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South Dakota Motorcycle Ride: Exploring the Badlands and Black Hills
Badlands National Park can be a busy place in the summer, but if you take roads less traveled, you can challenge your off-pavement skills and have views all to yourself. (Photos by the author)
In River-Horse, William Least Heat-Moon’s book about his journey across the United States by boat, he mentions carrying a small sign with the Quaker aphorism: “Proceed as the Way Opens.” That phrase is my motto for both motorcycle travel and life in general, and it certainly applied to the trip my long-time riding buddy Howard and I took through western South Dakota.
Scan QR code above or click here to view the route on REVER
Dealing with storms and changing road conditions meant that we had to continually rethink our plans to ride through Badlands National Park and the Black Hills BDR-X adventure route on our small dual-sports – my Honda CRF300L Rally and Howard’s Suzuki DR-Z400S.
We live in Nebraska, so the first leg of our journey was to ride north into South Dakota via U.S. Route 83. We passed through the Rosebud Indian Reservation and then tacked west on Interstate 90 to the town of Interior (pop. 65), just outside the southeast entrance of Badlands National Park.
We kept luggage light on this trip by staying at little motels along the way instead of hauling camping gear.
That evening we stayed at Badlands Hotel & Campground, a perfect base camp just outside the national park that has RV and tent sites, hotel rooms, a restaurant, a general store, an outdoor pool, and other amenities. We parked our bikes just outside our room and relaxed on the porch with a cold beverage. The resort is only open from late April to mid-October, so keep that in mind when trip planning.
A bighorn sheep in South Dakota.
After arising refreshed and refueling our bikes and bodies, we rode through Badlands National Park. Our little dual-sports were the perfect vehicles for exploring winding paved roads, fast gravel sections, and rutted, barely-there unmaintained two-track.
If you venture into Badland’s Stronghold District, be sure to carry plenty of water and watch for storms that could result in mud or flash floods.
Badlands has wild animals both large and small, including bison, bighorn sheep, and prairie dogs, so stay sharp and keep speed within posted limits. Visitors, especially those on motorcycles, need to remember that bison, sometimes whimsically referred to as “fluffy cows,” are not tame and can be dangerous.
Badlands is the rare national park where the English and Indigenous names translate out the same, with the Lakota calling the area Mako Sica, which means “Land Bad.”
After exploring gravel roads on the eastern edge of the park, we took off west on the paved and winding Badlands Loop Road, leading us to the Pinnacles Overlook and then the gravel Rim Road, which heads into the more remote western areas of the park. Once we left the pavement, the number of visitors dropped dramatically, making us feel like we had the wide-open spaces all to ourselves.
Rim Road becomes Sage Creek Road and transitions from gravel to chip seal, a rough type of pavement with crushed rock compressed into a thin layer of liquid asphalt. It can feel a little squirrelly compared to traditional pavement, but our knobby-tired dual-sports took it all in stride.
Though Howard and I both shop at the big-and-tall store, our lightweight dual-sports – my Honda CRF300L Rally and his Suzuki DR-Z400S – were perfect for exploring South Dakota.
We exited the park near the Sage Creek Campground and arrived in Scenic (pop. 52), where we continued south on Bombing Range Road into the largely undeveloped Stronghold District of Badlands. For the adventure and dual-sport riders, a highlight of the Stronghold area is heading west on Sheep Mountain Road into some of the most gorgeous and remote land in the park.
After about 5 miles of decent gravel, Sheep Mountain Road becomes a minimally maintained dirt road requiring an off-road-capable bike with good ground clearance, long-travel suspension, and knobby tires. The road varies between deep ruts, sand, and grassy two-track – exactly what we wanted on light dual-sports like ours. The conditions required steady throttle in 2nd gear. As long as we kept moving, we were fine, but there were places where we would not have wanted to stall out. Be sure to keep an eye on the weather as the dirt portion of the route is impassable during and following storms. Speaking of which…
Down a gravel road in the eastern unit of Badlands is the Roberts Prairie Dog Town. They’re cute, but keep your distance – they have been known to carry the plague!
It was nearing dark when we stopped for gas outside of Rapid City, and a look to the west showed dark clouds frequently lit by bolts of lightning. Fortunately, our route for the rest of the day was on pavement, and we prepared ourselves to get wet by closing up the vents and collars on our gear. We rode through heavy rain for the last half hour as we ascended into the Black Hills to Keystone.
It stormed on and off all night and light rain was still falling in the morning, so we had a decision to make. This trip was a vacation for Howard and me, and we didn’t want to spoil it by damaging our bikes or bodies. We decided against braving the fresh mud on Stage 1 of the Black Hills BDR-X. Instead, we proceeded a more open way, taking paved backroads to the motorcycle mecca of Sturgis.
Devils Tower National Monument
We enjoyed western South Dakota’s paved twisties during an off-peak time of year, when there were few tourists and no bikers gathering for the big rally held every August. Sturgis Coffee Company on Lazelle Street was the perfect place to warm up with a hot beverage before heading back out into the damp cold. Then it was on to Devils Tower National Monument, just over the border into Wyoming. We finished the day by riding into Spearfish, by far the largest town we would stay at with a population of about 12,000 people.
The next morning presented us with another “choose your own adventure” day. We still wanted to avoid the mud and some of the more challenging sections of Stage 2 of the BDR-X, so we mapped out our own path through the Black Hills National Forest, incorporating maybe a quarter of the official route. We started on Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway down to Roughlock Falls Nature Area, running past deep canyon walls with streams and waterfalls along the road. This is a great place to stop to relax or go for a hike.
On the Black Hills BDR-X, wear shorts under your riding gear so you can go hiking in the Roughlock Falls area off Spearfish Canyon.
Leaving the nature area and most of the tourists behind, we followed a couple of nicely flowing gravel roads: Roughlock Falls Road (FS 222) along Little Spearfish Creek and past the site where the final scene of Dances With Wolves was filmed; Tinton Road (FS 134); O’Neil Pass/Rapid Creek Road (FS 231); and finally Boles Canyon Road (FS 117), a dirt road through gorgeous woods and range land.
Our goal was to avoid the mud, but the mud found us, though there was generally a dry line to follow. FS 117 turned to gravel and was easier to ride. Be sure to keep your eyes open for the cattle inhabiting the area as well as the “souvenirs” they leave behind. At the junction with West Deerfield Road (FS 110), we rode southeast on gravel and then fresh pavement leading into Hill City, our destination for the evening.
We planned to focus on the Black Hills BDR-X, a 355-mile adventure loop through Black Hills National Forest and Custer State Park. Weather forced us to pivot, but we still got to spend quality time on the route.
After a full day without rain, Howard and I were able to ride the entire Stage 3 of the BDR-X. It was a good mix of gravel roads along with some two-track that ranged from easy to challenging. There were lots of barbed-wire gates to open and close, but fortunately most of the mud had dried up.
Custer State Park was the highlight of the day. An excellent gravel road took us away from the pavement and through sections where we met no one else other than a couple of pronghorns and a bison or two. There is a mostly paved route through the park that would be more friendly to cruisers and touring bikes, but the gravel roads were in great condition and let us experience rarely seen parts of the park.
Back in Keystone, we had our best dinner of the trip at The Front Porch Restaurant and Bar. I had a “grown-up grilled cheese” with bacon and tomatoes. We spoke with a couple of gentlemen who had ridden Stage 2 of the BDR-X a day earlier, and from their reports of multiple “mud naps,” I’m glad we plotted our own route.
See all of Rider’s West U.S. Motorcycle Rides here.
Before returning home, we visited a couple of man-made monuments. The first was Mount Rushmore National Memorial just outside Keystone, which is much more impressive in scale and grandeur than photos we’ve all seen a million times. We then took twisty backroads down through Custer and Hot Springs before taking long, straight highways back into Nebraska.
Mount Rushmore is awe-inspiring.
We closed out our adventure with a visit to Carhenge, located just north of Alliance, Nebraska, which is like England’s Stonehenge except done with old car and truck bodies instead of monoliths.
As we putted along on our little tiddlers toward home, we wouldn’t have minded being on bigger, comfier bikes, but for our Badlands and Black Hills adventure, they fit the bill. As Howard put it, “Our trip was like an hourglass. The top and bottom portions heading to and from South Dakota were wide open to whatever type of bike you wanted to ride. But the portions in the middle with wet, off-pavement riding were so narrowly focused that our lightweight dual-sports were perfect.”
Carhenge is a can’t-miss attraction in the northwest corner of Nebraska, with an eclectic mix of car-parts sculptures to go with the automotive recreation of the British prehistoric landmark.
Like much in life, our trip did not go according to plan, but we ended up having a great time getting out onto remote roads – paved, gravel, and dirt – by proceeding as the way opened.
See all of Rider’s touring stories here
South Dakota Motorcycle Ride Resources
South Dakota Tourism
Black Hills & Badlands Tourism
Black Hills BDR-X
Badlands National Park
Devils Tower National Monument
Mount Rushmore National Memorial
Custer State Park
Badlands Hotel & Campground
Sturgis Coffee Company
Ralph E. Hanson is a journalism professor and textbook author based in central Nebraska. When he isn’t teaching or writing, he’s riding his Honda CRF300L Rally or his Suzuki V-Strom 650. He’s currently trying to ride as much of the Lewis and Clark route as possible.
The post South Dakota Motorcycle Ride: Exploring the Badlands and Black Hills appeared first on Rider Magazine.
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