Adventure Cycling Association

You’ll meet up with your tour leaders and the rest of the group just outside Rapid City. Here you and your fellow adventure cyclists will have an orientation session and map meeting, followed by a hearty dinner. Our on-tour mechanic can help you make any final adjustments to your bicycle, and then it’s time to crawl into the tent and get some shut-eye in preparation for the day ahead.

Not long after leaving Rapid City, we’ll merge onto the relatively quiet Nemo Road, following it for most of the day. Our lunch stop will be in the once-thriving Homestake Mine company town of Nemo. No one is certain how the town got its name, but there are at least three theories: it was either named after Captain Nemo of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, after “omen” spelled backwards, or after an Indian word meaning “nowhere.” At day’s end, we’ll pitch our tents in Deadwood, a lively casino-gaming town that is anything but dead.

Before leaving Deadwood, you’ll want to swing in and have a look at the No. 10 Saloon, in which Wild Bill Hickok met his maker after being shot while playing poker. Leaving town, we’ll pedal onto the splendid, traffic-free Mickelson Trail, a gravel rail trail that we’ll follow for the next 80-plus miles. Before reaching the day’s destination of Hill City, we’ll swing into another locally famous watering hole, the Moonshine Gulch Saloon in tiny Rochford, for a refreshment of ice cream or sarsaparilla. South of historic Hill City, we’ll set up camp just off the Mickelson Trail.

Before riding into Custer in the morning, we’ll pedal on the Mickelson Trail past the famed Crazy Horse Memorial, a sculpture that, when finished, will dwarf even Mount Rushmore. Begun in 1948 by Korczak Ziolkowski, the sculptor’s family has been continuing his work since he passed away in 1982. We’ll continue riding to Hot Springs, where we’ll set up camp for the night.

After breakfast, we’ll pedal through Wind Cave National Park, which protects one of the largest and most complex caves in the world with 94 miles of known passageways snaking through Paha Sapa Limestone. Above ground in the fresh Dakota air, the park supports 28,000 acres of ponderosa pine forests and one of the best and largest examples of native mixed-grass prairie remaining full of bison, elk, prairie dogs, and more. We’ll overnight in gigantic Custer State Park, and relax along the Grace Coolidge Creek.

There is so much to do around Custer State Park, we wanted to give more time to explore. Choose from spending more time on the Wildlife Loop Road, heading to Sylvan Lake and renting kayaks, or even take a spin on the Needles Highway. And if you’re looking for a more relaxing day off, the nearby visitor center and ample shade will provide a great space to recharge for the last couple days of the tour.

Returning to Hill City via a different set of roads, we’ll have an opportunity to visit the world-famous Mount Rushmore National Memorial as well as enjoy a host of other activities and attractions, such as the town of Keystone and the Black Hills Central Railroad in Hill City. This historic steam locomotive, which once hauled gold out of the Black Hills, now carries tourists.

All too soon, we’re back in Rapid City, which we’ll re-enter by way of the scenic Sheridan Lake Road. After this weeklong sampler of the bucolic Black Hills, however, we think you’ll come back for another taste. In fact, we’d bet on it in Deadwood.