Custer State Park Needles Highway

     We spent the day with Mark and Joyce driving the Needles and Iron Man scenic highways.  I have been on this drive so many times and still am in awe of the rock formations and the beautiful vistas.  The Needles highway was finished in 1922.  The tunnels were probably quite adequate for 1920’s cars.  Now the maps all describe very clearly the height and width of each tunnel.  In addition, there are clear signs on the road warning drivers about the coming tunnels.  The problem is that once you have ignored the signs and driven your oversize vehicle/camper along the road nearing the tunnel, there is no place to turn around.  The road is narrow and winding with only some very narrow turnouts for viewpoints.  We saw one rather large RV stopped along the road to the tunnels looking quite unhappily at the map.  The RV that Mark rented has a new awning – the old one having been torn off in one of the tunnels.  Today, however, we drove the nimble little CRV and had no difficulty at all.

     We stopped many times along the way to take pictures.  We noticed huge areas of trees within the park that are turning red or dead.  A mountain pine beetle has attacked trees in large areas of the park.  The park management is thinning out the pines in many areas to try to control the spread of the beetle.  Its sad to see such large areas that are becoming barren of trees.

     One of our first stops was at Sylvan Lake for a walk around the beautiful little lake.  My knee is better this trip. so I joined the group for the flat, level section of the walk. The lake is stocked with trout and we watched families all along the shore catching fish.  In another area a couple dozen chairs were set up for an afternoon wedding.  It was a perfect day – breezy, sunny, and a little cooler.  The pictures from the wedding would be beautiful.

     We stopped for lunch at one of Custer State Park lodges along Legion Lake.  Another beautiful place to stay while enjoying the beauty of the park.  Many of the park buildings were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930’s.  The buildings look very similar to ones built in some of the older Minnesota State parks – also by the CCC.  While we were at the visitor center we saw group who were learning to pan gold.  It was one of Custer’s men who discovered gold in the Black Hills.

    Our highlight of the day came as we drove past the Custer State Game Lodge.  President Calvin Coolidge used this lodge as his “Summer White House” in 1927.  Just outside the lodge we saw a herd of buffalo walking beside and on the narrow road.  Traffic was slowed quite a bit as the huge animals and their many calves walked slowly down the road.  They mostly completely ignored the cars and the people taking their pictures.  It was really fun to have such an up close experience to them.

Our final stop of the day was at Mt. Rushmore.  We took many pictures, but were unable to capture one of Mark on top of Washington’s nose.  It was interesting to note that much of the area on the back side of the mountain where the heads are carved is now very clearly signed as Federal Property – No Trespassing.  No more climbing up to see if you can get to the heads!

     A great day with many pictures and lots of kidding around.