Custer State Park..

My sons and I went out to South Dakota for a few days and visited Custer State Park.

 

I really like the clouds and sky, and often stoped to capture the views right from the park road.

 

 

 

 

There were storms blowing in from the west, but we had three or four hours of sunlight in the afternoon.

 

 

These pronghorn bucks were part of a band of twelve grazing and resting near the road.

 



 

A park visitor startled the group and they sprinted about fifty yards away before stopping.

 

 



After deciding they were safe a couple young bucks walked back towards my location.

Pronghorns are often curious. I stayed with the band until they all lay down to rest.

 

 

 

Just down the road a half mile a herd of bison was walking and running towards me.

I made a few images before moving on.

 



 

It was only another mile before I stopped for this view. By five thirty clouds had rolled in and we decided to visit Mount Rushmore. We drove highway 16A through cloud and heavy rain and made it to the monument by seven.

 

The entrance station was unmanned and only two other cars were in the parking garage. We walked through the rain to see the sculpted rock as lightning flashed in the distance and thunder rolled. We made a brief stop in the gift shop which was surprisingly still open. The man at the counter told us the park service had closed it at 5pm and were expecting up to four inches of snow over night and maybe fourteen inches at nearby locations at higher elevation.

 

We didn't stay long, before driving down to Rapid City through heavy rain and areas of thick fog or cloud. At lower elevation the rain stopped and a layer of cloud hovered about 2000 feet up as far as we could see. It was a bit odd for it to be  dry and clear in the city and to know it was storming just a few miles to the west.