Needles Highway, Iron Mtn Rd, and Custer State Park

Looking into the single-lane tunnel, midway along Needles highway.

Snoop, checking out the main attraction; the Needle, itself...

Amazing sights. You could walk to the base of this spire, but no further, as it dropped straight down.

Me and Snoop, checking out the sights.

Zig snapped a pic of me coming through the rock tunnel.

Quick drop, if you walk too far.

Same spire as previous shot. Same long drop down, if you tried to walk around this spire.

The Needle, seen straight on.

The Needle, seen from the proper angle. Now the name makes sense, right? This is all natural rock formation. It's attached at the top and at the bottom and looks like the eye of a sewing needle.

Parked roadside, just after one of the rock tunnels. Careful stepping over the guardrail, it's a long way down...

Crazyhorse Memorial, as seen from the entrance.

Snoop, resting on Crazyhorse's outstretched arm.

Back to the tunnel. Sans bike this time. You can see how quickly things drop off...

More amazing scenery.

One of the spires from the Needles Highway.


Custer State Park. Zig and I tried to find buffalo for some time. Then, we hit the motherload. An entire herd, crossing a road. We rode up, turned the bikes around to facilitate a quick exit if needed, and then strode into the mix.

The whole time, we kept thinking about what all the Rangers had kept telling us; don't get close to these things. They're in the rut (aka; horny). They're extremely moody. If they suddenly decide they don't like you, you're done. They'll reach you long before you can get to safety.

We let them get pretty close (we're not that bright). Then this big fellow came ambling along and I figured hey, what better way to show just how close we were than to get some good pics of this monster. So here you go.

Right about this time, this...little...fella kinda raised his head a bit in my direction, gave an extremely gutteral, extended grunt - and that was when Zig and I opted to put some distance between us and them.

Snoop is totally digging the fantabulous scenery.

More open space. Custer State Park was quite amazing.

Here's Zig, checking out which direction we should take.

Single buffalo, much safer than an entire herd, right? Uhm...ok, let's not get too close. This distance is just fine.

More sweet rock formations. I tell ya; these pics just do not do justice to the real thing.

Another single-lane tunnel. You'd come up on these things on a sharp, 90 degree turn. There were signs saying "Beep Horn", to alert anyone coming the other way, because there was no way you'd see anyone until you were right on top of them.

It's tough to make out in this pic, but looking through this tunnel, you could see Mt. Rushmore (and the carved Presidents) in the distance.

Standing on top of the tunnel. This gave an even better vantage point of the surrounding areas.

Super nice twisties!