South Dakota Highway 87 (SD 87) is a

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large po ...

. It travels through the

Black Hills The Black Hills ( lkt, Ȟe Sápa; chy, Moʼȯhta-voʼhonáaeva; hid, awaxaawi shiibisha) is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black ...

region. The highway's southern terminus is at an

intersection In mathematics, the intersection of two or more objects is another object consisting of everything that is contained in all of the objects simultaneously. For example, in Euclidean geometry, when two lines in a plane are not parallel, thei ...

with U.S. Route 385 (US 385), about southeast of Pringle, within the southwestern part of

Wind Cave National Park Wind Cave National Park is an American national park located north of the town of Hot Springs in western South Dakota. Established on January 3, 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt, it was the sixth national park in the U.S. and the first c ...

. Its northern terminus is at an intersection with US 16/US 385 about south-southwest of Hill City, within the east-central part of the

Black Hills National Forest Black Hills National Forest is located in southwestern South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming, United States. The forest has an area of over 1.25 million acres (5,066 km²) and is managed by the Forest Service. Forest headquarters are locate ...

. The highway travels through

and

Custer State Park Custer State Park is a South Dakota State Park and wildlife reserve in the Black Hills, United States. The park is South Dakota's largest and first state park, named after Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer. The park covers an area of over of ...

. The northern of the highway is also known as the Needles Highway. The Needles Highway, along with the concurrency with US 16A, are also part of the

Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway The Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway is a National Scenic Byway in the Black Hills National Forest in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of South Dakota. It is a loop which is composed of portions of U.S. Route 16A (US 16A), South Dakota Hig ...

. Portions of the highway are also a section of Custer State Park's Wildlife Loop.

Route description

Because of the highway's mountainous, curving nature, it is closed during the winter.

South of US 16A

Highway 87 begins at US 385 in

, east of Pringle and west of the park headquarters. North of US 385, the route crosses Cold Spring Creek and provides access to the upstream Lake Norbeck, named after Senator

Peter Norbeck Peter Norbeck (August 27, 1870December 20, 1936) was an American politician from South Dakota. After serving two terms as the ninth Governor of South Dakota, Norbeck was elected to three consecutive terms as a United States Senator. Norbeck was ...

, instrumental in establishing several of the national and state parks in the Black Hills. From the start, SD 87 is a very twisting and winding route, with a 180°

hairpin turn A hairpin turn (also hairpin bend or hairpin corner) is a bend in a road with a very acute inner angle, making it necessary for an oncoming vehicle to turn about 180° to continue on the road. It is named for its resemblance to a bent metal ha ...

only a from the southern end. This results in the route taking a westerly track, though it eventually turns back north and crosses Beaver Creek. into the route, it bridges itself and executes a 270° turn. The route enters

north of US 385. Unless you travel the 16A route non-stop, admission to the park requires an entrance license; , for a 1 to 7day pass the fee is $20 per vehicle, an annual park entrance license is $36. Highway 87 then becomes part of the park's Wildlife Loop, and runs through the town of Blue Bell. At milepost 17.180 (27.649 km), Highway 87 intersects U.S. Route 16A. From this point onward, the road is part of the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway. The two routes form a concurrency and proceed east, passing Legion Lake. The roads split after just under .

Needles Highway

After splitting from US 16A, the route is known as the Needles Highway. This segment is long. Finished in 1922, the highway is named after the high

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...

" needles" it winds among. Access to the portion of the Needles Highway between the intersection with SD 89 and the intersection with US-16A east requires a Custer State Park entrance license, making that portion of SD 87 a

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or '' toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implement ...

. Along this stretch lies the Black Hills Playhouse. The highway passes through two tunnels blasted through sheer granite walls — Iron Creek Tunnel and Needles Eye Tunnel. That part of the road is almost exclusively used by sightseers. Just after Needles Eye Tunnel, Highway 87 serves as the northern terminus of

SD 89 South Dakota Highway 89 (SD 89) is a state highway in Fall River and Custer counties in South Dakota, United States, that travels from U.S. Route 18 (US 18) near Minnekahta to SD 87 in Custer State Park. SD 89 ...

. After this junction, SD 87 has one more tunnel, Hood Tunnel. It then provides access to the Sylvan Lake Resort. The route finally ends at

US 16 U.S. Route 16 (US 16) is an east–west United States Highway between Rapid City, South Dakota and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. The highway's eastern terminus is at a junction with Interstate 90/U.S. Route 14 (I-90/US 14), conc ...

/385 south of Hill City. Needles Highway overlook

Major intersections

References

External links