Black Hills (Part 3)

     Our final full day in the Black Hills began early. We watched the sunrise from the car as we drove south from Custer to Wind Cave National Park. We arrived in the early-morning light, stopping to cook breakfast at a pull-out near the park entrance, where we were treated to a field of chirping prairie dogs and a big bison hanging out nearby.

The view from our breakfast spot. Those brown specks in the grass are prairie dogs.

Big bison hanging out across the street from us as we ate.

     After breakfast, we entered the park. Bison were everywhere! I was having a great time watching them walk through the open prairie of the park. One was scratching his back on the entrance sign. We made our way straight to the visitor's center and waited for it to open. There was already a crowd as everyone awaited the opening of the center so they could get tickets for cave tours.

Great scratching post

     There are two caves in the Black Hills. Jewel Cave is closer to Custer and is more popular. It is filled with all sorts of gems and bright, sparkly rocks. Wind Cave is less popular, but amazing in a different way. It is one of the longest cave systems in the world and the first cave in the world to be named a national park. The cave contains a very unique feature called boxwork which is only found in a few other caves in the world. Approximately 95% of the known boxwork in the world is located in Wind Cave. We wanted to go in a cave and Wind Cave seemed like the best bet to get in. Jewel Cave takes reservations and almost no day-of tickets can be acquired, while Wind Cave is first-come, first-served for most of their tours.

     We got tickets as soon as the visitor's center opened. There was over an hour until our tour began, so we drove through the rest of the park. There were plenty of bison all around and even a few deer. The park is also home to elk, but we didn't see any. I caught a quick glimpse of a coyote crossing one of the fields, but he was very good at hiding and we only managed to get a very distant picture of him before he ran into a grove of trees. I spotted him again and was able to get a jumbled picture of him watching us through the trees.

These guys had some ride-along friends on their backs.

Deer

Coyote on the ridge. Got to zoom in to find him at the top of the shadow.

You're being watched. Can you spot the coyote?

Bridge on Hwy 87

     There are many tour options. We chose the Fairgrounds Tour, which was one of the longer tours and offered the widest array of cave features. Boxwork appeared throughout the tour. It is made up of ridges of calcite that resemble open boxes. The boxwork forms when limestone cracks from pressure, before the cave even forms. The cracks fill with calcite over time. Acid-rich water flowing through the ground slowly dissolves the limestone, leaving the calcite fins exposed. The water then drains away, leaving the cave and exposed boxwork fins. Pretty cool! One area is just loaded with boxwork and is known as the Post Office because it looks like mail slots where mail is sorted in the back of a post office. We also saw one area of frostwork, which is thin crystals that were shiny white like grass on a frosty morning. There was also one patch on our tour of popcorn, which are small bumps of mineral deposits that look like piles of popcorn.

Boxwork in Wind Cave

Popcorn formations

More boxwork

Boxwork ceiling

     The tour was a lot of fun. We took an elevator down into the cave something like 600 feet down. I could really feel the pressure the first few minutes we were down there. We encountered many stairs along the route, but took the elevator back to the surface to end the tour. The tours all access the cave through man-made entrances as the natural entrance is barely big enough for a man to shimmy through. We did walk to the natural entrance after the tour was over. You can feel the wind blowing out of the entrance, which is what gives the cave its name. The pressure differences between the outside and inside of the cave cause the air to move either in or out of the cave. These barometric readings also help researchers estimate the length of the cave as only a small portion of the passages have been explored. It is thought that there are more than 450 miles of unexplored cave remaining. Add that to the 149.01 miles of explored cave and you could have the longest cave system in the world.There's a lot of exploring needed to be done before that title can be claimed. Currently, Mammoth Cave in Kentucky owns that title with over 400 miles of mapped passages, though Wind Cave has the potential to far surpass that mileage.

The small opening that is the natural entrance to Wind Cave. No tours going in through that little hole!

     After the tour, we headed north on Hwy 87 back towards Custer State Park. We saw many more bison and did a short hike up Rankin Ridge to an old fire tower. Far off in the distance to the east you could see the brown landscape of Badlands National Park.

More bison

Bison down below from Rankin Ridge

Rankin Ridge Trail in Wind Cave National Park

View from Rankin Ridge

Fire tower atop Rankin Ridge

     We made it back to Custer for a quick walk through town and lunch at a burger shop. The town is full of bison sculptures, each painted differently. They have everything from skeletons to mountain landscapes, and even one painted like the American flag. Very fitting for a place so close to Mount Rushmore. We went through one of the many rock shops in the area. They sold everything from brightly-colored gems to a dinosaur skull. Seriously, you could buy an actual fossilized skull. Only $4,000. I'll take two please.

Painted bison sculptures in Custer

This painted bison mural was of the Needles area in Custer State Park and the mountain goats that can be found there.

     After lunch, it was finally time to pedal! We headed over to Sylvan Lake, where I hopped out of the van and set off on Needles Highway in the same direction we had driven it the day before. The first mile or so was uphill, but a fast climb. As I entered into the Needles area beneath the towering rocks, I noticed people were in the road and looking up. As I glanced up to the right I saw a mountain goat walking around one of the towers. He was way up there and moving quickly. I couldn't get my camera out fast enough to get a good shot of him, but I did get a glimpse before he disappeared around the other side of the rock. Very cool to see a mountain goat in action!

