Sturgis: Black Hills Challenges

The goal of the day was Iron Mountain Road and Needles Highway. These are listed as two of the most challenging rides in the Black Hills. Now, I don't know if they are considered equally challenging riding one direction over the other, but this year, we chose to ride UP both. Usually when we ride Iron Mountain Road, we ride into Keystone instead of out of Keystone.

The Black Hills are criss-crossed with windy little state roads that connect the major highways. These roads are generally a little more narrow with fewer (if any) passing lanes and they hide some of the most beautiful scenery in the Hills.

We started the day in Keystone with a quick breakfast, then herding the cats.... er.... gathering all the bikes for the ride up Iron Mountain Road.

After Iron Mountain Road, we entered Custer State Park and saw a herd of buffalo along the side of the road. They pretty much ignored the tourists and just munched the grass.

Riding through Custer State Park along the Needles Highway seemed like a slow motion ride. The speed limit is 25 MPH, and for good reason. The road is narrow and has a lot of tight turns and switchbacks. But the views are awesome.

From left to right: Lin, Joby, Carrie, Donna, Jae, Vicki (trying to hide behind Jae), and Sharon.

After Needles Highway, we rode into Hill City for a beer, a bite to eat, and conversation before heading our separate ways for another year.

Lin, Donna, and I had discussed riding over the Old Hill City Road back into Keystone when we left, then up to our cabin, but the turn onto Old Hill City Road came up sooner than we expected and we missed it, so decided to skip that part of the day. It was probably a good thing, too, because the clouds were building up for their afternoon downpour. While we managed to miss most of the raindrops on the ride back to the cabin, the rain did chase us inside after we parked the bikes.

Tomorrow we head to Sturgis for some shopping and to register at the administration building. The plan is to ride up to Nemo then take Vanocker Canyon into Sturgis. Should be a fun day.