Where the Buffalo Roam

In case you were wondering, three wild donkeys can fit their heads into a car window at one time, which means that if you happen to be surrounded by a herd of wild donkeys—which you will be if you take the spectacular Wildlife Loop Road in South Dakota’s Custer State Park—and if both the passenger and driver’s windows are open, you will have six donkeys trying to climb into the car with you, attempting to eat anything you happen to have—a grape, a throat lozenge, a quarter, a guidebook to hiking the incredible Black Hills.

The image of the Old West is no myth. It is alive and well in western South Dakota. Here is where the antelope play and the buffalo roam while bighorn sheep with curly horns snack on the hillside, deer stare curiously as you pass by, wild turkeys—and wild donkeys—take their time crossing the road, mountain goats scale the ancient rock formations that careen into the wide blue sky, and the Badlands’ moonscape towers and gullies sprawl as far as the eye can see.

This is where the prairie and desert meet, where cacti and yucca huddle in rock crevices, wildflowers bloom yellow and pink in the tall grass along 500 miles of hiking trails, and an endless sea of towering ponderosa pines creates the trick of light that makes the Black Hills black. This is where ranchers still ride horseback in herds of Black Angus, sheep, and, curiously, llamas, and where you drive through prairie dog towns as critters sit on their hind legs and sniff the air. This is where the night sky spreads like a black velvet blanket with flickering stars sewn on in clusters and solitary sparks.

The season starts in May and ends in October. The spring is rich with green grass and tall fields of wheat, blooming wildflowers, and hundreds of species of returning birds. The many animals protect their newborn calves and fawns and colts teetering on new legs. The summer can be stunningly hot, but also breathtakingly beautiful. The stark outline of the Badlands’ cliffs and endless miles of hills and valleys seems to shift and move with the sun, spreading out in all directions, as you walk between soaring formations and along cliff shelves. The fall presents a stunning array of turning leaves, dun-colored prairies, and mottled light along the forest floor.

It’s a common perception that the Black Hills and the Badlands are the same thing, but they’re wildly different landscapes and many miles apart.