Summer Travels 2019: Fishing, Needles Highway, Reptile Gardens

Custer State Park had a lot of neat programs.  One morning, they had free fishing set up for whoever wanted to come.  The park rangers would clean and cook your fish for you too.  Megan and Matthew both spent a lot of time trying  to catch a fish but it was not to be. (Matthew did catch a tree....) There were only two fish caught that morning out of the 30 or so people fishing.

Matthew's preferred fishing location was the dock.  No trees to catch the line.

"Sittin' on the dock of the bay..."

Megan found a good spot along the shore.

Fishing is fun when you are together.

Me keeping watch.

Back to the dock.

Maybe this spot will have more luck.

U took several pictures of dragonflies.

One last cast.

One of the kids who caught a fish let them cook it up and share it with anyone who wanted a taste.

Matthew was more interested in trying to catch his own.

Afterwards, we drove the Needles Highway.  There are several single lane tunnels on the road.

The Cathedral Spires sticking up in the distance.

You can see a fire tower on top of Black Elk Peak.

A view with the trees.

Close up of the Cathedral Spires.

All the granite formations were really cool looking.

These types of formations were all along the highway.

Coming up to the Eye of the Needle Tunnel.

No wide loads here.

Almost out!

Me with the tunnel.  You can see that it was blasted out right where two rocks meet.

We went scrambling among the rocks for a while.  Me and Matthew taking a break.

Megan was there too.

Hugs from mom make people happy.

Matthew wanted to climb everywhere.

He liked company too.

A view of the Black Hills from farther up.

On their way down.

U was climbing too.

Cool looking clouds.

Mushrooms on a fallen log.

We hiked back over the top of the hill and saw the road coming up to the tunnel.

Next, we went to Sylvan Lake.  You may recognize it from the second National Treasure movie. We did not, however, find a lost city of gold.

There was lots of rock scrambling to do.

And we were the ones to do it.

Matthew loves climbing things.

A deer off the side of the path.

Panoramic of the lake.

We stopped to look at Crazy Horse from the road.

Next we went to the Reptile Gardens.  It was a nice break with lots of animal shows.  The kids thought it was so much fun they wanted to go back the next day which we did since our admission was valid for the length of our trip.

This bird loved to hang upside down.

The handlers shared lots of interesting information about the birds and several corny jokes that had Sarah rolling her eyes.

A big Eurasian owl.

Matthew with Mount Rushmore in the gardens.

Megan checking her wingspan.

The snake show was next.  The handler was very funny and you could see which snakes he had to handle more cautiously.

This cobra was ticked! It didn't come out, it was just in a terrarium but it kept trying to attack him through the glass.

The rattlesnake just curled up and rattled at everyone.  The handler was standing about 5 feet away from it but it was focused on the crowd on the other side of the glass.

The girls talking to the rattler.

Megan loved holding the python.  She stayed with it for a long time.

Matthew liked petting it as well.

It can't be a Dakota vacation post without prairie dogs right?  They had a little collection of them in an exhibit.

Most of the prairie dogs were lounging in the sun.

This guy was the lookout stationed high on a branch.  I didn't know they would climb like that.  

Measuring the hole to make sure it is the right size

Matthew didn't want to sit on the open hole so he sat on the statue's lap.

Next was the gator show.  There were alligators, crocodiles and a caiman in the enclosure.

The guy from the snake show did this one as well.  He showed us how to wrestle an alligator.

When he fed them, the animals all got a lot more active.  One of them even tried to attack his bucket.  Not a job I would want.

Afterwards they brought out a baby alligator named "Fluffy" for the kids to pet.  The jaws were wrapped with electrical tape to keep them closed.

In addition to the shows, Reptile Gardens has the largest collection of reptiles of any zoo in the world. We enjoyed exploring their collection.

A lizard in the tropical garden.

This frog was hiding out as well.

There were a lot reptiles in enclosures that were fun to see.

This is "Maniac" a giant saltwater crocodile. Imagine taking him through customs! (Someone did when they moved him from Australia to the United States.)

Why is there a National Treasure poster here?

Because Nicholas Cage came to visit. He was impressed with Maniac.

This blue and green lizard was pretty.

Don't touch the poison tree frog.

This frog was sticking to the glass so we could see his belly.

Giant snakes!

Sarah discovered that she has a snake charmers gift.  She would bend down and look a snake in the eye and it would rear up and dance with her.  This black lipped forest cobra did it the most.

Other snakes liked her too.

The fun house mirrors were very amusing.

A bald eagle with a hurt wing.  He was very loud.

The Galapagos tortoises weren't very active but we did find one that was hungry.  If you got some of his food for him, he would eat it.  He especially liked prickly pear.  He did not eat kale.

In this tortoise enclosure, one of the spurred tortoises was walking around and picking a fight with all the other spurred tortoises.  Apparently the alpha tortoise was sleeping so this other tortoise was trying to increase his status. When we returned the next day, he was still picking fights with the other tortoises.

Megan loved feeding the giant Galapagos tortoises.

Me fed one too.

One of the employees lifted a red-footed tortoise up so we could examine it.

Oh no! Matthew is being eaten!

Matthew had to have pictures in all the cutouts.

He is pretty happy considering he's being squeezed by a snake.

No tortoises were harmed in the production of this photo.

A few photos from our return visit the next day.

Megan wanted to feed the tortoises again.

The worker said that the big tortoises will sometimes just lay down on the smaller tortoises.  

One more shot of one of Sarah's snake friends.