through the window

 

Travel really does open a window to the world -- or, in this case, South Dakota.  From inside the log cabin one could image what the grassland looked like to the settlers in the mid-19th century.  Early summer this year was especially lush and green.

 

Custer State Park

South Dakota

6.10.2014

sylvan lake

Sylvan Lake is surrounded by rounded rock formations and ponderosa pine trees.  It is called "the crown jewel" of Custer State Park.  Imagine if you will, a dozen photographers on the lake shore, waiting for the sun to set, wondering whether the clouds would catch the evening's color.  Hiking to the lake helped work out the excellent dinner of buffalo sirloin that we had earlier at the Sylvan Lake Lodge.

 

 

Sylvan Lake

Custer State Park

South Dakota

6.9.2014











Majestic, and stoic of stature;
master of the open ground.

(Ode to the American Buffalo -- Geiger)


There is a bill in Congress "to adopt the bison as the national mammal of the United States." The bison, or American buffalo, is already the state animal of Wyoming, Oklahoma and Kansas. South Dakota has 33,000 bison one-sixth the national total (although the state animal is the coyote). Sen. Tim Johnson says "The bison has played an important role in our nation's history, holds spiritual significance to Native American cultures and remains one of our most iconic and enduring symbols."  What a sight to see a vast herd of bison with calves frolicking alongside their mothers while the bison bull surveyed his kingdom from atop the hill.

 

Custer State Park

South Dakota

6.10.2014

the buffalo nursery

 

We were fortunate today to see hundreds of buffalo with their cinnamon-colored calves, many newly-born.  It was a perfect day with blue skies, green grass and yellow sweet clover in bloom.  Nearly 1,300 bison, commonly called buffalo, roam the prairies and hills of Custer State Park, which they share with swift pronghorn, shy elk and curious burros.

 

Custer State Park

South Dakota