As we left Custer State Park early in the morning, we decided to take an hour detour before we hit the interstate to head home to drive some of the Iron Mountain Road. This scenic drive includes several tunnels and wooden bridges that are pretty fun to navigate. Several of the tunnels also were designed to line up directly with Mount Rushmore, so as you're driving through you can see Rushmore right in front of you.
It was a fun drive and since we were there so early in the morning (before 8am) there was no traffic and we were able to get out and walk through some the tunnels. The kids thought it was fun to run through the tunnels. It was really nice to be there so early in the morning and not have to contend with any traffic.
I only created one layout for this drive. Although I had a lot more photos, they were all really very similar and so I only chose the ones that were the best representation of what we saw and decided to keep it to one layout. To include more photos, I cut down several to 2x2 and 2x4 sizes and created a center strip for those little ones.
After driving the Iron Mountain Road, we headed toward Rapid City, where we would connect with the interstate for our long drive home. But we made one last stop before leaving, a spur-of-the-moment drive through Bear Country USA.
The Mount Coolidge Lookout Tower is the highest point you can reach by vehicle in Custer State Park. The only other higher point with a lookout is Harney Peak, which you have to hike to. The drive up Mount Coolidge is a little scary as the dirt road hugs the curvy mountainside, but once at the top the views are great!
The the top there is an active lookout station with a viewing platform, as well as other areas for you to take in the views.
From the viewing platform, you can see about 80 miles away, and the scopes on the platorm can help you identify features in the lasdscape - we could see the Badlands, Crazy Horse Monument, and Harney Peak (the highest point in the US east of the Rockies, which we would hike to the next day.)
This was a quick stop for us and took us less than an hour to drive up, look around, and drive back down. The road to the lookout is easily accessible from the main road in Custer, and well marked with signs.
I created 2 layouts for this stop, which had such great views that it was hard to narrow down the photos, but I ended up with these:
Thanks for looking!
Once in Custer State Park, we drove the Needles Highway through part of the park on the way to our hotel. This very famous scenic drive offers some great scenery, and is known for it's attraction the Needles Eye. Our first drive past the Needles Eye was in the afternoon, and the high traffic and lack of parking prevented us from stopping. The next evening we drove the road again, after most of the day traffic was gone, and easily got a spot to park to check out the Needles Eye.
The vertical rock formations in this area are called Needles, and the Needles Eye is a rock formation with a split down the rock so that it looks like a needle standing up.
We looked around at the Needles Eye, and also checked out the Needles Eye Tunnel. Since there was so little traffic that evening, we could walk into the tunnel and take some photos in it. As we drove through the tunnel and came out the other side, there was a family of mountain goats on the side of the road! We stopped and watched them graze for a bit which was really fun as they were the only mountain goats that we saw in Custer.
The Needles Highway is a fun, curvy scenic drive and to reach certain areas of the park it is your only option. It's best to go in the early morning or evening if you want to stop and look around. There are about 6 tight parking spots and a lot of traffic in this area during the day.
I created 3 layouts for the Needles Highway:
Thanks for looking!
The main attraction at Badlands National Park is to drive the Badlands Loop Road - a 40 mile loop through the park. Along the way there are many scenic overlooks, pullouts, and trailheads to stop at. We were lucky enough to have 2 days in the park and drive the road twice, which allowed us to stop at many of the trailheads and hike a little bit, and also stop at most of the overlooks.
I took tons of photos in the Badlands along the drive, and narrowed it down enough to only make 5 2-page layouts for the drive. We stopped at many of the overlooks and really enjoyed looking at the rock formations and looking for wildlife. At the end of the Loop Road, another dirt road branches off called the Sage Creek Rim Road, and this section of the park is know for it's wildlife spotting. We spent about 2 hours driving that road and saw quite a bit of wildlife.
For these layouts, I tried to keep the color pallet very simple and accent the landscapes. Since it all tends to be shades of grey or tan, there is not a lot to choose from! The thing about the Badlands is that it feels really desolate, especially when your standing out in it or hiking through it. I wanted the layouts to kind of have that same feeling - just simple and uncomplicated.
We loved our 2 days at the Badlands! It is such a unique area, the we really njoyed hiking among the rocks and looking for wildlife.
After the Badlands, we stopped at one other NPS site, the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site that is just down the road from the Badlands. We'll go there next!
