After our hike of Rankin Ridge, Noelle and I headed over to the gravel NPS 5 to drive and look for wildlife. Amongst the most plentiful species we noticed right away were magpies. It felt like they were everywhere. There were also plenty of prairie dogs to observe and photograph.
We made our way over to the Highland Creek Trailhead and stopped along the side of the road when we saw a burrowing owl. As we observed, we noticed there were actually two owls. I wasn't able to get a good photo of them. I was, however, able to photograph a meadowlark.
After eating a picnic lunch on a towel on the prairie, we got back in the car and headed towards Lone Pine.
We parked at the small lot there
and got out to scan the surrounding areas for the bison herd, hoping to find some babies. Noelle found a fairly large herd, with some babies, alongside NPS 6. That would be our next destination. We made the turn onto NPS 6 and near the Boland Ridge Trailhead, we found a small herd with some babies.
From there we drove a bit further north towards Custer State Park. We found another herd with more babies.
After observing the bison for a bit, we continued into Custer State Park where we turned around and made our way back to NPS 5. A little further along we found an area where we hit the wildlife jackpot. There were more bison,
pronghorn,
and a prairie dog town with more burrowing owls. This time I was able to get a half-decent photo of one of the owls.
Shortly thereafter, we drove out of the park and to US 385 where we went to the visitor center to use the restroom and check out the new exhibits.
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