July 5, 2008
Today we went on a driving tour of the area to enjoy the beautiful hills and see some of the many animals. We headed south to the wildlife loop road in Custer State Park. We saw lots of wonderful rolling hillsides but few animals.
The above corrals are used in the fall when the annual buffalo roundup and action are held. During the roundup the calves are branded, the females are vaccinated and approximately 500 animals are sorted for sale stock. Those that will remain in the Park are then released. Buyers come from all over the United States and Canada to purchase bison for breeding stock or for slaughter.
A little further down the road we came to the begging burros. They stay along the road and wait for cars to come by and give them something to eat. We didn’t feed them anything but did get some nice pictures.
Here is a Mom and her beautiful Baby.
Next we drove the Needles Highway through some very spectacular scenery. We went through three small tunnels during this leg of the trip. The smallest was 9 feet wide and 12 foot 8 inches high.
This is the needle’s eye formation.
Look in the lower left corner of the above picture to see the tepee-shaped pile. These piles of sticks, twigs and small limbs are actually the man-made result of many hours of hard work. They are created as part of a timber harvesting project and an effort to clean up the forest floor. They will be allowed to dry for a year and then burned during the winter months. Timber harvesting adds about $250,000.00 for the Parks overall budget each year. This also aids in the control of forest fires. In addition to the thinning process, some trees are being removed from the area due to infestation of mountain pine beetles.
Then we drove past Crazy Horse Mountain Monument. The straight area under the chin will be an arm pointing out over the hills. If you look closely, under the tunnel you can see the head of his horse outlined with paint. Even though they still have lots of work before completion the size and detail to date is very impressive.
As we neared the highway home, we found the large Custer State Park buffalo herd. They were grazing along the road and in the surrounding fields. The herd is supposed to have about 1,000 animals. I didn’t count them but that seems like a good figure to me. We did see a lot of all size and ages of buffalo.
I am glad the trees were between this large cow and us.
It was lunchtime for this calf.
I think this cow liked the looks of Richard’s car.
This was another great day in our travels through retirement.
The above corrals are used in the fall when the annual buffalo roundup and action are held. During the roundup the calves are branded, the females are vaccinated and approximately 500 animals are sorted for sale stock. Those that will remain in the Park are then released. Buyers come from all over the United States and Canada to purchase bison for breeding stock or for slaughter.A little further down the road we came to the begging burros. They stay along the road and wait for cars to come by and give them something to eat. We didn’t feed them anything but did get some nice pictures.
Here is a Mom and her beautiful Baby. Next we drove the Needles Highway through some very spectacular scenery. We went through three small tunnels during this leg of the trip. The smallest was 9 feet wide and 12 foot 8 inches high.This is the needle’s eye formation. Look in the lower left corner of the above picture to see the tepee-shaped pile. These piles of sticks, twigs and small limbs are actually the man-made result of many hours of hard work. They are created as part of a timber harvesting project and an effort to clean up the forest floor. They will be allowed to dry for a year and then burned during the winter months. Timber harvesting adds about $250,000.00 for the Parks overall budget each year. This also aids in the control of forest fires. In addition to the thinning process, some trees are being removed from the area due to infestation of mountain pine beetles.Then we drove past Crazy Horse Mountain Monument. The straight area under the chin will be an arm pointing out over the hills. If you look closely, under the tunnel you can see the head of his horse outlined with paint. Even though they still have lots of work before completion the size and detail to date is very impressive.
We continued on towards Mount Rushmore and the Norbeck Scenic Highway. Here we went through more tunnels. At the exit of one you can see Mount Rushmore nicely framed by the tunnel.
From a distance it is easier to see the overall size of the mountain chosen for the monument.
The last leg of our journey was on the Iron Mountain Road where we went back into Custer State Park and saw a couple of long horn cows.
As we neared the highway home, we found the large Custer State Park buffalo herd. They were grazing along the road and in the surrounding fields. The herd is supposed to have about 1,000 animals. I didn’t count them but that seems like a good figure to me. We did see a lot of all size and ages of buffalo.I am glad the trees were between this large cow and us.It was lunchtime for this calf.I think this cow liked the looks of Richard’s car. This was another great day in our travels through retirement.
posted by Ray at 9:46 PM
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