Southern Hills Drive.

We started off our day with a walk at Stockade Lake before driving the Southern Hills Route down to Hot Springs and back to Custer City. The walk at Stockade Lake was 1.5 miles so it went fairly quick; we stopped for a few minutes on the rocks overlooking the lake to enjoy the view.

 

Looking down on Stockade Lake.

 

The view included the surrounding hills and needles.

 

 

After the hike, we sat by the lake to relax and decided to take the Southern Hills drive. This route takes Hwy 87 out of Custer State Park into Wind Cave National Park and Hwy 385, you take 385 to Hot Springs where you turn onto Hwy 18 west to Hwy 89 north and your back to Custer City (it sounds more complicated than it is). Before leaving Custer State Park we drove up to the Mt. Coolidge Lookout.

 

From the Mt. Coolidge overlook, the Badlands are out there somewhere.

 

 

Mount Rushmore, Harney Peak and Crazy Horse are visible from the lookout. Crazy Horse is near the center of this image.

 

Zoomed-in.

 

Mount Rushmore.

 

Harney Peak.

 

The road to the Mt. Coolidge Lookout is only a mile in length.

 

 

After the lookout we drove south on Hwy 87; along the way we spotted a Prairie Dog Village and more Pronghorn. This group of Pronghorn is use to gawkers and do not run at the sight of a car, they seem to know that the cars will stop for them like they do for the Buffalo.

 

This family strolled across in front of us, followed by the male.

 

They are pretty animals.

 

 

This one is wearing a locator device, it must be on probation or something.

 

We found the Prairie Dogs today.

 

Unlike the Pronghorn they are curious about gawkers.

 

 

We continued into Wind Cave National Park where we stopped for a short time by another herd of Buffalo. The road is interesting to drive and there is another pigtail bridge along the way. There was also good scenery all the way to Hot Springs (although we missed the turnoff to the Battle Mountain Lookout.

 

One of the Southern Hills.

 

It was warm today so the Buffalo were taking it easy.

 

This guy had his own spot.

 

The drive was scenic.

 

First we crossed under this pigtail bridge, then around, up and over the bridge.

 

 

We stopped at a park in downtown Hot Springs to eat our lunch; Hot Springs was not what we expected but the downtown has a lot of interesting old buildings. After lunch we headed back to Custer City, the drive up Hwy 89 was nice and we could see the Mickelson Trail running along-side the roadway; we intend to take another ride on the trail before we leave the Black Hills this Sunday.

 

There was a walkway along the river and a small waterfall in downtown Hot Springs.

 

The clouds were popping up on the way back to Custer City.