Today our trip takes us to Custer State Park.
In the morning we drove down to Custer to take a phone call and ended up visiting the town's main street and shops. The city is not very big and we walked around the one block center of town in a matter of minutes.
Afterward, we drove to Custer State Park. It is a beautiful area, there are several picturesque scenic drives through the park.
We stopped at the Peter Norbek Education Center and were introduced to the park's Jr Ranger Program or Jr naturalist as they call them here. It is by far the most demanding of the ones we have done, and we have done several others. The kids have to attend three ranger led presentations, fill out a notebook of questions and collect four seals from several locations scattered along the park. In the end the kids received an iron-on patch.
The water insect presentation was popular with the kids. They were given clear bottles with magnifier glasses on top and told to collect bugs in the stream. Carson and Bennett found a mayfly and a stone-fly.
We weren't very lucky at spotting Bison on the wildlife loop. We saw many prairie dogs, or fairy dogs, as Stella calls them. We also saw pronghorns commonly known as antelope in Utah, an burros or donkeys.
On our way back we drove pass Sylvan Lake but opted not to stop. What was supposed to be a half day visit turned into a whole day visit.
We served ravioli and meatballs and cooked s'mores and fruit cups on the fire for dessert.
It was a real busy day and we were all more than ready to go to bed.
