July 2014. Needles Highway (SD87), Black Hills, SD. This 14-mile stretch of highway was completed in 1922, and is named for the tall, jagged rock formations it is built through and around. It's the way we drove to get to Sylvan Lake, which also has some amazing rock formations and is a rock-climbing destination (unfortunately the boys didn't get to climb there this year).
The highway passes through two tunnels blasted through sheer granite walls—Iron Creek Tunnel and Needles Eye Tunnel. Owing to the narrow roadway, sharp turns, and low tunnels, the road has very little traffic and closes in winter. The vehicles that do travel this road are almost exclusively sightseers. Here you see Cook standing next to one of the tunnels, which is only one lane wide. Crazy stuff.
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