Day 40: July 11th, Surrounded by a Herd of Bison

Another perfect day to ride in South Dakota!  After a delicious breakfast at the Hotel we headed to Mount Rushmore enjoying the sights along the way.  As we were walking into the shop area of the Park we came upon HOG members from Belgium.  Naturally we had to take a zillion pics of the group of us.

 

From the mountain faces we headed to Needles Hwy and enjoyed the sights as we climbed the hills, rode thru the tunnel, saw the famous needle rock, and headed down the hillside to Custer City for a buffalo burger lunch.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t too impressed this time with the meal….bummer.

Speaking of Bison/Buffalo, we got photo's of Buzz by one of the many "painted bison statues" displayed in Custer City. 

 

And would you believe, on our way from Custer City to the entrance of Iron Mtn Road, we came upon stopped traffic.  We couldn’t see the cause of the wait but after it became too long we parked the bikes on the side of the road and walked over to the other side….and that is when we saw a herd of bison in the road!

 

Holy Kwap!  I have to ride a motorcycle through a herd of bison??  No Freaking WAY!!!!   But I did, had no choice.  I was in the midst of the herd with a monster of a grand daddy giving me the evil eye.  I think somewhere in here I found religion and reverted to my altar boys days praying in latin!   Then just as suddenly the herd split up and I had an opportunity to scoot through them and safely arrive clear of the herd at the far end of the road. 

Buzz was not as fortunate…he was totally surrounded and engulfed by the herd.  Here are some pics showing the headlamp to his bike.

These bison are not little guys….they are HUGE!  And the grand daddy of the herd is one big dude with monster horns…..these guys are beasts!

After Buzz safely got through the herd we were off to Iron Mtn Road.  Unfortunately with the waning sunlight (the bison really held us up) we were able to get the full ride in but we could not get a decent photo at the tunnel with Mt. Rushmore in the distance.  We’ll have to ride the road again in the morning.

We made it to Keystone just as darkness set in, got a receipt at the local gas station, then toured the town of Keystone to Buzz’s delight.  He really likes touristy towns like this place that are full of shops and signs and lights and people.  Since we were hungry we had a pizza and a small sidewalk café and were absolutely ecstatic with the delicious pie….they really made a good one. 

Then it was back to the motel where we saw our imbibing friends of last night so we joined them for beers.

Tomorrow our schedule was for a visit to deadwood but we’re gonna ride Iron Mtn again so we can get some good photo’s at the tunnel.

C ya’ll mañana,
Gonzo
Twitter: @GonzoCrossUSA
Email: GonzoCrossUSA@gmail.com
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