Completed: 7 day "Bad Devil Tour"

[cranecamsou]

Wife and I have never been to South Dakota and wanted to see Mt. Rushmore this summer. What better way to do it than on a 7 day cycling tour? Trip was fantastic, hats off to Jim at Dakota Bike Tours. The ride was very well planned, supported, and simply amazing start to finish. Here's some stats for the week, and a few pics:






Start of the week in Sundance, WY



Devils Tower, great views leading into and out of the area.



Climbing up Spearfish Canyon, incredible scenery.



Nice lodge for the evening. Interesting movie fact #1: the winter camp scenes in Dances with Wolves we filmed right around the corner to the right.



One of the other riders had this friction/sti shifter setup



Mickelson trail was fantastic. The Black Hills really were a great surprise.


More Mickelson - one of several tunnels



Cool rocks on the side of the road



Switchbacks on the way up to Sylvan Lake



On the banks of Sylvan Lake



Tatonka! The big guy on the right was snorting at me while crossing the road.
Check out the GoPro footage in HD - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOwXwKDdh5A



Crazy Horse. For those wondering about scale, all of Mt. Rushmore can fit in Crazy Horse's head.



Killer side view of Rushmore that you rarely see on TV or magazines.



Just trying to find some shade out in the plains.



Caputa, SD. Great little rest stop, very accommodating owners. Movie fact #2: many frontier scenes including Ft. Hays were shot on the owners' ranch on the other side of the highway. If you ever stop by, be sure to check out the story board in the dining hall.



Little guy catching some shade



#7



Lodging for the night, great down to earth family run bed & breakfast (as a second full time job to running a cattle ranch)



Leaving the ranch, headed to the Badlands



Badlands NP, SD



Some riders off in the distance


That's all, thanks for taking a look!

 

[madmax718]

Beautiful trip! If Im reading that correctly, that is a lot of elevation changes! was it brutal?

Also, how much does a trip like this cost?

 

[cranecamsou]

Thanks! In total, the trip was a net downhill, but not by much. There were a few difficult set of climbs (6-8% for a couple miles), but I wouldn't call the trip brutal. Challenging yes, but not hard enough to spoil the fun.

Cost was $1,800 per person. This sounds like a lot, but it includes every expense over 7 days - except for 3 lunches. Along with all the lodging and food (We stayed in nice hotels/lodges/B&B's, breakfast and dinners were very good - Buffalo tenderloin at Sylvan Lake was crazy good -, and Jim hosted a few happy hours post ride) we had 3 guides, SAG support, and all of our gear was shuttled from start to finish. When you add it all up, this was very reasonable.