We spent Tuesday in an ATV from Adventure Rentals (thanks for the recommendation Dana!)… to ensure specific it was a Polaris RZR 1000 and It. Was. Awesome! ATVs are street legal in South Dakota so we scooted around all day.

The weather did not cooperate for the first half (maybe 2/3) of the day, but it ended up being nice. South Dakota may beat North Carolina for a one day weather swing… 50° and cold drizzle until 2:30 and then sunshine and 80° by 4:30!

We decided to explore Custer State Park first and the trails later in the day when the State Park got crowded. Custer State Park is as beautiful as any National Park we’ve been to, and it is huge! 71,000 acres… for a state park! And we had a ball exploring every bit of it.

And guess who else like Custer State Park? Our old friends the Bisons… now if you think they seemed close while confined in a car, they are some kind of close in an ATV!

And the little prairie dogs just patiently wait for the bison to move along and then they pop right up.

We continued on through the park with some only the sharpest turns we’ve seen!

We kept an eye out for wildlife and just enjoyed some of the off-roading that the ATV let us do.

Due to some road closures, we got diverted and ended up really close to Mount Rushmore, so why not check out a few other views of the mountain?

We made it all the way to the Norbeck Overlook (one mile across from Rushmore) named for Peter Orbock the Governor of South Dakota in 1930 who chose Iron Mountain for the location of Mount Rushmore. It is very high up and with the weather as chilly as it is with drizzle, it was COLD up there, but the views made it totally worthwhile!

As we headed away from the top of the hill, we loved the tunnels and bridges. They’ve clearly been rebuilt but tried to stay with the original designs.

We made our way back down the mountain and kept seeing different views of Mount Rushmore.

As we came out of the Mount Rushmore area, we decided to go ahead and visit the Crazy Horse Memorial. I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was really interesting. We watched a short film on how the sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski, was selected by the Native American Tribes… He was a Polish orphan from New York who taught himself how to sculpt, and became famous after winning a competition at the World’s Fair. The leader of the local tribes, Henry Standing Bear sought out Ziolkowski to create the Crazy Horse Monument. It took several asks but Ziolkowski ultimately came and lived just in front of the memorial so he could work on it… climbing 700+ steps with each ascent. (Heaven help him if his air compressor stopped working or he forgot a tool.).

The project was started in 1947, and Ziolkowski said at the time that it would not be completed within his lifetime. He was right, not only did he work on it, but his wife worked on it after his death, and now his children do as well.

And look, Mom’s Cafe has a satellite location in the Crazy Horse parking lot!

We headed out of the Crazy Horse, and hit the trails! There are trails ALL over Custer! Some with packed dirt (to go fast) some with rocks (to jar your teeth) and some with cows (who clearly are used to seeing ATVs and people and had no fear of either).

Every now and then you cam up to a fence that you had to open and then close behind you. And some of us may have had a little trouble with this

We rode for hours making it all the way up to the fire lookout. You could see for miles and miles – good spot to spot fires. It was breezy chilly, and beautiful!

We spent hours running the trails and had the best time. And thankfully we found some mud!

And someone may have gotten a little driving experience on the trails… 🤫

We headed back into Custer to turn in our ATV… just a bit muddier than when we left this morning 😉

We did a pretty job covering Custer State Park and the trails for one day

Then we headed back to hotel to shower and relax a bit… and have a 2nd day of laundry

One of my the ladies at Adventure Rentals suggested we check out the Pizza Mill for dinner. Holy Moly! We have now traveled to 31 states and this may be the best pizza we’ve ever had! And they had a beer that cracked us up! We wondered if it came in a white truck that said “truck” on the side 🤣

We obviously needed to end this almost perfect day with some ice cream, but not before this nut did some parking lot dancing, which made his brother laugh and his daddy cringe 🤣

Bellies full (again) we spent some time in the pool and crashed. Tomorrow is our longest drive all the way across