That white spot on the rock is the back end of the goat as he moved between the two giant rocks.

     I used my GoPro mounted on my handlebar and got video and some still shots as I progressed through the ride. The Needles descent was really fun. I timed both tunnels right, getting through the Needles Eye with no traffic and then making the second tunnel by following right on the bumper of a car going my same direction. I was much faster than traffic in the hairpin turns. At first I was able to pass cars, then I got held up behind a big line and decided to stop. I gave them about a two minute lead and still easily caught back up to the group on this curvy road. I was in front of Shannon and there was no way she could catch up until we got well beyond the descent. There was a nice climb near the end of the highway just before I met up with Hwy 16A. This portion of road continued to gradually descend as I passed by several campgrounds and lodges, along with the Peter Norbeck Education Center within Custer SP.

Entering into the Needles area on my ride. Still shot from the GoPro.

In the Needles Eye Tunnel

Shannon finally caught up to me on Hwy 16A

     The road continued to descend for another two miles after a left turn to stay on 16A and begin the Iron Mountain Rd. portion of the highway. Then things start to go up. It's gradual at first with short bouts of climbing split up with false flats. Once you pass S Playhouse Rd, you start to climb Iron Mountain itself. It starts with about 0.8 miles of climbing, followed by a short descent, then a solid three miles of tough stuff to the top. Actually, it gets a bit easier near the top as the switchbacks considerably reduce the gradient. Once I got through the tunnel framing Mount Rushmore it was much easier the rest of the way.

Starting up Iron Mountain

Iron Mountain Tunnel

Nearing the top of Iron Mountain with Mount Rushmore in the distance.

     I raced traffic across the top to make it onto the descent with no cars ahead. I just narrowly beat a few that were turning out of the overlook parking at the top of the mountain. From there, it's nearly four full miles of twisting, fast descent. I had a blast! The corners were fast, yet challenging, but not overly dangerous. The two tunnels were short and I didn't meet any traffic in either of them. The pigtail bridges were awesome! Some of them were more than 360 degree corners as you spiraled down the side of the mountain, eventually passing underneath, and through, the wooden pigtail trusses. I think I apexed those corners about four times before each of the curves actually ended. It was the most fun descent I have ever been on! The last few corners were wet. I had seen dark clouds in the distance as I climbed and had finally caught up to the back of them. It had just rained in Keystone. The storms followed pretty much the same path as the day before. Video of my descent is posted below. I made it the whole way down without catching any cars! Afternoon is definitely the best time to ride here.

Going under one of the pigtail bridges on the descent of Iron Mountain after more than a 360 degree curve.

Video: Full descent off Iron Mountain

     My next turn was another left, this time onto Hwy 244. This began the climbing again. The entire way up this 1.8-mile climb I was staring at Mount Rushmore. It was literally right in front of me. Never have I had such a view on a ride! The climb crested right at the entrance to Mount Rushmore. I stopped for a quick picture and scanned the valley below where the thunderstorms were moving east out of Keystone. I was headed west so the coast was clear for now as I moved into the second half of the loop that would be over 60 miles in total.

Climbing in the shadow of Mount Rushmore. Love this picture!

At Mount Rushmore on the bike.

Around the side of Mount Rushmore with a side profile view of George Washington's head.

     After passing Mount Rushmore, the road is rolling, but the uphills are bigger than the downhills. You gradually gain elevation as you pass by Horse Thief Lake and Black Elk Peak. I could see the fire tower atop the peak at times as I climbed. Traffic was not as nice on this road and I got buzzed several times. I was happy to finally make it to the end and meet up with Hwy 385. This was a main road, but I was only on it briefly, then quickly turned left onto Hwy 87, the western end of Needles Hwy. It was all uphill back to Sylvan Lake. More dark clouds had moved in and my laid back ride quickly turned into a race to the summit as I could tell I wasn't going to dodge this storm. I made it about 1.8 miles of what I would guess to be about five miles of climbing before I had to duck into the van. It began to hail with heavy lightning. The hail did not feel good at all! I got the bike loaded as the rain began to fall. We drove back down the mountain quickly to get away from the hail and spare the van. I wanted to do the full loop, but it seemed as if mother nature had other ideas today. This seems to happen a lot during our mountain adventures. It was very similar to the situation I got in on Pine Canyon Rd. in Utah a few years ago. I did manage to get in 50 miles on the day and over three hours of saddle time. Another video is posted below after the pictures, this time of highlights of my road ride through the Black Hills.

The back of Mount Rushmore as I climb on Hwy 244.

Video: Ride highlights from my day in the Black Hills

     That ended our last full day in the Hills. It rained the rest of the day, so our exploring was replaced by showers, packing and cooking dinner on the porch of the cabin. We would depart the following day, but the adventuring was not completely over. In the next post you can read about us hitting the road for home with several stops in South Dakota, including Badlands National Park. Thanks for reading my late posts! Yesterday actually made one year to the day that this cave tour and ride day happened!