Sad to leave Legion Lake, But Happy to go to Sheridan Lake

We had been parked at Legion Lake inside Custer State Park for the last five nights. There was so much to see in this southwest corner of South Dakota, and we've been busy with road trips and hikes. We've been so busy that we hadn't yet taken the time to walk around Legion Lake that was right in front of us. So even though it was chilly enough for a jacket and gloves the morning before we left, we were going to see Legion Lake!

The Legion Lake deli and gift shop was a very nice place, and we hadn't gone inside for five days. We had also planned to go kayaking on Legion Lake, but we were always finding other things to do. It would be easy to spend a couple weeks at Custer State Park because there was so much to see.

While we felt like we were staying in a pretty remote location, we found a nice grocery store just a few miles down the road in the town of Custer. Before we arrived at Legion Lake, we had stocked up on essential supplies like milk, bread, and ice cream. Then we found that the Dakotamart in Custer had a sale on ice cream, so Mark bought two more kinds. Notice that these aren't the little pint containers, these are the big ice creams. Denisa took a picture because she doesn't think that we have ever had six different ice cream flavors on board since we've been on the road. We love our large residential refrigerator. 

Actually, we have a love-hate relationship with that big refrigerator. We love that we can stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables and six kinds of ice cream. But it requires lots of electricity to keep that refrigerator going. That's why we really prefer a camping spot with electricity. But we were heading to a camp site on Sheridan Lake, with no hook-ups. So for the next three days we would have to run the generator at least twice each day to keep our batteries charged because of the heavy draw of electricity needed to run our refrigerator. That's probably more explanation than you wanted to know about ice cream and our love-hate relationship with our refrigerator.

It was a cloudy day when we made the 28-mile drive to our new camp site. We drove quite near to the Crazy Horse Memorial, and we could see the famous Indian profile. When finished, it will include Crazy Horse pointing, while riding on his horse. They started working on this massive sculpture in 1948, soon after Mount Rushmore was finished. Seventy-five years later, and they have a face profile and part of a finger. We visited here 13 years ago, and we couldn't see any progress, so we didn't see any reason to visit again.

We had reserved site #14 at Sheridan Lake. But when we arrived, the camp host took one look at our motor home size and didn't know if we were going to fit. Mark managed to get us in the spot, but there was no way that we were going to get level. This camping spot was close to the entrance of the park, but we could see no evidence that a lake was anywhere close.

So the camp host offered a site where the reserved occupants had left three days early. Would we like to move to a level site that overlooks the lake? It was two miles deeper into the Forest Service campground, but we decided it would be worth that drive among the towering ponderosa pine trees.

We were very happy in our new level, spacious site with so much space around it . . .

and a view of the lake right out of our front windshield. Sometimes the parking spot within a campground can make a dramatic difference in how well we like the area we are visiting.

A short walk down to the dock brought us to more unobstructed views of Sheridan Lake. Yes, we're going to like it here!

We are only six miles away from the little touristy town of Hill City, South Dakota. We have been advised from more than one source to eat at the Alpine Inn on Main Street. We went for lunch, when they have a menu that includes German food specialties. We had the kassler rippchen smoked pork chops, with kas spaetzle, German bread, sauerkraut, red cabbage, and German potato salad. That was enough for the two of us to share.

We were saving our appetites because we had also been advised that we had to try a dessert. Their specialty is bread pudding, with a caramel sauce, and served ala mode.

That lunch was so good that we returned the next day for dinner. You should know that we seldom eat out at restaurants. It's cheaper to fix our own meals, and we can eat healthier at home. So it is remarkable that we would want to eat out two days in a row at the same place. It's also remarkable that we would get there at 3:30 to be in line for the opportunity to eat dinner. They don't open for the dinner meal until 5:00, but they start taking names and handing out pagers at 4:00, so people start lining up around 3:30. This place must be great!

The evening meal has one thing on the menu--bacon-wrapped filet mignon. You can choose a 6-ounce, or 9-ounce, but that's the only choice. It comes with a baked potato, Texas toast, and a lettuce wedge with the best home-made ranch dressing we have ever experienced. Sharing the steak meant that we could order a dessert off the three-page dessert menu. This evening's choice was German White Chocolate Mousse--a creamy white chocolate mousse layered with golden pound cake, fudge, caramel, toasted coconut, and pecans. It was divine.

We like our little town, with some interesting art work on Main Street.

The horse was made from recycled metal, and was perfectly proportioned to make a very handsome pony.

Like in Keystone, the Dahl Brothers have an open-air chainsaw art display in Hill City too. While most of their inventory is for sale, they also have large pieces set up just for photo ops. 

They also have a new larger-than-life statue made especially for Hill City. Back in the 1930's, the local high school boys athletic teams worked for days to help put out a forest fire in the woods surrounding town. In appreciation for their help, the U.S. Forest Service gave them permission to use Smoky the Bear as their school's athletic teams' mascot. Still called the Rangers, they are the only school in the nation that has been given that permission.

Our campground was actually closer to the tiny town of Three Forks. Less than two miles from the entrance road to Sheridan Lake is a tiny intersection with a gas station and a few other buildings. One of those buildings was Candyland.

In this large store was every type of candy known to mankind. They also stock several candies that we have never seen before. You might think you were in a grocery store buying Oscar Mayer bacon and lunchables. No, those are gummy candy that just look like meat.

We're really not sure if these candies are flavored like hot dogs and macaroni and cheese, but they certainly look like them.

In the glass displays, we found the usual chocolate-dipped strawberries and cake pops. But how about a chocolate covered pickle or pepper? We personally preferred the salt water taffy, where the display offered over 50 different flavors. We made more than one trip to buy taffy after we found out how fun it was to try to guess the flavor. We were having more fun than a kid in a candy store!

The first evening we were camped at Sheridan Lake, Denisa walked down to the dock to take a picture of sunset over the water. We were sad to leave Legion Lake, but we're happy to go to Sheridan Lake too!