Start Location: Sturgis, SD
Ending Location: Sturgis, SD
Miles Today: 164
Trip Miles: 1662
States Visited: 5
National Parks Visited: 1
Low Temp: 67.8° F
High Temp: 84.4° F
Min Elevation: 3252'
Max Elevation: 6430'
Route Map:
Sturgis 2021 - Day 08
Well Sturgis is about the bikes and the people but, even more than
that, Sturgis is about the rides. There are many opportunities for
great rides in the Sturgis and Black Hills
area. Today was no exception. We started with Mt. Rushmore
where we did a drive by. We have visited the park numerous times and
the rest of the group just wanted to see the faces. Fortunately there
are several spots along the roads where you can get great views and
photo ops of the monument. After taking the obligatory pictures, we
headed for the Needles
Highway.
Although we have been in the area numerous times before, we had never
ridden the Needles Highway. It was an amazing ride, there were numerous
tunnels that were only a single lane wide and they even had someone
directing traffic at one of them. In one of the tunnels it felt like
you could reach out and touch both sides as you were driving through.
It reminded us of a swim through when you're scuba diving. At one point
we came to a dead stop presumably because there was an accident
somewhere up ahead. We, and hundreds of others, had to turn around and
take another route. Fortunately there are no bad routes in this
area. We ended up
with another drive by this time of the Crazy Horse Memorial.
Like Mt. Rushmore we have visited Crazy Horse many times and I'm sure
will never see the finished project.
Unfortunately we saw the results of another accident
on the way back to the campground.
After the ride it was back to the campground, dinner in town and
enjoying the company on the front porch.
