[skogorbet]

My girlfriend and I are planning a road trip to SD next week. We are coming from Colorado and plan on visiting some of the tourist sights, Mt Rushmore, Badlands, Deadwood, etc.... We have 5 days and plan on bringing bikes, and would like to have mtn biking as the focus of our trip. Any suggestions on must ride trails?

Thanks

 

[surlytman]

Look through similar threads in this section. Lots of tips as this question gets asked of us quite frequently.

 

[BruceBrown]

My girlfriend and I are planning a road trip to SD next week. We are coming from Colorado and plan on visiting some of the tourist sights, Mt Rushmore, Badlands, Deadwood, etc.... We have 5 days and plan on bringing bikes, and would like to have mtn biking as the focus of our trip. Any suggestions on must ride trails?

Thanks

Lots of must rides, but as has been said - a lot of threads on this forum about Black Hills riding. Close to Mt. Rushmore area is Storm Mountain which I consider a "must ride" trail while in the Hills. Look at the Black Hills Fat Tire Festival threads. The Festival was recently held and had a lot of organized group rides going to many of the "must ride" trails in the area.

Have fun while there. Great riding under beautiful blue skies with fresh pine scent and no crowds. You can't ride in the Badlands and that trip will take just about a full day out of the Black Hills to do the loop and drive back to the hills. Maybe head out early in the morning to see the Badlands, drive the loop, do some hiking, stop at Wall Drug and then head back to the Hills for some late afternoon, early evening mountain biking.

BB

 

[surlytman]

Good advice Bruce!

 

[arly]

visting SD, Curt Gowdy State Park?

If your driving up from CO you might want to stop by Curt Gowdy State Park just west of Cheyenne as seen in the photo below. In the B hills we found that some MB trails aren't marked well enough for out-of-town folks to follow. One that is well marked and really fun is Storm MT as others have mentioned. Only down is it's a tad short but they may have lengthening it since we were last there. Good luck!

 

[arly]

visting SD, Curt Gowdy State Park?

Opps!

If your driving up from CO you might want to stop by Curt Gowdy State Park just west of Cheyenne as seen in the photo below. In the B hills we found that some MB trails aren't marked well enough for out-of-town folks to follow. One that is well marked and really fun is Storm MT as others have mentioned. Only down is it's a tad short but they may have lengthening it since we were last there. Good luck!

 

[skogorbet]

Thanks for the info everyone. Really looking forward to getting out there and enjoying everything.

 

[sdsantacruzer]

Hey skogorbet, I'm from CO also and headed up to the Hills for the week. I'll be up Saturday June 30 through July 6.
Grew up there so know the trails well. A great ride is one called Bone Collector. I plan on spending the week riding and fishing so if you want to hook up I'll give you some company and guidance on Bone Collector. PM me if interested.

 

[Sauvage]

There are many local riders that check this site. Give us the dates you have available to ride as well as the times and one of us locals might make ourselves available to show you a loop or two.

Not sure why someone would think St. Mountain is to short, numerous loops that can lead to hours of riding time!

 

[surlytman]

There are many local riders that check this site. Give us the dates you have available to ride as well as the times and one of us locals might make ourselves available to show you a loop or two.

Not sure why someone would think St. Mountain is to short, numerous loops that can lead to hours of riding time!

agreed Jas. Storm short?

 

[arly]

Folks, If you feel didn’t say nice things about trail X please forgive us. We have ridden the Storm Mountain loop and liked it so much we returned to do it again. The builders may have added more miles to it since last July, but if they’re not marked well enough for out of town folks to follow, then its a moot point. We’ve ridden enough trails in a multitude of states, including many in the hills, we’ve had our fill of doing unmarked, un-follow-able trails. Point is if there not marked, they only exist for the locales. Again, please forgive us for stating that the well marked Storm Mnt, loop on its own, is a tad short.

 

[YouCanCallMeAl]

The Black Hills Mountain Bike association and various individuals are working on getting maps for area trails via GPS and we plan on posting these maps along with additional info at bhmba.org. I'm not sure when it will be done but hopefully it will be another resource for folks planning on riding in the hills.

 

[sparrow]

There are some maps on

www.acmebicycles.com under "trail information"

 

[surlytman]

Folks, If you feel didn't say nice things about trail X please forgive us. We have ridden the Storm Mountain loop and liked it so much we returned to do it again. The builders may have added more miles to it since last July, but if they're not marked well enough for out of town folks to follow, then its a moot point. We've ridden enough trails in a multitude of states, including many in the hills, we've had our fill of doing unmarked, un-follow-able trails. Point is if there not marked, they only exist for the locales. Again, please forgive us for stating that the well marked Storm Mnt, loop on its own, is a tad short.

Arley, no disrespect meant. As of now we(locals) make no bones about the fact that it is best to look one of us up when visiting. We have said it here on the board and other boards many times. We are in our infancy of this advocacy thing.......give us time, all of us want to make it so we dont have to haul you derned flatlanders around our trails as guides (if you knew me, you would know I am beeing a smartass, we love to show folks our area)

But, even if I NEVER had seen Storm, I could lose myself and follow trail therre for 3-4 hours! One thing about trails in an area like ours, you gotta pay attention, even when it is marked well. Between fires,drought,floods etc. our trails can vary from year to year for a person that just visits every so often.

Give one of us a call next time you come this way.