Safari (in South Dakota)

Several years ago we headed to Tanzania to see animals and birds. We were actually surprised how exciting it was to see animals we’d never even heard of, much less recognized. We saw Syke’s monkeys and reedbucks, and many more. We either walked with our guides or piled into the Range Rovers, binoculars and cameras at hand.   It was thrilling.

Now, we found ourselves studying the map of Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  It was marked with an auto-route to observe animals.  Oh, we thought, why not?!  With binoculars and cameras in hand, we began our week-long visit to this great park.

Is it possible to drive through Custer State Park and not see a bison (American buffalo)?

We saw bison every day we were in the park.  Now we take that for granted, but over a hundred years ago, almost all the bison in South…