Sturgis, 2015, Day 5

Day 5 started off fine…and fortunately it continued.  I drove west on I-90 to Spearfish, SD to start my day in the Black Hills National Forest via Highway 14A.  This route is more commonly known as Spearfish Cannon and it is a beautiful ride, almost all the way to Deadwood.  The road twisted and turned through a heavily wooded area alongside Spearfish Creek.  The water in the creek is crystal clear and must be good fishing, judging by the number of folks doing just that.

The day was a beautiful sunny day with the temperature at about 75 degrees.  I even wore a long sleeved shirt, even though most of the riders didn’t seem to notice the cooler weather at 70 miles per hour going down the interstate…must be my thin blood.  Well, I keep telling myself that I’m old.  Another observation I’ve made since being here is that only 1 in 50 riders, maybe even 1 in 100, wear helmets.  Yep, you guessed it, I’m the 1.  Better to be a little out of style than dead.

 

Back to the ride…because the day was a beautiful one, riders were out in droves.  Most of the time, it was wall-to-wall motorcycles with the occasional car mixed in…poor guys.  About 30 minutes into Spearfish Canyon I came around a turn and quickly noticed dozens of motorcycles parked along the road.  Usually this means there’s something interesting to look at so without really knowing what it was, I pulled to the side of the road as well.  After getting off the bike and following others across the road, I noticed a little waterfall on the other side of the creek.  Turns out it was Bridal Falls, which is fairly famous in the area.

Sufficient time spent admiring the falls and taking a couple of pictures, I got back on the bike and continued down through the canyon.  As there aren’t many places to pull off the road, most of the traffic moves on.  There was about the same number of motorcycles coming in the opposite direction as well.  Every once in a while I would catch a glimpse of Spearfish Creek running alongside the road and I really wanted to take a picture.  Then I passed a picnic area where I thought I might be able to get a picture of the creek.  I made a u-turn a few hundred miles on down the road and went back to the picnic area.  I walked down to the creek and took a couple of pictures.  It would have been a nice place for a picnic…IF I had food AND it wasn’t 9:30 in the morning.

After another 30 minutes or so, Highway 14A intersected with the road to Lead and Deadwood to the left and Custer and Custer State Park to the right…I chose left. A few miles down the highway I entered the city of Lead, population about 700…before Sturgis.  Even this little city/town is affected by a million motorcycles coming to the area.  By the way, every camping area, every hotel, and every town had RV’s, tents and motorcycles present…they are really everywhere.  Lead is an old gold mining town and most of the buildings are really old…most have been repurposed.

I made my way through Lead and the traffic and headed to Deadwood, which I expected to be much like Lead.  Deadwood was a bit larger in size…about 1800 population…but had 10 times the number of motorcycles, which I didn’t expect.  Motorcycles were parked everywhere, although the city tried to corral them in a few locations near downtown.  I parked in one of the bigger lots and started walking towards downtown…where everyone else was headed.  Once I got on Main Street, I found it shut down to all but motorcycles and the stores, bars and restaurants doing a healthy business.  It wasn’t as crowded as Sturgis was yesterday but it was a close second.

I walked 4-5 blocks, down and back, did a little shopping and then it was back on the motorcycle headed for Mount Rushmore, the focus of Day 5.  Even though I had pre-loaded the route in my GPS, I had little need for it as all I had to do was follow the crowd.  The area is also marked very well with signs giving drivers help in getting to where they want to go.

I left Deadwood close to noon but wasn’t going to eat until after Mount Rushmore.  Besides, every place that looked good had a hundred motorcycles parked outside.  I continued down Highway 16A, passing meadows, lakes, wineries and restaurants…in addition to crowded motels, cabins and campsites.  Then I saw a sign that made me turn around and go back…TEXAS BBQ.  While I didn’t expect great BBQ, the parking lot was empty.  That might have scared folks away but I decided I’d try it.

