Aug 6 - Tuesday

up early.. left the others in bed. Off to Rapid City, through Keystone, down to Custer State Park, the Needles Highway, and finally to Mt. Rushmore for an evening show..

very cool bridge ahead...

every roadside bar/restaurant has something going on...

the first of many tunnels to come

main st. Keystone, SD... next time we're going to stop here for awhile, but can't today - too much to see!

entrance to Mt. Rushmore - but we're not going there yet. we're heading down to Custer first...

Birch Trees! we haven't seen anything except Pine Trees the whole day!

entering Black Hills National Forest...

get used to seeing roads like this.... curve after curve after curve, and around every turn is another beautiful sight..

kinda cool to think that these roads are isolated all winter! wouldn't it be fun to take a snowmobile through them? Or an ATV?

our first switchback bridge... drive under, around, and over

coming around

almost right over the road

another switchback bridge ahead

Straight down off the side of the road - we just drove up those roads down there

roads on top of roads with no guardrails

our 2nd tunnel... but this one is much cooler! One lane

you have to honk your horn before entering. This was a problem - my horn is broke!

we made it out the other side.. people stop here to look back through the tunnel

looking back through the tunnel...

looking through the tunnel you can see Mt. Rushmore in the distance!

we climbed up a rock wall to a lookout area on top of the tunnel for an absolutely stunning view of Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills... there were only two other people who climbed up here

and they took our picture for us!

the granite looks like it is covered in Gold!