Custer is my favorite state park in the entire country, we come back here as often as we go back to anywhere. Driving through the black hills is a joy, many of the roads were specifically designed to be enjoyed rather than solely for purpose. Often the road splits and you find yourself hiking in a bus along a meandering mountain trail paved in asphalt.

Our stay in Custer will be cut in half by the decision we made to recover at a motel in Lander, Wyoming. We swing by the town of Custer on the way in for some pie at a local staple. We soon realize that we have arrived during the height of the Sturgis bike rally and we will find ourselves surrounded by motorcycle campers for the next few days. We made camp along Stockade lake at a beautiful large forested site overlooking a field complete with a playground, might as well be free babysitting. We decided to hike and explored the lakeshore near our camp, we didn’t get far fast because of the unlimited ripe fresh raspberries lining the trail. We spent the majority of our day lounging around, alternating between reading and writing and playing.

In the morning we went around the Wildlife Loop on our way out. A North American Safari. We saw wild Antelope, Turkey, and Burrow but what always steals the show is taking in the massive herds of bison that can cover the landscape. These stunning herds, which are now regulated to a few small protected spaces, once covered the entire country in a way that’s difficult to understand today. Reading about the demise of the bison due to human greed at the visitor center is equally difficult to understand.