The Story of Our Family: Custer State Park

We saw these piles all over the Black Hills. When we saw them, we said that they must be thinning out the Forest. They are all over the place. Anyway when we got to Mt Rushmore and then later to Custer Park it struck me as funny to have both places newspapers saw and I quote,"These piles were not created by animals." I do not know why this was so funny. I even asked the Rangers and they said they have a least one person everyday ask what animals make those piles. Anyway I had to stop and get my picture by one of the hundreds of them.

Besides it being the home of the "Lake behind Mt Rushmore." Custer State Park has some other really neat places. This drive was so beautiful.

We stopped to take one of the hikes that give you a better view of the Needles. It was a fun hike and the views were beautiful. Here Trenton and I walk across a log to avoid the mud.

Here we are taking a break along the way.

This huge Needles of Granite are so beautiful . There are a lot of these over the Black Hills. These needles where actually the original inspiration for Mt Rushmore. Someone wanted to carve Heroes of the West such as Lewis and Clark, Wild Bill and so on. Gutzon Borglum came out to look at them and then said that we needed to do something more for the whole country such as great presidents. He also moved the idea to Mt Rushmore because the granite was better.

Wild Burros

As we were entering the park we saw a herd of wild burros. Okay there is not much "wild" about them. Grandpa grabbed a wheat thin and tried to get my kids to feed them. He showed them how to hold it with their fingers straight out so the burros would not bite them. But, my kids were chicken! Grandpa was showing them and this burro tried to sneak up behind him and get the treat. He was a sneaky one.