of the Jeep in the tunnel.

We stopped at Sylvan Lake but, because it was raining, we didn’t walk around the lake or kayak.  Nancy bought a T-shirt in the gift shop as they were closing because they lost power due to a lightning strike.

On the way back to the campground we stopped at the Mount Rushmore overlook on Iron Mountain Road again and got a much clearer picture as there is less smoke in the air than when we were here Tuesday.

We had a great day and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and wildlife.