Author: David

Travel from Custer, South Dakota to Buffalo, Wyoming

We drove our coach 186 miles, about three hours of driving, from Custer, South Dakota to Buffalo, Wyoming.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading west:

Route map

An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:

Custer:

Custer

Bighorn Sheep Crossing:

Bighorn Sheep Crossing

6% grade:

6% grade

Welcome to Wyoming:

Welcome to Wyoming

Fun with zoom:

Fun with zoom

Ordering sandwiches for lunch at Heidi’s deli inside Coffee Cup Fuel Stop in Moorcroft:

Ordering lunch at Coffee Cup Fuel Stop

Back to our coach:

Back to our coach

Our step wasn’t working (an ongoing issue):

Our step wasn't working

Lunch:

Lunch

A Starlink dish on the roof of a trailer… hopefully well-secured, but not very aerodynamic:

Starlink dish, not very aerodynamic

Narrow roadworks:

Narrow roadworks

Buffalo:

Buffalo

Fuel stop:

Fuel stop

Filling DEF:

Filling DEF

Arriving at Buffalo KOA:

Arriving at Buffalo KOA

Our site:

Our site

Custer Wildlife Loop drive

Another scenic drive: the Custer Wildlife Loop drive, where we saw hundreds of buffalo aka bison.

An interactive map of our route, starting from the campground (and including the visit to Wind Cave, which we did first):

A coyote:

Coyote

Lots of buffalo:

Lots of buffalo

Buffalo

Buffalo

Buffalo

Buffalo

Buffalo

Buffalo

Buffalo

Buffalo

One-lane bridge:

One-lane bridge

Another one-lane bridge:

Another one-lane bridge

Bridge:

Bridge

Prairie dogs:

Prairie dog

Prairie dogs

Buffalo hiding behind a sign:

Buffalo hiding behind a sign

Dirt road:

Dirt road

Dirt road

Sun rays:

Sun rays

More buffalo:

Buffalo

Buffalo

Buffalo

Buffalo

Wind Cave National Park

We visited Wind Cave National Park again; the previous time, back in 2023, the elevator to the cave was broken, so we were unable to do a tour (but the surface stuff is good too).

This time we were able to do a cave tour: the Garden of Eden tour. This is a one-hour, quarter mile tour (their easiest option), featuring boxwork, frostwork, flowstone and cave popcorn.

Visitor Center

Cave tours:

Cave tours

Cave map:

Cave map

Heading into the elevator, about seven people at a time:

Heading into the elevator

Waiting for everyone in an airlock at the bottom of the elevator:

Airlock at the bottom of the elevator

Exploring the cave:

Wind Cave

Exploring the cave

Wind Cave

Wind Cave

Wind Cave

Wind Cave

Wind Cave

Wind Cave

Wind Cave

Wind Cave

Wind Cave

Wind Cave

Wind Cave

Wind Cave

Wind Cave

Wind Cave

Back to the elevator:

Back to the elevator

Model of the cave tours in the visitor center:

Model of the cave tours in the visitor center

Conditions at the cave mouth; neglegible wind:

Conditions at cave mouth; neglegible wind

The little hole of wind:

The little hole of wind

Not the most impressive cave, but still more interesting than Mammoth Cave.

Iron Mountain and Needles drive

We did one of our all-time favorite scenic drives, along Iron Mountain and Needles Highway.

An interactive map of our route, starting from the campground, and going counter-clockwise:

A buffalo on the road:

A buffalo on the road

Tunnel clearances:

Tunnel clearances

Scovel Johnson Tunnel:

Scovel Johnson Tunnel

A peek of Mount Rushmore through the trees:

A peek of Mount Rushmore through the trees

More tunnels:

More tunnels

Tunnel to spiral bridge:

Tunnel to spiral bridge

Another tunnel:

Another tunnel

Another peek of Mount Rushmore from the tunnel:

Another peek of Mount Rushmore from the tunnel

Another pigtail spiral bridge:

A pigtail spiral bridge

A pigtail spiral bridge

Passing Mount Rushmore:

Passing Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore side view:

Mount Rushmore side view

Interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

Hood Tunnel:

Hood Tunnel

Sylvan Lake:

Sylvan Lake

Sylvan Lake

Sylvan Lake

Popular jumping spot for kids:

Sylvan Lake

Sylvan Lake

Sylvan Lake

Needle Eye:

Needle Eye

Needle Eye Tunnel:

Needle Eye Tunnel

Sun over rocks:

Sun over rocks

Another tunnel:

Another tunnel

Such a fun drive.

