After leaving the breathtaking Badlands, we headed to Keystone. We stopped and got groceries, and then checked into the Rushmore View RV Park. We made these reservations in advance, but we should have waited. So far, I’m very disappointed with this park, but I’m trying to give it a chance, so more on the park after we’ve been here longer.

We drove through Custer State Park today. It took us about 3 hours to drive to the park from Keystone, take the scenic Needles Highway Loop, and finally drive the Wildlife Loop. Custer State Park is $20 per carload, and the ticket is good for up to a week of admission to the park. We left the campground at 6 pm, so my pics are of the the animals you’ll usually see in the evening, The park is open 24 hours, and has a self-serve kiosk to pay the entry fee by plate with a credit card.

On the way to Custer, we passed Mount Rushmore. We’ve seen it several times before, but it’s always a majestic sight to see in person.

Needles highway was terrifying for me. It had 14 miles of extremely narrow tunnels, twists, turns, and cliffs. Thankfully, Jim is not afraid to drive these challenges, so I just got to enjoy the view.

Our dogs went with us. They were on my lap looking out, but Bear actually got scared of the cliffs and sat on the floor by my feet the rest of the drive, while Zelda was hanging out of the window the whole trip. 🤦‍♀️

The Wildlife Loop was amazing. It was 18 miles long with beautiful wide-open scenery. We saw 12 white-tailed deer, an uncountable amount of mule deer, several buffalo, and many burros. The burros come right up to the cars for food and attention. Some of the burros were just babies. I just loved these donkeys!

Even the drive back to the campground was beautiful!

We have kept up our healthy eating with: egg whites, turkey sausage, and wheat toast for breakfast, soup and salad for lunch, and sirloin steak, potatoes, and corn for dinner. We still haven’t made it to Planet Fitness yet…🤦‍♀️ All of this setting up and taking down of the camper has kept us very busy, so …we’ll see. Maybe that was an aggressive plan?🤷‍♀️

We fixed our flying-open fridge with child locks, but…we had another leak in the bathroom sink and the toilet suddenly started squirting water everywhere when we flush it…so more projects!😫