Turned out the BBQ was very good.  I wasn’t particularly hungry so I ordered a Frito Pie, with BBQ beef, beans and cheese…not what I’m used to, but it was good.  I sat down at the lone picnic table with a woman and her 3 kids who by chance were from Farmers Branch.  We had a nice talk about the area and Texas BBQ.  The woman cooking the BBQ…and doing everything else by herself…said she lived in Houston for a few years and worked with a woman there who taught her how to cook BBQ…she done good.

With a full belly, I continued to Mount Rushmore.  The road leading to and from the memorial winds around through the forest, even crossing over itself a couple of times.  There were 2-3 one-lane tunnels too.  All in all, it was a good ride going and coming.  Unlike Devil’s Tower, which you could see from several miles away, Mount Rushmore doesn’t show itself until you’re right on it.

Well, what can I say, Mount Rushmore is everything I expected it to be, and more.  It’s amazing that men could have carved the mountain like they did with fairly crude tools.  The area was very crowded with bikers but also foreign nationals all over.  After soaking up some history I decided to head to Custer State Park.

As I mentioned earlier, the road to Custer State Park was even more winding and beautiful than it had been coming up the other side.  There were a couple of one-lane tunnels and a great view of Mount Rushmore from about 5 miles away.  Of course, I had to stop and take a picture.  There was already a group of 10 or so bikes parked there and when I got off mine I noticed one of the ladies was sprinkling what appeared to be ashes off the side of the roadway.  That was the second time I had seen some one with an urn today, but the first actually sprinkling them…interesting.

When I got to Custer State Park, I paid the entrance fee…$10…and headed in.  I took the “wildlife loop” seeing warning about Buffalo on the road.  I drove 20+ miles without seeing any wildlife, much less a Buffalo on the road.  I had just about decided I wasn’t going to see anything except grassland and rolling hills when I came around a corner and saw 3-4 dozen motorcycles and a few cars pulled to the side of the road.  As usual, this meant there was something to see…this time, a small herd of buffalo.  There was probably 2-3 dozen buffalo grazing.  They were so intent on eating the grass that they barely noticed there were dozens of people taking their picture…they barely even raised their heads.  After I put the camera up and started the motorcycle, I noticed one of the larger buffalo away from the herd digging up the ground.  After he raised a storm of dirt into the air, he flopped over on his back and rolled around a little.  It happened so fast that few people got a chance to get pictures.

After getting back on the road I noticed I didn’t have much gas so I headed for the closest town…Custer.  Once again, the town was full of bikers.  I got gas in town and headed back toward Rapid City.  The highway I was on just happened to pass the Crazy Horse Memorial so I pulled in, paid the $5 admission and headed down the road into the parking area. 

 

I was vaguely familiar with the memorial but didn’t realize how little had been done…it’s far from finished.  However, once inside the visitor’s center, I watched a most interesting film on the man who started the memorial back in the fifties and for many years, worked on the project single-handed.  As a younger man, he had worked with the artist who had sculpted Mount Rushmore so he had experience.  One might say he didn’t trust the government very much…State or Federal…so he created a non-profit organization to seek private funding for the project.  By the way, he was recruited to do the sculpture by five of the senior chiefs from the Lacota tribe, of which Crazy Horse was a member. When it's finished, it will dwarf Mount Rushmore...in fact, the entire Rushmore will fit in the head of Crazy Horse.

Of all the things I saw today, I think the Crazy Horse Memorial site was the most interesting one.  I can’t repeat all that was said in the film but to this day the man’s wife…she died in 2014…and several of his 10 children continue to work on the project.  You might find it interesting to look the memorial and its history up on the internet.

Finally, it was time to head back to Rapid City to find some dinner.  Unfortunately, many of the bikers who had come to the area had the same idea.  For the first 15-20 miles of the 36 mile trip back the traffic moved at 5-10 miles per hour.  I was really ready to be off the motorcycle for the day.  I had spent almost 10 hours in and around the Black Hills National Forest.

If you haven’t been to the area, I highly recommend it…for the history as well as the beauty.