After leaving Mt. Rushmore yesterday, we drove a wonderful winding, twisty road with some very narrow tunnels to Custer State Park. Amazing vistas and the largest bison herd we've seen to date were part of this afternoon drive:
We drove the wildlife loop drive in the park and were not dissapointed! Just about all the animals were still shedding their winter coats, hence the shaggy appearance.
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| a pronghorn and her twins... |
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| maybe he's the daddy? |
The donkeys are "wild" now but were originally used in the building of Mt. Rushmore. Afterwards, they were set free to reside in the park and have done well.
The park has approx 1250 bison right now but after the babies are weaned the herd is reduced to approx 950 annually. Note the prairie dogs in the foreground, they were also everywhere!
Every speck you see in this pic is a bison and there were hundreds more that would not fit in the pic!
Mountain goats were introduced to the park many years ago and have also done well. They are hard to spot! These guys are far away. There are 4 in the pic:
this is where the goats are....can you see them? Me either, love my zoom!!
Here is one of those tunnels I mentioned, it is only 8 ft high and 8ft 4in wide!
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| Whew? Talk about tight! |
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| Eye of the Needle formation |
Sylvan Lake, below, was in a couple of movies. National Treasure and North by Northwest
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| check out our new velvet antlers! |
Lovely, lovely, lovely! I think we may head to SD next summer, now I can't wait after seeing your fantastic photos!
ReplyDeleteWe were also hunting for mountain goats today, but the only one we saw was a skeleton!
There is so much to do in this area Lisa, you two would love it!
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