South Dakota Pt. 3: Custer State Park and Deadwood

Back to our trip to South Dakota. As we got closer to our destination, we finally began to see buffalo and other wildlife. Surprisingly, there wasn't much of that to see along the way. In Iowa, we're used to seeing cows, pigs, sheep, and horses all around, but in SD, we saw very little evidence of a farming lifestyle.


When we got to Custer State Park, we were impressed by the roaming buffalo that would stand right next to the car and often in the road right in front of the car as well. Ken and I got a kick out of having to stop while a couple of buffalo slowly...and I do emphasize slowly...made their way across the road.While the buffalo didn't really care if we were there or not, we did have a slightly nasty encounter with a roaming donkey that charged up to the passenger side of the car when I leaned out to get a picture. As he started running toward us, I yelled, "Drive!" to Ken and we safely got away. Here is our getaway shot from the frightening encounter. Ken responded to the situation by saying, "What an ass!"

We also made a stop in Deadwood, SD, the place where Wild Bill Hicok was shot and is buried. While there, I picked up a black hills gold necklace as a momento from the trip, and we ventured to Mt. Moriah cemetery to see the graves of Wild Bill and Calamity Jane. Of course, while walking down through the streets of Deadwood, we saw the Historic Saloon No. 10 where Wild Bill was shot -- as the sign so eloquently states.

We also drove through the surrounding old mining towns of Lead and Spearfish as we explored the area around Mt. Rushmore. Coming next, the visit to "the Heads," aka Mt. Rushmore.