It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...Then Bears and Lions, Oh My!

This time it was 2:00 a.m. when the storm hit. And hit, it did! Flashes of bright lightning followed almost immediately by loud claps of thunder. There was to be no sleeping through that! It went on for what felt like and hour, and I began to think we might escape any rain. Not so fast. The rain came all of a sudden, very heavy. Before it was over, I wondered if we would float away. I got up several times to check on everything. The Castle held up just fine. I sure felt for the people here in the campground who are in tents, though. I can't imagine staying in a tent through that storm, but I also couldn't imagine getting out of the tent to seek any other shelter.



Finally, it quieted down and we got back to sleep. We got up around 8 and got started on the morning. Yesterday evening, we made a list of all the activities we still want to do while we're here. It became clear we hadn't planned enough time here in the Black Hills of South Dakota, so one of the things I did this morning was go pay for another week here at Broken Arrow Campground.



We didn't know what the day would bring in terms of weather, so we decided today would be a good one to visit Bear Country, U.S.A.. After a quick breakfast, we got underway. It's close to 40 miles from Custer to the drive-through wildlife park. The instructions specify not to leave your windows open while driving through the park. We cheated a few times since it was gray and rainy part of the time. At the end of the drive-through sections is an opportunity to park and walk through babyland.

I had a very difficult time picking which pictures to post today! In addition to bears, the park houses elk, reindeer, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, fox, timber wolves, arctic wolves, mountain lions, as well as an assortment of small mammals.


Throughout the bears' area, there are climbing (and relaxing) opportunities for them:







A bear and timber wolf check each other out:







This guy was big!






The grizzlies were pretty laid back:


Babies climbing





The newest baby:

Beautiful arctic wolf:

And fox:

This racoon looks cute and innocent! I know better!

The bobcat:
A baby big horn

And the peacock:


After our tour, we headed to the little town of Keystone and had lunch before heading home for our afternoon relaxing time.

This day has flown by, what a great one it's been.