South Dakota Part 3: Needles Highway, canoeing Sylvan Lake, Blue Bell’s Chuckwagon Dinner, horses and fishing!

*This post is part of my “passion project” travel series where I’m slowly going back to recap our family trips from pre-blog days.*

See Part 1 and Part 2 here:

Part 1: Mitchell Corn Palace, the Badlands, Wall Drug, and arrival to the Black Hills

Part 2: Crazy Horse, Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park & Deadwood

Day 6- Wednesday, June 21, 2017:

The Needles Highway, Canoeing at Sylvan Lake, and a Chuckwagon dinner

After our later night in Deadwood on Tuesday, we took it easy Wednesday morning.

Wednesday’s “big plan” for the day was a reservation for a Chuckwagon ride and dinner in Custer State Park in the evening, so we needed to stick pretty close to home base during the day.

The Needles Highway

By mid-morning, we set out to drive the Needles Highway. This is a beautiful 14-mile long scenic drive in the Black Hills famous for rock formations that look like “needles” sticking up into the air, and cool narrow tunnels you drive through.

There are lots of places to stop off along the way, which we did. Many places had rocks to climb on- always a hit. 😉

This is kind of one of those things you have to see with your own eyes to really appreciate it, but I attempted to get some pics from the car. It’s very beautiful!

Here’s a couple examples of the tunnels you drive through! The boys got a kick out of this.

And finally, this is the famous “needle’s eye” spot where the water eroded the rock to make a perfect needle’s eye. Cool!

Sylvan Lake

After the drive, our next stop was Sylvan Lake. This is a very pretty and popular spot.

We had a picnic there and then rented canoes! I figured the boys would have fun with this, and it’s a nice way to get a different perspective. I had also thought if it were really crowded, being on the water would avoid some of that, too.

These pics didn’t turn out the best because the sun snuck under clouds for much of the time, but it was really nice! Pretty and relaxing.

My dad, Asher and I went in one, and Ethan and Ivan had another.

We paddled all around, and there are little rocky alcoves you can kind of slip into which was neat.

We probably spent a good couple hours there. There’s a little hiking trail too that we checked out, I think.

I enjoyed this outdoorsy/ active activity a lot and am glad we did this. 🙂

Blue Bell Lodge Chuckwagon Dinner

We then had some time back at the cabin to clean up and get ready for our big evening plans: the chuckwagon dinner.

Ironically, one of Asher’s friends from school was in the Black Hills at the same time as us, so we had coordinated to do this with their family. It ended up being a highlight of the week for me!

It leaves from the Blue Bell Lodge at the Custer State Park Resort; we did the 2.5 hour Hayride & Chuck Wagon cookout.

We were lucky that we got a PERFECT EVENING. This was the cherry on top.

They got us all in the mood by handing out these fun cowboy hats and bandanas. lol!

It starts out with the most gorgeous ride through Custer State Park on a wagon, complete with entertainment. The older man in the pic below was incredible- he played the guitar, harmonica and sang all sorts of classic “sing along” Western themed songs- think like, John Denver, Home on the Range, etc.

It was truly gorgeous. I loved this. The views were magical!

We also saw SO MUCH WILDLIFE, and up so close!!

I’m not joking, there were dozens upon dozens of buffalo, just roaming wild. So cool!

The boys loved it. My parents loved it. We loved it! It was awesome. Home run activity for us.

The hayride stops off eventually at a big picnic area where people are grilling up steaks, burgers, baked beans, fruit, cookies, etc., along with a live music band playing more country-type music.

I guess I didn’t get the best pics of the surrounding area, but you’re literally sitting in the middle of the wilderness with animals roaming around. (This made me a tad nervous but I guess they stay away from the big group of people and noise.)

After dinner they had a few games for younger kids while adults had beverages and just enjoyed the views/ music.

And that was a wrap on Wednesday. A very fun day!

Day 7- Thursday, June 22, 2017: Horseback riding + fishing

On Thursday morning we had booked a horseback ride, very close to the cabin just outside of Custer.

The boys had never “really” done a full trail ride before- had only ridden like ponies at a festival type thing- so we thought this would be fun.

Horses = a very ‘out West’ experience.

They got us all situated and up on our horses. We had a mini-lesson in the stable area before the guides took us out.

This was a momentous occasion for my mom, too, as it was her first time getting on a horse again in over 20 years. When I was ~12 or so my mom was thrown from a horse on a self-guided trail ride just she and I went on while camping in Wisconsin. She suffered a skull fracture and other serious injuries and spent days in the hospital. It was very traumatic- for her, and me (who was alone with her when it happened and had to tie up my horse, run to her, who was unconscious, then run frantically for help….she got airlifted to the hospital. I think often of how worse that outcome could have been. I also felt very guilty about this for a long time, because I was the one who had wanted to do this self-guided trail ride… )

She always said she’d never ride a horse again, but she decided to face her fears and “get back on the horse”!!

She did great and had no issues. 🙂

All smiles:

After the ride, we were HUNGRY, so we stopped in Custer at the highly acclaimed “Burger & Bun Co.”. I’d read these burgers were to die for.

They had an option for FRESH jalapeno, yummy!, and they come served with bacon and pineapple! So good.

Fishing adventure at Center Lake:

After lunch we re-grouped at the cabin and gathered snacks and fishing gear.

Back then, the boys were obviously much younger and hadn’t fished a lot yet, but they were really interested. We decided to take a low key afternoon and do some fishing!

We stopped off at a General Store to get fishing licenses, bait, and ask for some advice about where to go. The man directed us to Center Lake.

On the way, we stopped off at this neat lookout spot.

You can see Mount Rushmore in the distance from here.

At Center Lake, you can access the lake right from the parking area, but the local guy had said to follow this relatively short trail to a better fishing spot.

It was a pretty walk, too, so this was nice.

Ivan is not a fisherman, so my dad took charge of the fishing activities. 😉

So pretty!

The boys had a total blast. The weather was amazing on this trip, also.

I “supervised”. Haha. Actually, I did not. I propped myself up on sweatshirts and trees and read my book in peace! LOVED THIS.

The time stamp on my photo says I was sitting and reading at 5:08 pm, so it was definitely evening by the time we wrapped up and hiked out and drove back.

Not sure what we did that evening…. ?? Must have eaten something! Maybe just dinner in our cabin, perhaps? There was a hot tub on site too that we used a couple of times as well.

I do have this CUTE pic of the boys totally passed out. All that fresh air must have worn them out. 😉

I’ll have one more installment of this trip to go – days 8 and 9 (Friday + Saturday) before we headed home on Sunday.

More to come!