Wildlife Loop

How early do you have to take the wildlife loop to see animals? What times are the best? 8am? 8pm?? Not sure exactly what early and late would be. How long does it usually take to see Custer park. If I do no hiking, can I do the major drives including Sylvan Lake in 2 to 2 1/2 hours? Thank you.

Wildlife Loop

1. You can see animals all day long. The buffalo are the main draw and they graze all day. You%26#39;ll see more deer and antelope (and possibly some elk but it%26#39;s a slim possibility from a car) in the morning or evening. But you%26#39;ll still see some all day long. The prime times are close to sunrise and sunset. Those times can be found here. aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.php

2. The time required to ';see'; Custer State Park depends a lot on the person. But even the fastest of drivers won%26#39;t see the park from a car in 2 1/2 hours. Taking the major routes will take you a minimum of 4-6 hours. And that%26#39;s just driving without stopping much. Most people spend one to two days on a visit to the park.

Wildlife Loop

We drove the loop in the late afternoon and saw quite a bit of wildlife. As Accomodator said, bison are the main draw, but we also saw lots of pronghorn, burros, big horned sheep, prairie dogs, and deer.

It%26#39;s tough to say how long you will need in Custer. We spent about 2.5 hours at Sylvan Lake alone, but we walked around the lake and our daughter really loved climbing on the rocks. The wildlife loop took a good 1-1.5 hours, the Needles Hwy took around 1.5-2 hours (including some stops for photos), and Iron Mountain Road took about the same amount of time. I%26#39;m not a long distance hiker, but I do enjoy my picture taking.

All that being said, I think you might want to allot an entire day to park sights if you are able. We did different loops each day and incorporated them into other sightseeing. It was really fun and a great way to split things up.

I only have one night in the whole Black Hills area so we are trying to just do the highlights. I know that we have to fit in Crazy Horse, Mt. Rushmore, and possibly an hour long horseback ride. We then move on towards Deadwood, Spearfish Canyon, and then North Dakota Badlands the following day. It is a lot to do in a short time, but it is better than not doing it at all. We don%26#39;t plan on doing any hikes at all in this park. We will do a couple short hikes in the Badlands the day before we get here. I had heard that you have to see the wildlife at a certain time or you won%26#39;t see anything. Maybe we will do certain roads and then take a different route on the way to Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore later that night so we won%26#39;t be backtracking. Does that sound doable? Thank you.

dermatologist