Sunday, September 28, 2008

Custer State Park

Clearly the bison are not endangered anymore. Several were on the roads on Friday morning on my way down to Wind Cave NP. It's ridiculous how much wildlife you see out
here. Then again there's also little human activity.

So far I've seen:

Prairie Dogs - all over the place on their little farms
Mule and Whitetail Deer - right up in my grill on several occasions
Bison aka the Buffalo
Bighorn Sheep
Porcupine - not as roadkill
Raccoon - going through a trash can at the camp site outside Devils Tower
Pronghorn antelope
Wild horses - on the Crow Reservation near Battle of Lil' Bighorn
Do cattle count?

Interesting story about some "road" cattle I encountered: I was driving down a dirt road in the Badlands along the rim where the prairie meets the cliffs and after I saw what I wanted to see I was ready to turn back and have dinner while the sun was setting. I had a hankering for some red beans and rice and wanted to get a good glimpse of the sun against the side of the cliffs and knew of a good spot. Unfortunately, on my way back about 30 of these beasts had decided to mosey out onto the road and chill for a lil. I thought they would move so I waited for a bit. Some gave me a solid stare down and some appeared motionless engrossed in what seemed to be... nothing. So I realized that there was no way all 30 were going to suddenly decide to move in the same direction, away from where I needed to pass, and so I was the bigger man and turned around and found a new spot and a new way out.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thats my backyard!