Today we took a spin through the Black Hills, a truly breathtaking locale. Two days ago we went through Custer State Park which is at the southern end of the Black Hills. Today we drove through the central section and it is spectacular. We drove past gorgeous Pactola Reservoir where we got some glimpses of an osprey fishing before pulling into Hill City, a particularly cheesy and ugly tourist trap that we zoomed through while ogling the abundance of businesses designed to separate visitors from their dollars. Hill City was the only disgusting part of today’s tour with the exception of some dead roadside deer being devoured by turkey vultures.
Not long after happily departing Hill City, we turned off on the Needles Highway. We soon got to Sylvan Lake, a beautiful scene straight out of fantasy stories. We stopped and ate some lunch alongside the lake. Continuing on Needles Highway, we started climbing, ultimately going above 6000 feet and into the section of the Black Hills called the Needles. The road and particularly the one-lane tunnels along this stretch are quite narrow and we folded in our side mirrors to get through the really narrow tubes.
Abundant fabulous rock formations throughout this area have sharp, pointy pinnacles at their tops and the roads snake around and through them. It is evident why Gutson Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, used this section of the Black Hills for his work. The scenery is stunning here.
We wandered around for the rest of the day, passing another time through parts of Custer State Park where we saw not less than a dozen and a quarter deer. No bison today but we still have plenty of time to scope out these four-footed monsters.
We got some Black Hills photos today and you can see them by clicking the asterisk *