Custer State Park is one of the nation’s largest state parks at 71,000 acres and just a couple of days are barely enough time to just scratch the surface in terms of what the area has to offer. Every road is a scenic panorama and the area is loaded with wild life. Besides the state park, there is also one national park and two national monuments in the immediate vicinity of Custer. The area is also sprinkled with numerous small towns, all of them quick to invoke their western and mining heritage with attractions, tours, and shops.
For our first full day in Custer, we planned to “take a ride on the wild side”, starting with the Wildlife Loop and then tour to Wind Cave and Jewel Cave to give Kathy a chance to get some more stamps in her National Parks Passport book. For our second day, we planned to do a couple of the scenic drives that Custer is noted for and make a stop at Mount Rushmore so Kathy could get one more stamp.