Day Tripping - Custer State Park, South Dakota

 

Our job at Devils Tower is in the remote north-east corner of Wyoming.  Not much here except the tower.  If we want to do something not tower, then it's a drive, mostly to South Dakota.  On this day we popped over to just south of Rapid City and took in the Needles Highway that is mostly located inside Custer State Park.

A big attraction to this "highway" is that it rambles through the geological structure that gave the highway its name, the Needles.

These rock formations gives the highway its name.  They are scattered all along the road.
But the road itself is an attraction.  There are several, seven I think, tunnels that are carved out of the rocks.  They are narrow, barely one car wide and not very tall.  One car at a time can pass through and it is up to the drivers to figure out when it is safe to take their turn to pass through.

The last time we were here all we had was our F-550 dual rear wheel truck.  It was too big to fit through two of the tunnels so we were only able to drive a small part of the Needles Highway.  This time we have our cross-over vehicle, a Ford Edge.  It fit no problem and we got to do all the tunnels and the full length of the highway, including the pigtails.

Ah, the pigtails.  It's where the road curls back around on itself in a very short distance.  You kind of go into sensory overload trying to take in the scenery and the road all at once.
Approach is a hard right turn.  Totally blind to oncoming traffic.



Here we go!



Looking back at the tunnel exit just as we start the hairpin turn.

Down we go to the underpass of the overpass we just crossed.


And there we are.  A double, narrow tunnel followed by a pigtail.
There were three of these.
As an added bonus we got to see Mt Rushmore without even having to go there.  
Just as we exited this tunnel......

This came into view.


Cool!
On our way out of Custer SP we drove the wildlife loop road.  When we did this years ago we were treated with a herd of bison, pronghorn, deer and more.  This time it was ONE bison and a bunch of tame donkeys.



Got to admit, I enjoyed the donkeys.

Then it was time for the two hour drive back to Devils Tower.





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