Needles Highway

When we were in Mitchell, South Dakota, we stopped at a Cabela's to look at spotting scopes.  The sales clerk was extremely helpful but basically talked us out of buying a spotting scope saying a good set of binoculars is better for viewing wildlife and we already have those.  When we told him we were headed to the Black Hills area, he recommended that we take a couple of drives:   Needles Highway and Spearfish Canyon. 

After walking Saturday morning around the campground, we decided to pack a picnic lunch and take a day trip down the Needles Highway.  We had never heard of it and so we really didn't know what to expect.

As we started the drive, we saw some interesting rock formations...

 

...and a lot more dead Ponderosa pines.

 

We thought the rock formation on the right looks like a BIG set of toes.

 

As we went a little further down the road, we saw this guy sitting way up on top of a rock.

He had just finished climbing that rock and was holding the rope while the next guy climbed up.

We parked there for a few minutes and watched the last guy climb up to the top.

After watching the rock climbers, we drove further up the road towards The Needles.  We had no idea what to expect, but they were magnificent.

This formation was called "The Needles Eye."

Appropriately named, wouldn't you agree?

 

We were surrounded by these beautiful "needles" and other rock formations.

 

 

These rock formations or "needles" were huge.  Can you see Chuck standing in front of this one?

 

 

 



In between and underneath these "needles" was the tunnel we were going to have to drive through to get to the other side.

 

But first, this car pulling a little camper had to very, very carefully make its way through.

The driver's wife walked behind the camper making sure he didn't get too close to the sides.  (I would have been walking behind the camper too because I would be afraid we would get stuck inside the tunnel!)

Now, it was our turn...

After we drove through the tunnel, we came to another pull-off where there were some people feeding tortilla chips to the chipmunks.

 

Feeding Alvin and his brothers is not something I care to do, so I just took a movie of them.

From the overlook, we could see the tunnel we had just driven through...

 

...and the other side of the Needles.

As we continued down the Needles Highway, we saw more rock towers or Needles.

They kind of looked like stalacmites like what you would see inside the floor of a cave.

 

As we traveled further, we could see the Cathedral Spires.

We saw another rock climber scaling one of the Spires.

There were other pull-offs where we could look back at other views of the Cathedral Spires.

At the end of the Needles Highway, we turned down Playhouse Road and Chuck spotted these deer.

We pulled into the picnic area at Center Lake, and found a perfect spot for our picnic.

WOW!  What a day!  Chuck and I agreed Needles Highway is way up there on our list of "most impressive things" we have seen since we have been full-timing.