Black Hills: An Island of Trees in a Sea of Grass

An island of trees in a sea of grass is how some describe the Black Hills. Though I would amend that to include mountains with those trees. The Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range primarily located in southwestern South Dakota. They are about 125 miles long and 65 miles wide and rise from the Great Plains. They are considered a geological anomaly. Our drive through Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska was a quick introduction to the Great Plains. The introduction was nice but I don’t think I’d like to read the whole book! Ha! But the Black Hills – that’s a novel I’m enjoying spending time in!

Self-Guided Driving Tour

We love our personal guide – Shaka Guide! We purchased and downloaded the Black Hills Tour which uses GPS to direct and inform you about every thing on the drive. We headed out on Thursday morning since Dale was off for Juneteenth. Here are some of the highlights:

Needles Highway Scenic Drive
This is a 14-mile scenic drive through Custer State Park that was built in the 1920s. It twists and turns alongside dramatic scenery. It’s part of the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway and seems to be very popular with motorcyclists.

Custer Wildlife Loop
Custer State Park’s 18-mile Wildlife Loop winds past rolling prairies, forests, and canyons, but the main attraction is the bison herd. We saw only a small portion of the 1,500-head heard, but we also saw turkeys, prairie dogs, deer and burros! Those fiddly prairie dogs were so cute but hard to capture on camera. We went in the heat of the day and I think we missed most of the wildlife. Maybe we can go back!

Sylvan Lake
This beautiful little lake in Custer State Park was created in 1891. I came across it during my research and wanted to visit it and also swim if we could. On this day, we just stopped and took a few photos. We came back two days later which is another blog.

The lake was featured in Disney’s 2007 film National Treasure: Book of Secrets. The film made the lake appear to be located directly behind Mount Rushmore when in reality it is actually five miles southwest of Mount Rushmore.

Blue Bell Picnic Area
We had a picnic lunch at a sweet little park next to a crystal-clear stream. In 1934 this was the site of a Civilian Conservation Corps Camp (CCC). The CCC was developed to give people jobs during the Great Depression. These men built roads, lodges, and so much more. Many of our state parks in Texas enjoy the hard work of the CCC. While we were eating we watched a turkey and her chicks looking for bugs in the tall grass. You just can’t get any better than this. No high-dollar, rooftop restaurant can compare.

The majority of the time was spent driving winding roads, going through tunnels and stopping at scenic overlooks. We really enjoyed it. The only downside was the cost to get in to Custer State Park. A day pass is $25 and a year pass is $60. We got the year pass because we would be going to the park again. Actually, we’ve already been back twice more since this scenic drive. More about that in a future blog.