Custer State Park & Wild Life Drive

We waited on the side of the road for Dan and his family. They were staying at a cabin WAY out in the back woods, they had to come our way so we agreed to meet at a gas station. We waited. . .and waited. . .and, um, waited. Huh, guess they were further out than we thought, after about an HOUR (he's as bad as my brother Tom! HA!), I look up and here he comes, from an ENTIRELY different area! The little sneak did just that, snuck up on us!
It was great seeing him again after all these years and just as great to get to meet his family! After we did all the intros, talked about our mornings, we headed to The Stone Faces Winery. A case plus one for Mike and I later (we'll have a "tasting" at our place when we get back), we "caravanned" (is that even a word?) with the three other vehicles to Custer State Park in the Black Hills.
Unfortunately for me I didn't realize that the road was as mountainous as it was and I'm seemingly getting worse the older I get with heights so you can imagine how it all went down in our vehicle.
Cutting up the mountain on "Needles" Rd, yes, NEEDLES, as it was so properly named, was quite an experience! I looked as much as I could to enjoy the beauty that is out there but each time I did I get the horrible shivers up the backs of my legs that have become a part of me and heights which then makes me feel unsteady on my feet.....even when riding in a car, which is worse because I imagine the driver taking in the sights therefore not paying enough attention on the road....it's a vicious cycle of nuttiness! But as long as I'm looking through a lens, I'm golden, so that's what I did on the worst parts of Needles.

At any rate, what I saw of it (LOL) was SPECTACULAR! One car wide tunnels through HUGE rocks jutting out of the mountain, visas as far as you can see, pine after pine after pine. Much different mountains then the Rockies as these are more like giant rocks of all shapes and sizes seemingly just plopped down with pines growing from them . . Amazingly beautiful!
Mike and I eventually cut away from from the pack and went scouring out on our own, stopping for a quick lunch at a touristy cafe/gift shop sitting tucked neatly all by itself within the mountains, beside it a creek running through it. Perfect place for a picnic!

So from there we made our way to the wild life park which was part of the Custer State Park driving loop. It wasn't the best park unfortunately, as the wild life was not very plentyful. And Mikey really wanted to see buffalo. Poor little fella!
However we did see several antelope, ground hogs, turtles and some goofy burros that looked very sad when we drove away. I snapped some pics of them in the side view mirror, only to discover later that one decided to lick the car, evidentially it looked appetizing to him and since we gave him nothing why not.
It was a long day of driving and taking in the sights which is exactly one of the things we enjoy doing!