Something of a wonder
Swing by Mount Rushmore, sure, but there’s far more to see in South Dakota
It was still relatively early in the morning when we saw them. No, not the people standing in the middle of this hearty trail in Custer State Park. It was the object of their attention that captured ours, too: a group of four mountain goats tucked into the dramatic rocks towering above us. The goats lounged in a mini-meadow formed in an alcove near the jagged peaks.
To be honest, if the hikers we ran across hadn’t stopped, set down their hiking poles and gazed up with their binoculars, my husband and I probably wouldn’t have noticed the goat quartet. At first glance, the white patches against the green grass seemed like more rocks. They were, after all, occupying a seemingly sheer face, an impenetrable wall of granite whose slender pinnacles inspired the Cathedral Spires trail name.
But once we stopped and really looked, we began to recognize the shapes of a shaggy-furred foursome, two mountain goat adults and two kids.
What a treat to observe such magnificent creatures, making their home in such a seemingly impossible place. For nature lovers like my husband and me, the sighting added an exclamation point to an already amazing hike.
We’d started out early that morning, arriving at the tiny parking lot near the trailhead just before 8 a.m., when our car took the fourth of 14 spots. The semiearly hour meant temps hadn’t yet soared; the trail wasn’t yet crowded; and perhaps best of all, by the time we returned to our car some two hours later, we still had most of a glorious day ahead of us.
Whether you’re an avid hiker or a lakeside lounger, a rock climber or a wildlife watcher, traveling with kids or dogs or just adults, Custer State Park provides plenty of great ways to spend your time.
Southwestern South Dakota beckons travelers with a wide variety of sights — most famously Mount Rushmore, but also Crazy Horse Memorial and Wind Cave National Park. For travelers who aren’t just driving through the Black Hills to see renowned mountain carvings, there’s no question the state park is the area’s crown jewel.
Custer comprises 71,000 acres filled with herds of bison, mule deer, prairie dogs, and plenty of other wildlife; multiple scenic drives; and several small lakes for swimming, canoeing, paddle boarding and fishing.
It’s something of a wonder Custer State Park hasn’t been promoted by the National Park Service, although that’s probably a blessing. It has become more popular in recent years; in 2020, the park exceeded 2 million visitors for the first time. So perhaps Custer doesn’t need the profile boost and increased traffic a national park designation would bring.
You don’t have to be a big hiker to enjoy most of the sights in Custer. While the 2.3-mile Cathedral Spires trail is one of the best hikes I’ve ever taken, its elevation gains understandably deter some people.
On the other hand, everyone can enjoy the road to get there: The trailhead is accessed along the park’s 14-mile Needles Highway, a must-drive thoroughfare that steadily climbs into the park’s epic granite pillars. Along the way, you pass through two single-lane tunnels carved into the mountains and navigate nearly as many switchbacks as the park has bison.
At the end of the road awaits another Custer stunner: the aptly named Sylvan Lake, which you can swim in, kayak across or hike around. (This mile-long hiking loop is great for people who enjoy their strolls scenic but not strenuous.)
For a second switchback- and tunnel-filled adventure, hit Iron Mountain Road, which takes you beyond Custer’s boundaries toward the region’s most famous (human-made) attraction. Take your time: The road itself is an engineering feat, constructed thanks to the efforts of beloved South Dakota politician and conservationist Peter Norbeck.
Two of the narrow tunnels were carefully constructed to frame Mount Rushmore in the distance. More views of the four presidents can be found along Iron Mountain Road’s Norbeck Overlook. Bottom line: Grab any view of Mount Rushmore that doesn’t involve wading into the paid-parking morass at the monument’s base, where you’ll have to spend 10 bucks and lots of patience to enter.
A better use of time and a more well-rounded history lesson awaits you 16 miles down the road from Rushmore. Although far from a finished monument, Crazy Horse Memorial already dwarfs the presidents’ heads in scale. Conceived in 1939 by Polish American sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski at the behest of Oglala Lakota chief Henry Standing Bear, the carving and blasting process began nine years later.
Currently, the face of the great warrior is visible on the mountainside; when competed, the colossal carving will depict Tasunke Witko, historically known as Crazy Horse, atop his steed, pointing toward a ceremonial Oglala Lakota burial ground. In addition to the monument, the Crazy Horse Memorial includes a complex of buildings, featuring a museum and a cultural center.
The uncompleted statue remains the subject of some controversy and disapproval from a number of Lakota and descendants of Crazy Horse, who say carving into a mountain on sacred tribal land is not a fitting tribute to the humble warrior.
Back inside the state park, there’s one more great drive you shouldn’t miss. Unlike the mountain roads, the 18-mile Wildlife Loop ambles across a gentle landscape. A great starting point for the loop is the swank visitor center, built in 2017. That’s the easiest place to find the park’s ever-friendly rangers, who can answer any question. (When I mentioned the previous morning’s mountain-goat spotting, one of the rangers sounded almost as excited about it as we’d been. “There are only a few of them in the park,” he told us.)
Cruising the wide-open Wildlife Loop in the southern half of the park provides the yin to the northern section’s yang. This time, instead of gawking at vertiginous geology, we were transfixed by the 1,400 bison that live here (plus the prairie dog village). Before long, we pulled over to watch more than a hundred animals grazing near the road, including several ginger-furred youth strolling with the umber and chocolate adults.
And then the full-on buffalo traffic jam began, seemingly on a whim. The humpbacked behemoths started wandering into the road, mostly ignoring us humans in our cars — a big relief to everyone, particularly the two women who’d heedlessly exited their vehicles for better camera angles. (Thankfully, the bison didn’t charge.) While most of the animals simply crossed our blacktopped path, a few of them wandered alongside the hastily parked cars. Awestruck, we watched with our windows rolled up, feeling a heady mix of admiration for their beauty and respect for their power.
Having visited twice, I already look forward to the day when I can go again. From the stillness in the Cathedral Spires to the hypnotic clop of heavy bison hooves, Custer State Park never disappoints.
If you go
You can fly to Rapid City, the regional hub for the Black Hills. From there, Custer is just 40 miles south. Depending on your love of driving, Custer makes a great road trip destination, about 14 hours from Chicago, almost all of it along Interstate Highway 90.
For road trippers, allow some time to drive through Badlands National Park for an entirely different geological view. Pop back up to I-90 at Wall, South Dakota, home of the much-ballyhooed Wall Drug. (The multiple road signs are a master class in advertising.) Sure, it’s a tourist trap, but you really can get a cup of coffee for a nickel, which helps justify the slow Wi-Fi. From there, Custer is another 90 miles west.
Accommodations near Custer State Park include classic lodges in the park and old-school motels on the periphery. Rooms can be near impossible to snag on short notice, especially during the summer or on the weekend of the park’s annual Buffalo Roundup (Sept. 24). But people with tents or RVs have an option: Center Lake campground reserves its spots for same-dayonly reservations.