Needles in the Hills

Finally, after six hours of driving, we arrived somewhere that had actual elevation variations. Our first sight in the Black Hills of South Dakota was the Crazy Horse statue, which, when complete, will be the largest scuplture in the world. The problem is that while work commenced in 1948, only the head and a hole under the arm is complete. Like Mount Rushmore, it's carved into the side of a mountain, which makes it difficult for them to charge the admission fees they require for funding construction work, since you can see it from the highway. A quick drive-by and photo stop was sufficient to see what we needed to see.

We then traversed Custer State Park in the Black Hills on what is called Needles Highway, thanks to the bizarre granite rock spires that permeate the forest. Winding our way up to the summit of the road, we encountered tunnels drilled through solid rock and some amazing vistas. At the top of the highway is the Needle's Eye, which reaches 40 feet into the air with a three-foot-wide slit straight through it. The scale of these things is truly massive and their location, haphazardly scattered throughout these hills, is just strange.

For my Black Hills photo album, click here.