We left on June 16 from Tea, SD where all 3 of us met. The weather sucked as it was drizzling rain for the first 100 miles west. After that, the weather turned beautiful. On the way, we stopped at a rest area in Chamberlain and were forced to take a detour into the Badlands to avoid a nasty storm that was hovering over the interstate just east of Wall, SD. We also stopped at the 1880 town and ate lunch in a train. We got into Deadwood at around 7pm.
This is the weather we dealt with for the first 100 miles when we left Tea.
Chamberlain, SD
This diner had some great food.
This is the storm we bypassed by riding through the Badlands.
I took a LOT of pictures in the Badlands.
As seen from our hotel room
We didn't get a lot of pictures on the 2nd day. Mark and Keith took off to go see Devil's Tower while I went to Custer to visit Jim and Donna Chamberlain. They live right across the highway from Crazy Horse Mountain. Keith and Mark got soaked in a rain storm just south of Deadwood after they left Devil's Tower. We finally met up in Hill City. On the way back to Deadwood, we stopped at Lake Pactola and got a couple nice shots before more rain moved in and forced us to head back to Deadwood.
We used to dive off this rock when we lived here.
We got up and left the hotel at 8am to ride the Needles highway and Iron Mountain road. The weather was perfect until just before we got to Keystone. Then a pretty bad storm hit which dropped pea sized hail and forced us to wait it out for a couple hours. After that, we were so disgusted with the continuing storms that we just decided to end the trip a day early and head home. We rolled into Tea, SD at about 9:45PM.
One of the needles on Needles Hwy
Cathedral Spires
This buffalo stopped traffic on Rt. 16a between Needles Hwy and Iron Mtn. Rd. It walked very slowly across the road and walked right by us. We could have reached out an petted it if we wanted to.
Mt. Rushmore as seen from Iron Mtn. Rd.
