Battle of the Buffalo
Slept reasonably well despite significant rainfall and a wet tent from our makeshift front “porch” at Buffalo Ridge. This very well managed, spacious and hospitable campground has a very nice guest lodge, warm showers (think we needed and enjoyed those?), deluxe furnished platform & canvas glamping abodes and replica native American teepees in addition to our chosen outdoor camp sites. We enjoyed checking those and some other nearby cabins out thanks to Jane before pushing off to Custer State Park with a stop at Fort Laramie (ref: Ft. Laramie Treaty with Native Americans leading to Custer’s Last Stand in 1876). As with Fort Clatsop (Lewis & Clark’s Corps of Discovery on the Columbia River in 1805) and others, it is amazing what they did in short timeframes with rustic tools.
Soon we were bedazzled by Custer State Park with it’s amazing and beautiful Needles formations and route, pleasant Sylvan Lake and scenic wildlife loop. In the midst of said tour, we were especially impressed overlooking Lake Sylvan with Evan Milnor’s secret signature PB&J s supplemented by ordinary Chix in Bixs. Having to tear ourselves away from that, we continued the wildlife loop, at one point walking a distance through field & stream toward a restless buffalo herd of hundreds suddenly featuring a skirmish among three 1,000 lb+ bulls bending and almost knocking down the 7 foot high reinforced prairie containment fence toward us. Having earlier seen the warnings that these less than friendly beasts can stampede faster than horses, we were quite pleased that the fencing, although visibly bent toward us, held as they settled their differences.
After, we visited the famous Wall Drug, somehow famous for its free ice cold water – our view, one of the nation’s premier examples of making nothing out of nothing at a distance, complete with too many what-not trinkets, kids games and photos of who – knows, yet certainly with ice cream to enjoy. For nightfall, we proceeded to the unexpectedly dramatic and interesting Badlands accented by a beautiful and long South Dakota sunset that just kept on giving. We made stops at Pinnacle overlook, Homestead, Prairie Wind Overlook, Bigfoot Pass & Overlook, Yellow Mounds Overlook, etc., several with mini-hikes. After being shut out of the nearby official Badlands campground after dark and launching our search party to a local church in dusty Interior, South Dakota, pop 67, with skies exhibiting mega lightning as a prelude to a serious storm brewing, we took up residence at approx. 11 pm without dinner at a private campground nearby. Reed refreshed the situation in the van with a hardy Febreezing!
