This stretch of road is called the Needles Highway. There's a rock formation that looks like the head of a needle that gives it it's name but you also "thread" a lot of caves.
We stopped at Sylvan Lake and took a wet & rainy walk. It was misty and enchanting. The rock formations that ringed the back side of the lake were like ancient sentinels drawing us in, beckoning us to get out of the car and on foot to explore. We slipped through fallen rock caves and slivers of openings to get behind the lake where we found ourselves in a towering pine forest. Someone had carved a descending staircase from solid rock in one of the crevices we passed through. It all seemed very Tolkien-ish.
Wet and hungry we head over to Sylvan Lake Lodge, one of five state run places to stay in Custer State Park. We had passable lunch. My son Dylan played piano in the rustic lobby. This was his first public performance and it was in front of more mounted game heads than people but hey. Nourished and warm we hit the winding and rock walled road again and make our way up to the infamous Deadwood.
I was looking forward to Deadwood. The Black Hills gold rush of 1876 gave rise to the lawless town of Deadwood. Gold, gambling and prostitutes were the main industries Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane are two notable residents buried in the boothill cemetery. Wild Bill was shot & murdered in a Saloon here in August 1876.
The town itself is named after the dead trees that were found in it's deep gulch of a valley. It's a National Historic Landmark. The 1880's era building's are well maintained and the two & three story brick & stone facades create a handsome frontier town.
That's where it all fell apart for me though. The town had fallen on hard economic times and opened it's doors wide to gambling in 1989. As you look at the town and street scape Deadwood looks handsome and prosperous. When I went into one of the buildings expecting shops or restaurants I found that all the buildings had been gutted, opened up and connected. Deadwood was a town of fake facades and behind them were huge block long gambling casinos. Oh well.
Here's Deadwood in 1888. Click on the picture to get a larger view.
And here's a Black Hills Mountain Man 2008. I tried to get a front shot of this authentic character but he was too quick for me.
Not so authentic but fun for the kids and tourists is the Wild Bill shootout.
We were looking to soak up the old west so we bagged off Main St and headed to the Adams Museum. It was full of Deadwood history, a cowboy art show and a girl from Minnesota who had a crush on my son Dylan. :)
With the day growing long we hopped in the car to finish the push to our final destination, Spearfish Canyon. On the way we drove through Deadwood's sister town of Lead (they are literally shoulder to shoulder with each other). We jumped out quickly to see the world's biggest hole in the ground. The Homestake Gold Mine was started during the gold rush of 1876 and before its closing in 2002 it was the oldest, largest and deepest mine in the Western Hemisphere, reaching more than 8000 feet below the town of Lead.
Leaving Lead (pronounced Leed) we were soon on back roads populated with pines, creeks and small ponds. The beauty was relentless. As we neared the canyon more & more stunning "log cabins" appeared in the woods. Beauty always attracts money. :)
Before we knew it we were here. Spearfish Canyon Lodge. The location and setting were sublime. The lodge is located at a crossroads on a flat plain under steeply rising rock walls. It's like being in a river canyon with no water.
Why did we choose this place? I found out the last scene in Dances With Wolves was filmed in Spearfish Canyon. It was the location of the winter campground of the Sioux. I love that movie. Dances With Wolves was in fact filmed all over western South Dakota. We went back in the canyon and found the actual filming location. The canyon was stunning. Here's how the great architect Frank Lloyd Wright described it on one of his many visits.
"great horizontal rock walls abruptly rising above torrential streams, their stratified surfaces decorated with red pine stems carving stratified branches in horizontal textures over the cream white walls, multiplied red pine trunks and the black green masses of the pine rhythmically repeating patterns, climbing, climbing until the sky disappears or was a narrow rift of blue as the clear water poured over pebbles or pooled under the heavy masses of green at the foot of the grand rock walls."
Nice.
The next day, just outside of Deadwood, we rode past this wagon train. Check it out. It was a 100th anniversary reenactment of the historic Ft. Pierre to Deadwood Trail Wagon Train.
We also stopped at Kevin Costner's Tatanka, Story of the Bison museum. Kevin created the museum after the success of Dances With Wolves to share what he learned while making the movie. Bison are an incredible animal perfectly suited for the extremes of the west. They were also the basis of life for Plains Indians. They used every part of the animal for spiritual inspiration, food, clothing, shelter, household items, tools, weapons, and ceremonial items.
If you've never seen Dances With Wolves or love the spirit and mythology of the American West and Native Americans check it out.
We couldn't be so close to Sturgis and not stop in, so we did. The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally finished a week before we got there so the town was a sleepy little hamlet. It reminded me of Batavia, NY. One main drag lined with shops, some of them empty. Apparently the rally makes so much money businessmen can rent a building with a yearly lease and only open for business during the rally.
It's pedal to the medal as we head out of Sturgis. We're off to Montana and the Battle of Little Bighorn, otherwise know as Custer's Last Stand.
Oh yeah, anybody keeping track of animals out there. We saw a Marmot at Sylvan Lake and Trout & Deer at Spearfish Canyon. :)
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