The Bicycle Adventure Club - Come Ride With Us!

The Heart of the Black Hills

June 11th to June 25th

Ride Director: Warner Griswold
Ride Co-Director: Pam Traina
Ride Driver: Mike Reynolds
Report by: Grace Voss

“The next 20 miles are all downhill!”

“Yeah, right!” I told myself with misgiving on the last day of BAC’s two–week bicycle tour of South Dakota’s Black Hills. While the gradient map did show a gradual descent along all 26.8 miles from Hill City to our final destination of Rapid City, we knew intuitively that uphill climbs along the way would put our heart rates into high gear. Southwestern South Dakota’s lush green meadows and ponderosa pine forests were breathtakingly beautiful, but you had to push the bike hard to experience them.

    Like all BAC outings, “The Heart of the Black Hills” was well–organized and filled with beauty and history. Mt. Rushmore, with its granite faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, was first on our itinerary, the creation of Gutzon Borglum, with financial help from US Senator Peter Norbeck. We visited the artist’s studio nearby, showing lifelike replicas which served as models for the faces which took five–years (1934-1939) to blast and sculpt into the mountain’s granite. A modern Visitor’s Center boasts an entryway of columns and flags representing all 50 states before giving way to a large patio overlooking the monument.

   The next day’s ride took us through Custer State Park, with stoppages due to buffalo in the road, as well as views of pronghorn antelope, prairie dogs and bluebirds resting near birdhouses along the route. The weather was sunny with refreshing breezes, helping us navigate a three–mile climb up Iron Mountain Road. We passed through two tunnels with views of Rushmore’s faces, and we traveled on three “pigtail bridges” for traffic navigating the intense elevation gain. An afternoon thundershower hastened our journey at day’s end. Custer State Park has a brand new Visitor’s Center with an IMAX movie, narrated by Kevin Costner, showing the area’s annual buffalo roundup.  

   Other highlights included Jewel Cave and a sojourn into Northeastern Wyoming to visit Devil’s Tower, scene of the 1977 movie ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind.’ A rock climber’s destination, the mountain rises 867 feet above the Belle Fourche River. It represents Rocky Mountain uplift, with erosion over millions of years creating grooves on all four sides of the tower. Legend says a bear’s claws caused the rippled effect as he tried unsuccessfully to kill seven Indian girls seeking refuge. (Spirits turned the girls into the Seven Pleiades.)

   Back in South Dakota, we rode a full day on the George S. Mickelson rail trail, a magnificent 100–mile stretch of crushed limestone from Deadwood to Edgemont. Our journey took us half the distance, a divine 48 miles, with a morning ride through forests of birch, pine, aspen and fir, with prolific ferns growing by the trail. After descending to Dumont, we followed the meandering Castle Creek across lush grasslands, with views of rocky escarpments in the distance. Tall grasses on both sides of the trail were a border in motion as we arrived at Rocheford, a thriving gold mining community in the 1890’s. The limestone was not difficult for road bikes to navigate, even on the uphill grade before Hill City. The final five miles into town featured aspen trees leaning towards each other, forming a leafy canopy.

   South Dakota’s Black Hills received their name from the needles of the ponderosa pine trees in the area. These needles are flat and absorb darkness at day’s end, creating shadows on the hills. They provide a beautiful backdrop to the many historic sights and lush landscapes that greeted us over our two–week outing.