Navigating the Needles Highway & Custer State Park

Hi Blog! Monday, August 24, 2015, was a busy day - first Mount Rushmore, then Crazy Horse, now we are trying to make our way over to the Badlands National Park. We had a couple routes to choose from, but the most interesting would take us through Custer State Park via the Needles Highway. Here we are leaving the Black Hills National Forest.

The Needles Highway is a 14 miles stretch of SD 87. Finished in 1922, the highway is named after the high granite "needles" it winds among.  These needles were formed of granite that, as molten magma, intruded up through other layers of rock.  Over the millennia, the surrounding, softer rock eroded away, leaving these unusual spires of granite.

Just as we turned the corner, we got our first glimpse of the needle-like formations that fill this valley.

Owing to the narrow roadway, sharp turns, and low tunnels, the road has very little traffic. The vehicles that do travel this road are almost exclusively sightseers like us. Here's a closer look at some more needles.

The main attraction is the Needles Eye - a huge granite spire with a large slit at the top making it look like a sewing needle.

The Needles Highway passes through two tunnels blasted through sheer granite walls—Iron Creek Tunnel and the Needles Eye Tunnel pictured below.

It was a tight fit, but we made it. We would not have been able to drive Great White through this eight-foot wide tunnel.  Luckily, we had a rental car.

The view that greeted us on the other side was impressive. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of haze in the air from the forest fires out west. We could just make out the white hills of the Badlands National Park off in the distance.

As we continued our scenic drive down the valley, we encountered numerous needle formations. Each one is unique.

We continued our descent down into the valley and soon entered a very wooded area where we spotted this momma deer and her fawn. The fawn looked back just in time.

Just down the road, was a "Beware of Bison" sign. We kept alert as we drove on.  We were lucky and spotted one of these great, brown spirits.  It was difficult to see the bison through the trees. Here is the best shot.

Custer State Park is much more than just the Needles Highway. South Dakota has managed to carve out the best of the Black Hills for this state park. We just wish we had more time to explore. We are definitely putting this on the list to come back to in the future. For now, its on to the Badlands!