Threading the Needles (day 9)

When I wrote the last blog, sitting in a comfy leather chair in the Sylvan Bay Lodge in Custer, I figured that would pretty much sum up the day. We’d sit around a while, have an early dinner, and that would be that.

Well, the fickle weather that had changed from sun, to rain, to hail, back to rain - it reverted all the way back to sun. Juliet wanted to make another go at driving some of the scenic routes around Custer, so back in the car we went.

Good thing we did. We drove the Needles Highway, which is far from a highway but does have rock formations that look like needles.



Well, some look more like straight pins, but this one had a needle’s thread hole and all:



One neat part: there are several one-lane wide cuts through the rock, just big enough for an RV to fit through.



But the weather had the last laugh. We tried to return to Iron Mountain Road, the scenic drive we tried to do first thing in the morning. Turns out it had fogged over - again. Back to the main camp area for dinner.

Custer is a great state park. Lovely public campsites complete with electric hook-ups (hard to find in the East), plenty of well-marked hikes, a fairly open policy towards where you can hike and bike (a rarity) and have alcohol (even more rare.) It was a good three days there. But we’re off the next day, heading towards the big national parks.

Tom