Custer’s Gulch RV Park

We stayed at Custer’s Gulch RV Park in Custer, South Dakota. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Last time in the area we stayed inside Custer State Park, in a campground without water or sewer hookups. This time we decided to stay a little outside the park, primarily so we could have full hookups. A nice, convenient campground.

Dates:

  • Check in: 2025-08-19
  • Check out: 2025-08-23
  • 4 nights

Weather:

  • Sunny, a little rain
  • High temps 68-88°F, lows 52-65°F
  • Some wind, gusts to 21 MPH

Noise:

  • No road noise
  • No train horn noise
  • Little neighbor noise

Site:

  • #50, back-in, gravel
  • Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
  • Somewhat level site; a little high on passenger side and front; used hydraulic leveling
  • Gravel driveway about 90 feet long by 12 feet wide
  • 26 feet to neighbor on passenger side
  • 30 feet to neighbor on driver side
  • Just grass between sites
  • Picnic table
  • Fire pit
  • One tall tree towards the front of the site
  • Clean site
  • Elevation 5,240 feet, front facing NW

Utilities:

  • 50 amp power, conveniently located; breaker was unreliable, cutting out a couple of times
  • 60 PSI water, conveniently located
  • Good sewer connection, fairly conveniently located (1.5 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

  • Starlink: 180-230 Mbps down, 20 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
  • RoamLink: 24 Mbps down, 0.3 Mbps up, 170-1,500 ms ping (the RoamLink service picks the best network)
  • AT&T: 8-32 Mbps down, 0.05-0.2 Mbps up, 113-140 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
  • Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

  • Garbage dumpsters

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Beautiful campground nestled in the Black Hills

We’ve visited the Black Hills several times, and this campground is now my new favorite place to stay in the area. It’s conveniently located near all the best things to do in the area, and the only way to get closer to Custer State Park is to stay within the park. However, none of the campgrounds in the state park have full hook-ups, so Custer’s Gulch clearly wins in that regard. We had a large back-in site that was tucked up against a hill and had a nice view of the other side of the gulch. Although the campground is situated off the main highway, it’s far enough away that we didn’t hear any road noise. All utilities worked well, and the site was in good condition. We will definitely stay here again when we visit the Black Hills in the future. We camped at Custer’s Gulch RV Park in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our (very long) site:

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Other sites:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Pond:

Pond

We’d be happy to stay here again.

Travel from Mitchell to Custer, South Dakota

We drove our coach 324 miles, about five hours of driving, from Mitchell to Custer, South Dakota.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading west:

Map

Here’s another variation of the map showing time zones (Mountain and Central) and elevations for the whole year, with a circle showing the highest elevation of this trip; a lot of climbing at the end of the trip, though not as much as ones coming up soon:

Elevations

An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:

Wind turbines and corn fields:

Wind turbines and corn fields

Dignity of Earth and Sky sculpture at a rest area:

Dignity of Earth and Sky

The aforementioned rest area:

Rest area

Crossing Missouri River:

Crossing Missouri River

Fun with zoom:

Fun with zoom

Sunflowers:

Sunflowers

There seems to be a Beetle crawling up that silo:

There seems to be a Beetle crawling up that silo

Paladin reaching out to touch my foot:

Paladin reaching out to touch my foot

Fun with zoom:

Fun with zoom

Entering Mountain Time Zone:

Entering Mountain Time Zone

Stagecoach art:

Stagecoach art

Rest area:

Rest area

Narrow roadworks:

Narrow roadworks

Passing Badlands:

Passing Badlands

More roadworks:

More roadworks

Exit:

Exit

Buffalo sculpture:

Buffalo sculpture

Interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

Arriving at our campground:

Arriving at campground

Spending a month exploring New Zealand

A heads-up: we will be visiting my family and exploring New Zealand for 30 days from November 7th to December 7th.

Blog posts will continue while away, since the posts are a couple of months behind real-time. Though I may not cross-post to Facebook during this time, since that has to be done manually, so if you read the posts via Facebook, you’ll need to visit the Sinclair Trails website directly if you don’t want to miss my thrilling content.

We’ll continue the RV lifestyle in NZ: we are renting a campervan and driving around the country. Here’s our route, starting in Auckland, and finishing in Christchurch (the southern loop is in a clockwise direction):

New Zealand route

Not sure yet if I’ll have blog posts about our NZ adventure; no doubt I’ll take lots of photos, so I probably will. Stay tuned!