Inside South Dakota - Custer State Park

We arrived late in the day at Devils Tower. It was impressive to see the rock both from a distance and then again up closer. We opted to camp at the foot of Devils Tower, inside the park. It was a very well laid out campground with lots of space - though our neighbor was accustomed to running his generator a little late into the evening for our liking. We all slept late, ate a hearty breakfast then opted to ride our bikes the 2 miles to the visitor center and do a quick tour before heading off for South Dakota. The road up to the visitors center was a steady climb made more challenging by a surprisingly busy road. Many cars and RV's passed us on the narrow road on the way up. Rose and Ruth did great riding their bikes and following the safety tips called out ("yelled") by their watchful parents. The fun part was bombing back down the road on the return trip to our camp ground. We had seen our first Prairie Dogs that morning as well as passed a few deer on our ride. We chose a scenic route to get us to Custer, South Dakota. The route took us through some very attractive farmland. We arrived in Custer late in the afternoon and drove on through to Custer State Park - an incredible 71,000 acres of very well kept park, teeming with wildlife. We were fortunate to get a campsite as -- much to our surprise given the time of year -- the place was filling fast. Tonight we had BBQ chicken cooked on the campfire, rice (cooked in the rice cooker since we have a powered site) and fresh snap peas. Mmmmm. Fortunately, a family we had met in Thermopolis with 2 children about Rose and Ruth's age are camping here also so a child reunion took place on the playground before dinner. Tomorrow we plan to visit Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monument. We're thinking of passing on Wind Cave National Park since we stopped at Jewel Cave National Monument today on our way to Custer. This will give us more time to check out the local area before moving on to Badlands National Park. We're in Custer State Park for two nights - Thursday (9/11) and Friday (9/12).