Overview
About Custer State Park Visitor Center
Why stop
- Bison exhibits and a 20-minute film make a useful primer
- Staff can help with park orientation and bison locations
Map
Where it is
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Custer Tour Guide
Your drive to Custer State Park Visitor Center, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Custer State Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Custer audio tourRecorded for this place
Custer Visitor Center: A Useful Pause“Custer State Park Visitor Center is coming up near the Wildlife Loop junction.”
Plays as you drive up to Custer State Park Visitor Center in the Parkwolf Custer Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- State Game Lodge: The Summer White House
- The Kingfisher’s Tunnel
- Peter Norbeck Center: Play and Explore
- Coolidge General Store: Pizza and a Ship-Hull Ceiling
- 82 audio storiesacross Custer’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Bison, Wapiti, Bighorn Sheep, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 40 trails, 49 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“We recently toured Badlands, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore and more! We learned so much from this app as we toured each of these sites. The audio tours are worth the money.”
Guide
More about Custer State Park Visitor Center
A useful first stopThe Custer State Park Visitor Center is the park's main orientation center at the junction of…
The Custer State Park Visitor Center is the park's main orientation center at the junction of US 16A and Wildlife Loop Road. It's a good place to start before the scenic drives if you want the bison story or a little help deciding where to look. Ask staff where the herd has been moving; bison shift around, so a pointer is useful but never a guarantee.
Bison, exhibits, and a short filmOpened in 2016, the center puts bison at the heart of its exhibits.
Opened in 2016, the center puts bison at the heart of its exhibits. The hall includes interactive displays and a climbing wall modeled on the nearby Eye of the Needle rock formation. Its 100-seat theater runs a 20-minute film every half hour, an easy way to get some context before heading back out.
The herd has a long history hereCuster State Park bought 36 bison from Scotty Philip's herd near Pierre in 1914.
Custer State Park bought 36 bison from Scotty Philip's herd near Pierre in 1914. By 1924, the park's herd had reached 100. That history gives the center's bison exhibits more weight than a quick wildlife preview: the animals and the park's stewardship story are tied together.
Keep the centers straightThis is the orientation center at the US 16A and Wildlife Loop junction, separate from the…
This is the orientation center at the US 16A and Wildlife Loop junction, separate from the Bison Center and the Wildlife Station Visitor Center elsewhere in the park. GPS can be unreliable around the park, so keep a park map handy. Pets aren't allowed inside park buildings; service animals are welcome.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Custer
993 sightingsBisonMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
91 sightingsWapitiMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
260 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
85 sightingsMountain GoatMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
259 sightingsBurroMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
711 sightingsPronghornMost seen around 6 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Custer. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
