Iron Mtn, Custer State Park, Crazy Horse & Needles Highway

Despite having closed the bar last night (like you’d expect anything different from us…), we were up and rolling pretty early. We grabbed a quick breakfast, rolled down to Keystone for gas, and then set our sights on the Iron Mountain Road.

A sharp left turn brought us off of Rte 244 and onto the famous Iron Mountain road. We were soon banking hard lefts and rights as we slowly climbed higher and higher along this thin ribbon of roadway. There were some single-lane tunnels carved through the living rock, tons of switchbacks, and amazing scenery throughout.

Reaching the end of that roadway, a quick right and then left, brought us smack into Custer State Park, and onto the Wildlife Loop roadway. This place was amazing!! Wide open plains and rolling hills. I tell ya, this almost looked like an African safari kind of terrain. High grasses for as far as you could see, with small groupings of trees here and there. Very cool.

There’s all kinds of wildlife in the area, but our main goal was to locate and photo some wild buffalo. Those proved to be elusive, and we’d managed to photo plenty of antelope, deer, and donkeys before we finally located a herd of buffalo. Sounds grand, right? Well, the herd was at least a half-mile away, at the bottom of a valley which had no access roadways to it. So we took some long distance pics and kept rolling. Next, we spotted a single guy, off walking by himself and we got as close as we dared and snapped some more pics. Rolling further on, we managed to find the motherload; a second herd and this one was actually crossing a road. We rode up to a safe distance, turned the bikes around (to facilitate a quick exit if need be) and walked up to where they were. We got some real good up-close pics and then, seeing as how they were heading right for us, we decided it was time to mosey along.

We grabbed a quick lunch in Custer and then checked the maps to see how far we had to get to the Crazy Horse memorial. We were surprised to see that it was less than 5 miles away so we blasted over there and took some photos (again, from the parking lot, and opting not to hand over the entrance fee).

From there was on to Needles Highway, a very similar roadway to Iron Mountain Road. Roughly in the middle was a grouping of huge rock formations, stretching high into the sky. The largest of these has a sliver of rock on it’s side, attached at the top and the bottom, but with a slender hole in between. It gives the impression of a needle, with the hole being the eye of the needle (hence the name of this spot; the Needle’s Eye). Zig and I climbed over much of the rocks and actually managed to not fall to our deaths. From there, we hammered more lefts and rights, eventually landing in Custer State Park again. This put us in grand position to take Iron Mountain Road again, leading us back toward ‘home’ (the bar…er…the KOA). We grabbed a quick dinner and then rocked and rolled back into the campground. Showers have been completed and now we’re knocking a few beers back while I get this typed up. Then it’s off to…

Wait for it…wait…for…it….

The Bar!!

Tomorrow we’ll pack up and head on out through Spearfish Canyon on our way to Devil’s Tower. From there, it’ll be back to Sturgis to check out “The Town” that started it all. There’s a Harley dealership there so we’ll have to swing in; Zig’s having troubles with his MP3 jack on his radio so he’ll talk to Service about a fix while I peruse the T-shirt selection. After that – who knows. We don’t have any place picked out to stay yet, we’re winging it and have several options. There’s a place deep in the woods back in Custer State Park that a ranger was telling us about. No water, no electricity, basically you walk into the woods/plains and throw your tent down. And hope nothing eats you during the night.

And that folks, is that. For today, anyways. It’s Bar time once again!

Oh, pics? Yeah. You know the drill. Hopefully sometime before we get back, but the more time that passes (and the more lack of success I have at trying to post them), it seems likely they’ll have to wait until I’m home and have a decent connection. Apologies, but I do promise they’ll be up as soon as possible.

So, as mentioned previously; it’s Bar Time.

Ride Hard, Take Chances