The numbers are in, the receipts are counted and the verdict is final. Custer State Park had another record-breaking year of visitation in 2009!

The park staff counts visitor numbers in several different ways throughout the year and numbers were up across the board. Automatic counters, located at each entrance to the park, counted 692,671 vehicles in 2009, which was a seven percent jump from 2008.

Park entrance permit sales were up by more than 13,000 and an impressive 43,000 people camped at one of Custer State Park’s highly sought-after campgrounds. 2010 is shaping up to be another great year, as some of those same campgrounds are already filling up for the coming summer.

Custer State Park works in cooperation with Black Hills Central Reservations each year, starting January 2, to allow visitors to make online camping reservations. Craig Pugsley, visitor services coordinator down at the park, said that the first weekend to fill up is always the weekend of the annual buffalo roundup.

Last Saturday, when online reservations opened, it took less than 24 hours for the two closest campgrounds to the roundup – the State Game Lodge campground and the Grace Coolidge campground to fill up for the September 27th event.

With the rocky national economy lately, it makes sense that Custer State Park and other affordable Black Hills attractions are seeing high-traffic years. The natural enjoyment and the easy access of the Black Hills all bode well for tourism in the area. Rapid City Regional Airport’s increasing number of flights also make it continually easier for more visitors to make a trip to the area.

We have 12 months before we’ll know how 2010 turned out for Black Hills tourism, but at this rate, the folks at Custer State Park and other attractions better gear up for another busy year.