Where the Buffalo Roam

The lake at Black Hills

View of Rt. 385 - into the Black Hills!  This area of the country smelled amazing!  The tall trees and lack of undergrowth provided gorgeous landscape to roll through.

View from The Needles Pkwy - the most challenging road I'd ridden to this point.  Really, a marked 5mph hairpin turn!

All in all I haven't been too paranoid of head-on collisions - until I went through six of these one-lane tunnels bored through the mountains!  Three on The Needles Pkwy and three on Iron Mountain Road.  Clearly, I'm fine!  And they were VERY fun - roads and tunnels.

Wildlife ... or was it Wilderness Loop Road:

A massive herd of buffalo!  As you can see they're plenty far away...right?

A few broke off to come check out the vehicles while the rest took dirt baths, played, urinated, pooped and grazed!

By the time I got to wondering what it must have been like for the natives to hunt these animals those knuckle-heads in the oncoming lane kept edging forward for closer pictures which drove the herd right toward me!  By the time they were 15 yards away and in the oncoming lane there were three full sized adults and two or three young NEXT to me as I rode by with motivation only Meatloaf can summon in a life or death situation!

A view from Iron Mountain Road.  By the time I was at the top of this road those clouds in the distance were dumping golf-ball sized hail on the townsfolk.  I got my coward on and took refuge beneath a covered park billboard!  I never experienced the hail but I did take on a light refreshing shower before dark.

'Merica!