Today, on the advice of a friend, we traveled to the town of Spearfish and road the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway towards Cheyenne Crossing along Rt. 14a. The Weather was great with lots of sun and cool early in the morning. It was a welcome change after yesterday's afternoon ride home in the heat.

    The road had many gentle curves compared to Needles Highway (I will post on that soon, promise) and was a very relaxing ride. The scenery was the best we have had so far. We stopped at Bridal Falls and The Devil's Bath Tub, which is a popular hiking trail but not as pretty a Bridal Falls. Bridal Falls was worth stopping for. 

Devils Bathtub.

Amazing road and pleasant to the eye.

    In our rush to ride in the cool morning air, we had skipped breakfast. At the intersection of Rt. 85 we saw a store and Nancy suggested we stop. Turned out it was an excellent decision.

Turns out it has a Cafe and the food was outstanding. The historical marker talked about the significance of the road intersection or "crossing" and a couple pictures of the food.

Nancy had Sarah's Special Strawberry Pancakes with sausage and we shared a side of a buffalo sausage patty. 

I had the Indian Taco which is built on top of Indian bread from a local recipe.

Unbelievable how good it was. We vowed to come back before we leave. There was a woman, we forget her name, at the checkout who had in-depth knowledge of the roads in the area and helped us make some decisions for the rest of the day's ride. So if you are ever in the area look this place up. 

    We went right on Rt. 85 towards Wyoming and crossed the state line. We hit a plateau and had some wonderful views with many snow fences. There were signs about road closures if they were blinking. I bet that happens a lot in the winter.

    We turned back and did the canyon road again. This time stopping at Rough Lock Falls. A short 1-mile ride on a dirt road but very passable for motorcycles.

A short hike gave you another view and you could see the lower part of the falls.

This is a panoramic shot from the parking area of the falls. If you click the picture it gets larger and shows more detail.

    We found another way home via Lead and Nemo. Rt. 385 had a road closing we hit yesterday and were looking for a better way to get from Rapid City/Custer State Park back to Sturgis without using Interstate 90 West. This turned out to be a great road and ends back in Sturgis near Exit 32 Off 90 West.

In the Lead/Deadwood area go South on Rt. 385 which heads towards Nemo. Take the Nemo Road to Nemo and take Rt. 26 North. This was hard to find with some more road construction right at the intersection and the road is not well marked. 

Once back in Sturgis we stopped at the Sturgis Harley Davidson shop and got more stuff. Because why not?

TTFN.

End.