Custer State Park: Needles Highway, Sunday Gulch, Sylvan Lake - Day 2

We ended up heading right back to Custer State Park the next day. There is so much to explore here, it might take the whole summer. We drove in on a different route in order to see the Needles. There was a road closure that ended up adding an extra hour to our drive and the boys were not happy. Mainly M. X is pretty chill in the car. From Rapid City we headed toward Mount Rushmore and took Iron Mountain Road (hwy 16A). We were able to see Mt. Rushmore from the road. It was very far off in the distance. We also went through some very fun tunnels. The boys loved those. We intended to turn on Playhouse Road, but it was closed, so we traveled all the way to the Visitor Center. The Visitor Center was definitely worth visiting with kids and the guide there was very friendly. They offer kids programming that I would like to look more into, but the long drive might not be great with X still taking a solid afternoon nap. 




We then drove deeper into the park and saw more beautiful views before getting to Needles Highway. I expected there to be plenty of "needles" early on, but we were very close to Sylvan Lake before seeing any. The needles are part of Custer State Park, so you do have to pay to enter the park. If going to view the needles with restless kiddos, I would suggest going through Hill City rather than the Iron Mountain Road route. This would take you past Sylvan Lake and then onto the needles.



We headed onto Sylvan Lake to hike part of the Sunday Gulch and get in some more beach time and swimming!! I didn't get many pictures of our hike, but I know we will be back. This area gets really busy during tourist months, but there was still plenty of space. There are nice enough bathrooms near the lake area as well. I forgot to mention that in the previous post! We were able to change into our swimsuits there after hiking. 


So...on our way out of Rapid City, there was this dense fog and knowing that the upcoming drive wasn't the easiest, I was cursing our choice to head out to Custer State Park on this type of day. I literally prayed that the weather would be different as we drove toward the park, and sure enough! The fog was only in Rapid. Apparently it was working its way to the park because as we headed to the bathrooms to change the weather changed drastically as you can see below! The pictures of M on the rock and the ones below of the fog are a little over an hour apart. Be prepared for rapid weather changes when planning your trip! We were lucky to time it right and have sweatshirts in the car, so praise Jesus for that timing.

Location: Sylvan Lake, East Custer, SD 57730, USA

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