Custer State Park, Wind Cave NP, SD

Day #17 (August 17, 2022): Our time in Sioux Falls was short, and we could have spent more time at the lovely, shaded campground in Big Sioux Recreation Area. Nonetheless, it was time to move on further west across the beautiful state of South Dakota to Custer State Park. Along the way, we drove through the golden prairies of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s childhood in DeSmet; stopped at the famous Wall Drug in Wall; marveled at the treeless plains (I mean, not a tree in sight for as far as your eye can see on either side of the interstate!); glimpsed at the colorful rocks of the far-off Badlands; and arrived in the gorgeous Black Hills of South Dakota. After parking our rig at Game Lodge Campground in Custer State Park, we drove into town to Custer, and ate dinner at the Begging Burro. Afterward, we stopped at the visitor center near our campground to gather some information and maps for our stay, learning where the best places in the park were to see the various wildlife.

Day #18 (August 18, 2022): After some morning schoolwork, Emily and the kids loaded up for a day out and about to explore while Chris worked. On our drive out of Custer State Park, we spotted a huge male buffalo near a stop sign as well as a large herd of big ram sheep near the road. So cool! We drove to Wind Cave National Park about an hour away and took the Natural Entrance tour of the cave. Wind Cave contains 95% of the world’s discovered boxwork, a delicate and intricate honeycomb-shaped cave formation that resembles corrugated cardboard along its ceiling and walls. It was really neat to see! We’ve toured several caves in the South over the past few years, but this was very different from the other caves we’ve explored. No stalactites and stalagmites like in other caves, just narrow passages covered in this beautiful boxwork. It was cool…literally…to stand outside the only known natural entrance to the cave, a small 10-inch hole about knee-high in rock, where it feels like a cool wind or AC vent blowing on you, which was nice on a warm summer day! Bethany bought a stuffed prairie dog from the visitor center, whom she affectionately named Dakota. He is her full-time truck buddy now! Afterward, we drove through the vast grasslands of Wind Cave National Park that connects to the grasslands of Custer State Park (CSP). We had so much fun spotting wildlife on our drive home. In fact, our 1-hour-Waze-drive home now became almost 3 hours, as we slowly drove through the grasslands spotting prairie dogs, bison, pronghorn antelope, burros (aka donkeys), and white-tailed deer, while the kids took turns taking pictures of the wildlife. It was so fun to see so much wildlife so close to our truck! We also stopped at CSP’s Bison Center, a brand-new center with fun hands-on exhibits about bison. When we arrived back at the rig that evening, the kids were begging for more! Every day from that point on, all they really wanted to do was drive the Wildlife Loop and look for wildlife! We picked Chris up from the rig and filled his ears with all the things we had seen and done that day as we ate Buffalo Burgers, Buffalo Tenderloin, Spicy Rabbit & Rattlesnake Sausage (shockingly delicious!), and of course kids’ menu mac-n-cheese for B at the restaurant inside CSP’s State Game Lodge.