PAGE 76
FavoriteRidesandDestinations . com / ridermagazine . com
After a few gratifying hours hiking and taking pictures at Mt . Rushmore , I jumped back on the bike . Armed with some riding tips from the park ranger , I headed deeper into the Black Hills . They proved to be a rider ’ s dream , festooned with winding two-lane roads running between and sometimes through the strange rock formations that spring up on all sides . The Needles Highway , so named for the towering “ needles ” of granite which jut straight up out of the ground , winds for 14 miles among pine and spruce forests , meadows and vast outcroppings of rock towers . The rocks shoot up from the earth like craggy fingers pointed to the sky . It occurred to me that these scenic , narrow , twisting amusement-park roads would be perfect for sportbikes , but they were filled with chug-a-lug Harleys , including my rental .