As of our last post, we had just arrived to our campsite at the Pactola Reservoir near Custer State Park in South Dakota. The site we got was AWESOME! Once we got camp set up, we took the pups straight down to the lake to enjoy the water. Adrian has gone in water before, but never where she can’t touch the bottom. Freddy is an absolute pro at water and LOVES having a ball thrown and chasing it! Scott even got in the water to take Adrian out in deeper water to help her get used to it. We let the pups get out some of their pent up energy from being stuck in the car for so long, then walked around the campground a little. We also drove to a little camp store to get some firewood- the BEST smelling firewood we have ever smelled! It was amazing.

The next morning, we decided to head down to Wind Cave N.P. We had visited this park 2 summers ago and did a cave tour. Obviously dogs are not allowed in the cave, but there are two trails available for dogs to hike- Elk Mountain and Prairie Vista trails. Both trails were a little over a mile or so.

Our trip back North took us through Custer State Park, more specifically Needles Highway. This was listed as a must do for Custer. It’s a very windy road with 2 tunnels that gives you some neat views of the landscape of the Black Hills area.

On the drive back, we decided to stop at Miner Brewing Company, which wasn’t too far from our campground. We got a couple snacks and some beer, and the waitress brought the pups out some water and treats. It was a pretty neat little place to stop! We got back to the campground, took the pups to the lake, and cooked an amazing meal. I don’t usually toot my own horn about my cooking, but this stew I made over the fire was SO good!

Just as we were about to sit down at the picnic table to eat, we noticed big black clouds coming in. Scott checked the radar and saw a massive storm system coming. I took our food and the pups inside while Scott got the camp together to prepare for a storm. No more than 5 minutes later, it was pouring on us and the wind was going crazy! We don’t usually have many storms while camping, so this was definitely different!

Day 5 of our trip, we went to Custer State Park to do some hiking. We found a 4 or so mile trail called Lover’s Leap. If you go to Custer and take this hike, I would personally advise you to go right at the fork instead of left like we did. The left side had us going straight uphill for quite a while. Scott prefers to get the uphill out of the way early. Little did we know, it was mostly uphill the direction we went! However, if you don’t like downhill hiking, then by all means go left! This trail was called Lover’s Leap as there is an old legend about two forbidden lovers who hiked to the top of the hill and jumped together. The hike itself was pretty good and we enjoyed it. One thing we didn’t realize about this area was the number of ticks we would encounter! Luckily, we keep the dogs up on their meds. Adrian had 2 attach to her from this hike and Freddy had several more than that. Their meds are awesome though and even though the ticks were able to bite them, they died pretty quickly and we were able to get them off.

We took the Iron Mountain Road out of Custer State Park. This is another windy mountain road with 3 tunnels, but some awesome views of Mount Rushmore for pretty much the entire drive!

We stopped at Legion Lake to have some lunch at a picnic table, then headed back towards our campground. We stopped at a little town wood carver because I wanted to see if they had anything we could take home with us. The couple running the carving place were really cool! They are a couple of travelers that set up shop here during the warmer months to do their art and make money, and then head south for the winter! We ended up purchasing this really cool wood carved buffalo that I’m so excited to get home!

We took the pups on one last hike straight from our campground- the Osprey Trail. It was a nice little easy hike to see a different part of the reservoir that we hadn’t seen yet.

Day 6, we left the Black Hills and made the insane 550 mile, 11 hour trip to one of our favorite places, Henrys Lake State Park in Idaho. The wind was terrible (sorry Scott and I love you for driving in the wind!), one of the rest stops we stopped at literally had all these warning signs up about rattlesnakes (sorry dogs, not here!), and we arrived at Henrys Lake to rain and snow and freezing cold temperatures. Hello summer, right? 🙂

We are camped at Henrys Lake for the next 5 nights, to do some exploring of Southern and Eastern Idaho! Let’s see what that brings us!