Needles Highway and Iron Mountain Road

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Custer

   Custer sits on the southern flank of the Black Hills of South Dakota, a small town in a big forest, and it makes a fine base for some of the best motorcycle roads in the Midwest. It was named for Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, whose 1874 expedition confirmed gold in the hills, and the rush that followed was one of the sparks of the war with the Lakota, for whom these hills, the Paha Sapa, are sacred. That history is not far below the surface anywhere around here, and it is worth keeping in mind.

   Read the complete Custer write-up.

2. 2. Needles Eye

   The Needles Eye is a rock needle, a pillar of weathered granite with a slot through it, and the road beside it passes through a tunnel so narrow that riders have a story to tell about it. The tunnel is a little over eight feet wide, and wide handlebars and panniers need a steady hand and a slow approach. It forms part of the Needles Highway, South Dakota Highway 87, which the South Dakota politician Peter Norbeck laid out on foot and horseback in the early 1920s, choosing the line himself through the granite spires of Custer State Park.

   Read the complete Needles Eye write-up.

3. 3. Sylvan Lake

4. 4. Mount Rushmore

   Mount Rushmore is the sort of landmark that people expect to be smaller, and then they stand beneath it and find that it is larger than they imagined. The faces of Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Lincoln, each about sixty feet high, were carved into the granite between 1927 and 1941 under the sculptor Gutzon Borglum, with the help of around four hundred workers who drilled, blasted and hand-finished the stone. The monument draws millions of visitors a year, and a small fee is charged for parking.

   Read the complete Mount Rushmore write-up.

5. 5. Custer State Park

6. 6. Back to Custer

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Custer write-up.