2025 Road Trip – The Black Hills – Custer, SD – 6/20-7/2

Stockade Lake – South Campground – Site #14 – 6/28-7/2

We moved back to the Stockade Lake South Campground for our final four nights in Custer State Park. We dumped our black and grey tanks and filled our water tank on the way out of Blue Bell Campground. We then headed back into Custer to stock up on groceries.

We woke up the first morning in this site (Sunday) at 6:30AM MDT to heavy rain and then what sounded like more than rain. I asked Beth, “Is that hail?” She opened the shade and sure enough it was. Fortunately, it didn’t last too long, but when I got up to use the bathroom and looked outside it looked like snow on the ground. The day was cloudy, but quiet until about 5PM when we received another major storm and hail. It didn’t last too long and the hail was smaller than what we experienced in the morning. No signs of damage to the RV.

The following day (Monday) was glorious with chamber of commerce weather. We sat outside all day and then grilled pork chops over the fire that Beth had soaked in Patti’s Sauce for two days. The were delightful.

Device	Download Mbps	Upload Mbps
Campground Wi-Fi	n/a	n/a
Starlink	95	16
AT&T Hotspot	n/a	n/a
US Mobile – Brian (AT&T)	11	0.1
US Mobile – Beth (AT&T)	n/a	n/a

TV	Quality
Antenna	6 Channels (PBS)
Campground Cable	n/a
DISH Satellite	n/a

Blue Bell Campground – Site #22 – 6/26-6/27

We moved to the Blue Bell Campground for two nights. This is our first stay in this campground. The sites seem to be much more level than those in Stockade Lake South campground. They are also a bit larger. We drove the scenic Wildlife Loop Road to get to the campground and finally saw a small herd of Buffalo along with burros, pronghorn, and prairie dogs. There’s a dump station and potable water at the entrance to Wildlife Loop Road so we stopped, dumped, and refilled our water tank. The Wildlife Loop Road ends near Blue Bell Lodge. We stopped in at the lodge for lunch. Beth had the Wrangler’s Buffalo Brisket Sandwich and I had the Deep Fried Buffalo Steak Tips. We shared our meals and both were great. The Steak Tips had a nice blackened flavor.

Device	Download Mbps	Upload Mbps
Campground Wi-Fi	n/a	n/a
Starlink	329	23
AT&T Hotspot	n/a	n/a
US Mobile – Brian (AT&T)	No Connectivity	No Connectivity
US Mobile – Beth (AT&T)	No Connectivity	No Connectivity

TV	Quality
Antenna	6 Channels (PBS)
Campground Cable	n/a
DISH Satellite	n/a

Stockade Lake – South Campground – Site #19 – 6/23-6/25

Today, after spending one night in Site #15, we moved four sites away to Site #19. In the process of moving, we elected to run back into town to grab some items at Ace Hardware. We also purchased some roadside firewood on the honor system. We were happy to have plenty of firewood with today’s high being 65 degrees. Then we went Buffalo hunting back into the park about 10 miles. We were unsuccessful finding any Buffalo, but once we reached the Game Lodge Campground we elected to dump our tanks and top off our water supply while we were near a campground that had the facilities necessary to complete this task. This will prevent us from experiencing “tank anxiety” wondering if we will fill our black and grey tanks the remaining three days in our current campground. After dumping our black and grey tanks we topped off our water tank and then stopped at the Custer State Park Visitor Center across the road to purchase trinkets for the grand-kids. Unfortunately, that was a bust. The Visitor Center didn’t have much in the way of trinkets. On the way back to the campground we stopped at the Grace Coolidge General Store where Beth hit pay-dirt with trinkets for the grand-kids (Phoebe and I waited patiently in the camper). When we got back, we didn’t mind sitting close to Beth the pyromaniac’s fire. It was a crispy afternoon (no complaints).

Device	Download Mbps	Upload Mbps
Campground Wi-Fi	n/a	n/a
Starlink	189	13
AT&T Hotspot	n/a	n/a
US Mobile – Brian (AT&T)	7	0.1
US Mobile – Beth (AT&T)	n/a	n/a

TV	Quality
Antenna	6 Channels (PBS)
Campground Cable	n/a
DISH Satellite	n/a

Stockade Lake – South Campground – Site #15 – 6/22

Today we moved from Big Pine Campground outside of Custer State Park to the Stockade Lake South Campground within Custer State Park. We had been wanting to wash the millions of bugs off of the front of the camper that the last two campgrounds would not allow us to wash off. So, as we stopped off at Lynn’s Dakota Mart grocery store for supplies, Beth went in to shop while I parked way out back and began setting up to wash the bugs off of the front of our camper using our cordless pressure washer and a 5 gallon jug of water that we filled before leaving the previous campsite. We were pleased with the cleaning results and our campsite, although we could not perfectly level the RV due to the incline.

Device	Download Mbps	Upload Mbps
Campground Wi-Fi	n/a	n/a
Starlink	211	24
AT&T Hotspot	n/a	n/a
US Mobile – Brian (AT&T)	10	0.5
US Mobile – Beth (AT&T)	n/a	n/a

TV	Quality
Antenna	6 Channels (PBS)
Campground Cable	n/a
DISH Satellite	n/a

Big Pine Campground – 6/20 – 6/21

We departed from the Bar Nunn KOA at 10:30AM MDT and headed Northeast to Big Pine Campground in Custer, SD (193 miles). I have to correct the statement in my previous post regarding Wyoming lacking in trees and grass. Today’s drive through Eastern Wyoming was very grassy (not too many trees or humans) and quite beautiful. Along the way we noticed a sign that stated Blasting Area, Orange Cloud Possible, Avoid Contact. Then we saw the largest hole we’ve ever seen. It was the Black Thunder Coal Mine. Their sign states that it’s the largest surface coal mine in North America. I can’t argue that fact. It was HUGE. We drove by it forever and on the opposite side of the road there were miles of rail cars filled with coal. We stopped for Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) at the NAPA Auto Parts in Newcastle, WY and then bought fuel at the local Maverik station.

Device	Download Mbps	Upload Mbps
Campground Wi-Fi	n/a	n/a
Starlink	211
AT&T Hotspot	n/a	n/a
US Mobile – Brian (AT&T)	13	0.5
US Mobile – Beth (AT&T)	n/a	n/a

TV	Quality
Antenna	6 Channels (PBS)
Campground Cable	n/a
DISH Satellite	n/a

We arrived at the Big Pine Campground at 2:25PM MDT. We are quite pleased with this campground selection. It’s located on a hillside just East of Custer. The owner assured Beth that we had chosen the best campsite in the park. Due to the power and sewer connections being on the left side of the site, it’s a “pull-in” site rather than “back-in”, allowing us to be antisocial. My guess is that the connections are on the left because if they were on the right, the sewer connection would be uphill.

It’s a bit hot here today with temperatures in the low 90’s, but I think that’s the case across much of the nation. Tomorrow’s high is forecast to be 84 followed by 70 and a string of days in the mid 60’s.