We spent a weekend in Custer State Park in the middle of June. It was a cold and rainy weekend but we still had a great time seeing the beautiful area that we live in. Neither of us took advantage of it when we lived here when we were younger so we're determined to see everything now and we're having a great time doing it.
We took off early on Saturday morning and stopped at Roubaix Lake (John camped there once when he was little and wanted to see it again). Then we went on to Pactola Lake (shown below)...
After that we stopped in Hill City at Prairie Berry Winery for a sampling and an amazing lunch. The wine was great too. We bought a bottle of Red Ass Rhubarb and and a bottle of Chokecherry wine. The Chokecherry brought back so many memories for both of us so we had to buy it. For me it took me back to my Grandma's fishing hole where we would always pick chokecherries and she would pretend to fish with her rubber fish. :)
After that we drove by Crazy Horse Monument. We just took a picture from the road since it was so rainy.
Then we went on to Flintstones Village so Taylor could run off some energy. She had such a great time!
Riding the train
After playing super hard at Flintstones Village we went and had a piece of pie at the Purple Pie Place in Custer. Yumm!
We then drove the Needles Highway. It was raining pretty good and Taylor was sleeping so we didn't get out of the car much but it was absolutely incredible. Definitely a site to see!
After a long day we were ready to get settled into our lodge. We stayed at the State Game Lodge in Custer State Park. It was an amazing historic building. It was built in 1920 and served as the "Summer White House" for President Calvin Coolidge in 1927. We got settled in and had an amazing dinner at the restaurant then put the kiddo to bed (after she jumped on the bed for awhile!) :)
The bottle of wine we shared after T- went to sleep. The pic on the label is the lodge that we stayed in.
The next morning we got up and had breakfast and took off to do the Wildlife Loop in the park. We saw lots of antelope, buffalo and donkeys.
After that we drove Iron Ridge Road and the Pigtail Bridges to Keystone. Another amazing drive. Loved the tunnel where you could see Mt. Rushmore through it.
We had a great weekend away and will be doing this often. It's just too close and too beautiful not to.
