Hood Tunnel, Needles Highway, South Dakota Poster

"Hood Tunnel, Needles Highway, Custer State Park, Black Hills, South Dakota" by Catherine Sherman. Motorcyclists prepare to enter Hood Tunnel, one of three narrow single-lane tunnels on the Needles Highway in Custer State Park, South Dakota, a 71,000-acres of hilly terrain and some grasslands. There are no bypasses around the tunnels on the twisty turny narrow Needles Highway. The park is noted for distinctive tall granite needle-like peaks; narrow, twisting roads, and the single-lane tunnels, as well as many wild animals such as bison and feral burros. The three tunnels: Hood Tunnel: 10 feet, 6 inches wide; 11 feet, 3 inches high Needles Eye Tunnel: 8 feet, 4 inches wide; 12 feet high Iron Creek Tunnel: 9 feet wide; 12 feet, 3 inches high The Needles Highway is fourteen miles long, part of the South Dakota 87 highway, and is inside Custer State Park. It's about 30 miles from Rapid City and 35 minutes from Mount Rushmore. The Needles road was marked by foot and horseback by former South Dakota Governor Peter Norbeck, who initiated the project despite being told it would be impossible. The highway was completed in 1922. My paternal grandfather John V. Sherman surveyed roads in the Black Hills in the 1920s, and I've wondered which roads he laid out. Needles Highway is one of three scenic routes along Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway.