Needles Highway Black Hills South Dakota

tsetsaf wrote:
I would only drive it in YOUR RV ;). It is a great bike ride.

Don't know about your rv or anybody else, but like you said great ride on a bike as is Iron Mountain.

I rode over the Needles Highway when I was about 6 years old in our car. My Dad had me convinced that if I looked out of the back window of the car, I could see the front end of the car when we made some of those 180 degree turns.
As an adult, I've driven it in my Jeep Wrangler toad and its still scary. I'm glad I folded the mirrors in.

The road is so narrow that riders on bicycles had to pull off so we could get by. There was not enough room for us to pass them even when they were riding single file. We would have taken them out if we tried to pass them in our dually truck. We were not towing.

Took that bus tour a few years back. Good as the bus drivers are the busses have their scuffs and dents.

If I remember correctly, there are 6 tunnels in the loop. We got through them all in our Class B Pleasureway Excel this past Sept. There are only a couple you could get a bus through.

The tour company that takes its busses through the pictured Needles eye tunnel does it several times a day in season. Read the company name on front of the bus. Never a mishap.
The bus they use is an older 96" wide low round roofed model that has clearance.
There is no danger or concern of safety for the drivers or their passengers.
No modern bus or rv with their width and roof fixtures will pass through.

I would only drive it in YOUR RV ;). It is a great bike ride.

The tour buses that go through the tunnel are 96" not the new 102" buses. You will get stuck and possibly worse. With the 96" bus, there is about 1" clearance on the mirrors on each side.

When we worked in the park, one of the tour buses was half way thru and some jerk in his Dodge pickum up truck pulled in and wouldn't move. The bus driver had to back out of the tunnel. He came into the store and related the story, he was not a happy camper.

Saw a Prevost tour bus stuck in the hole once... pretty sad.

Been through that tunnel in the Black Hills on the Needles Highway many times. We camp in Custer State Park every Fall. It is quite an experience. Of course we don't have our TT in tow at the time.

Don't miss that drive if you ever tour the Black Hills of SD or the "pig tail" turns on the Iron Mountain Road, both drives within several miles of Mount Rushmore.