Why this ride
Fast canyon sweepers, waterfalls and a natural connection to the Black Hills. The road: US-14A and Nemo Road. Distance and riding time are estimates from the checkpoints until the road is measured on this page.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Spearfish Canyon and Vanocker Canyon
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 182 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 27
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Spearfish
Spearfish stands at the northern edge of the Black Hills, where the prairie of South Dakota lifts into a dark, forested dome of ancient rock and pine. The town, with about eleven thousand people, is a university town as well as a gateway, and its old brick main street, its trout stream and its neat tree-lined blocks give it a calmer feel than the more touristy places further south. The Black Hills themselves are sacred to the Lakota, who call them Paha Sapa, and the land was the subject of a long and bitter dispute after gold turned up in 1874.
2. Savoy
3. Cheyenne Crossing
Spearfish Canyon is the kind of place where the road follows the creek and the cliffs close in on both sides. The canyon, cut through the northern Black Hills by Spearfish Creek, has limestone walls hundreds of feet high, covered in pine and spruce, with aspen and birch that blaze yellow in autumn. US 14A runs along the bottom for about twenty miles, and Cheyenne Crossing, near the middle, is a small roadside stop where a store and a cafe serve riders, hikers and passing travellers. The name recalls the old stage route between Cheyenne and Deadwood during the gold rush years.
4. Sturgis
5. Nemo
6. Back to Spearfish
Return visit. Read the place description above.