Custer's last stand......

7:15 am - Wednesday - July 1st - Keystone, SD - 47° F, 69% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the west by southwest....clear, blue, cold skies this morning with a forecast high today of 80° F.

What to do on a Tuesday in Keystone, SD?  How about a drive with Rich and Marnie down to Custer State Park?  Sounds good, let's do it!  Marnie and Rich have Monday through Wednesday off each week, and they do a lot of exploring on their three off days.  They have a South Dakota State Parks annual pass, so they suggested we drive with them in their Dodge PU south from Keystone to check out some potential boondocking sites, and visit Custer State Park along the way.  It was a cloudy, drizzly day so as a concession I wore a long sleeve shirt, and my Keen hiking shoes, but stuck with the shorts....you've got to draw the line somewhere, right?

We headed out of town on US-16A around 9 am as previously arranged, and were soon caught up in conversation about the area, and all there is to see.  We left the main road a few miles past Crazy Horse Memorial to take a dirt road to check out some possible boondocking sites after we leave Keystone.....the combination of roads we took totaled about 10 miles, and the sites we looked at were about 2 miles from where the dirt road (North Pole Road) hits US-16 once again....if we use either of these spots we would enter North Pole Road off US-16 for just a 2 mile drive uphill.  Both sites had lots of potential....I wish I had taken pictures, but it was drizzling at the time, and I didn't want to get out of the truck.

Soon we were back on US-16 headed for Custer State Park....we made a quick stop at the Gordon Stockade Historical site where an expedition of gold hunters setup this stockade in order to explore the area for gold....this was in violation of a treaty with the local Native American Indian tribes, and soon the US Army found them, and removed them.  The stockade has been restored as far as the exterior fencing, and some of the interior cabins have been restored with others left in their natural decaying state......

The decaying cabins

One of the restored cabins - picture courtesy of the internet

....then it was on to Custer State Park, and the wildlife loop within the park.....you have to see some buffalo whenever you get the chance.......

 Look at the big bull in the middle of the picture!

.....Custer State Park was also the site of a Civilian Conservation Corp camp during the depression years, and for 7 years civilians would work for wages to make improvements in the park, build roads, buildings, etc.  Custer State Park is very beautiful, and picturesque and certainly deserves a visit the next time you are in South Dakota!

By the time we finished our driving tour of the park we were getting hungry, and decided to head back to Keystone for lunch at BrGr-61....where they serve burgers (of course) and offer 61 different toppings.  I ordered their Bison Burger with bacon, cheddar cheese, mayo, mustard, lettuce, and tomatoes and TLE their Portabelo Mushroom burger....we split an order of onion rings........this place is a solid 4 stars based on the food alone.....

.....normally, and this is the attraction of BrGr-61, you would build you own burger adding the toppings you want from a buffet line of toppings, but due to the pandemic rules, they dress the burger for you with the toppings you specify......

.....we were home a little after 1:30 pm, and relaxing soon thereafter.  Around 3 pm I went outside to take some more higher altitude pictures with the drone as well as my first drone video.....

My first drone video!

Bringing her in for a landing

.....while we were still full from lunch and had no desire for dinner we did decide around 6 pm to walk down to Benky's for a scoop of ice cream.....it takes about 10 minutes to make the walk, but the ice cream, and outdoor dining are definitely well worth the walk......

 Benky's is right across the street from Cruizer's Pizza

.....and that was our Tuesday....thanks for stopping by!

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