Needles Highway, Custer State Park, South Dakota

Winding mountain road curves through a forested landscape with large granite rock formations on both sides.
Winding mountain road curves through a forested landscape with large granite rock formations on both sides.

Needles Highway winds for 14 miles through Custer State Park in South Dakota's Black Hills, connecting Sylvan Lake to the town of Custer. Completed in 1922 under the direction of former South Dakota governor Peter Norbeck, the road was engineered to weave around the area's granite spires rather than blast through them, a decision Norbeck made after scouting the route on foot and horseback. The highway's narrow tunnels, some just over eight feet wide, were cut directly through the granite formations that give the road its name. It's now designated a National Scenic Byway and remains one of the main routes for viewing the eroded granite pillars that rise throughout this section of the Black Hills.

Photo taken in July 2019.

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