7/14/09 - Custer State Park, SD




We left Jewel Cave National Monument and drove to Custer State Park. We entered the park at the Sylvan Lake entrance. There are several campgrounds in the park but all of them were full except the Center Lake campground which was first come first served. We drove over the Needles Highway to get to the campground, passing through two very narrow tunnels in the rock that no one told us about – one was only 8’ 4” wide. It’s a good thing we weren’t pulling a larger trailer or we would have been in trouble. We got one of the few remaining spots at the Center Lake campground. There was another Casita there (Harold and Julie) and we visited with them for a while. Harold is a frequent contributor to the Casita forums under the name “usburros”. He has made some great woodwork modifications to his trailer. They had never been to a Casita Rally. We tried to talk them into going to the Bluebonnet Rally in Bandera next year.

We drove to the visitors center and then around the wildlife loop road where we saw antelope and buffalo. We went up the fire tower lookout rode where we could see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles. At night we went to a musical, “Suds”, at the Black Hills Playhouse. This was at an old CCC work camp. The production was very well done – they sang about 50 songs from the early 1960’s.