Our last day of touring was today, starting with a long, steep climb up Iron Mountain Road for some more grassland and long distance views of Mount Rushmore followed by a ride up to the mountain’s base. But first, some details from yesterday that I left out. We stayed last night at the State Game…

Today we had a fabulous ride through Wind Cave National Park and Custer State Park. The forecast was for heavy rain all morning, but our luck held out and we had just light rain which stopped at about noon. Wind Cave National Park is one of the oldest national parks, created in 1914 to preserve…

Today the forecast was for cold rain most of the day, so when we arose to bright clear skies we all rushed to ride while the weather was good. It stayed that way until dinnertime, so we had a great day of riding. Most of it was on the Mickelson Trail again, with 9 miles…

Today we rode the Mickelson Trail, a former railroad converted to a multiuse trail 109 miles long. The day started out sunny but cool and wound up cloudy and cold with a light rain. It was a nice ride anyway. The Black Hills were formed by an uplift of hot magma rising under layers of…

Today’s ride was a beautiful 48 mile climb from Rapid City to Deadwood. The day started out warm and sunny but we had a little bit of rain in the afternoon. I, fortunately, lucked out of most of the rain. It’s cool, with a starting temperature tomorrow of only 45° rising to the mid-50s. The…

Rapid City is the second largest city in South Dakota, a state I first set foot in yesterday. It is bordered on to the west by the Black Hills with rolling prairie stretching out in every other direction, so it’s not quite flat. The downtown has statues of 41 US presidents. They don’t have Biden…