Custer State Park Wildlife Loop Road — Attraction in Custer

Breathtaking beauty. First visit on New Years Day. Saw bison from a distance. Burros were friendly and charming. Saw prairie dogs, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, magpies, bald eagles.

Beautiful drive with many pull off areas. Took some of the dirt roads and it felt like we were driving into the sky as that was all you could see out of the windshield.

It seemed like so many hillsides were covered with burned trees. Not sure if these were controlled burns or wildfires.

Went back a few days later and after snow fell. Came over the crest of a hill and saw what appeared to be the entire herd of bison, close to the road. As we paused to take pictures, adult females and young bison approached our car. We were a giant salt lick for them. Some adults were rubbing their chins on the car hood, which easily moved the whole car. These are big and very strong animals.

It was incredible to be so close to them! It’s also remarkable to think of their history in the area. How they went from sustaining the Lakota for hundreds, if not thousands, of generations to how they were slaughtered to near extinction and left to rot by Euro-Americans as a way to cripple the Plains indigenous peoples physically, emotionally, and culturally.

It’s a hard reconcile why this state park is named after Custer, especially in such hallowed lands as He Sapa (the...

We were very happy that we drove through the loop, and we were able to see lots of bison and a few pronghorns. A couple of bison even walked in front of our cars! Many bison calves were leaping excitedly. This is wonderful experience for my family!

Please note that there are two entrances into the loop. If you search "Wildlife Loop Rd" on google maps, it will lead you to the east entrance which is right across the state park visitor center. However, this is good ONLY for visitors going westbound! If you were driving eastbound along Hwy 16A, you better take the west entrance by taking Hwy 87 southbound first. In this case, when you exit the loop, you won't have to drive again the segment of Hwy 16A between Hwy 87 and the visitor center.

This is the lesson that I learned. We followed Google Maps, missed turning south from Hwy 16A into Hwy 87, and eventually entered the loop from the east entrance. This wasted a lot of time! I hope you won't repeat...

I was skeptical given all there was to do in the area but this site ended up being a highlight of the trip. Depending on how you go to get on property you’ll see winding mountain roads and tunnels which were really fun to drive, or rolling prairie with tons of bison and other wildlife. It was one of the few drives we didn’t have to remind the kids to put down their screens to watch out the window. Watch for bison blocking the roadway, we did end up having to wait out a few who were interested in our car. It wasn’t a particularly busy day since we went in late March so we got pretty uninterrupted views but that did mean some of the park facilities were closed for season. The visitors center was open however and the staff were very...