A Crowded Cruise Down Spearfish Canyon

© Ken Bingenheimer / RumBum.com

Spearfish Canyon is one of the three best motorcycle roads in the Black Hills, and therefore is a favorite of the bikers who come to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which is just coming to a close. U.S. 14A runs up the canyon from the town of Spearfish to connect with U.S. 85 heading east to Deadwood. From Deadwood it runs down Boulder Canyon to Sturgis. With a quick blast on I-90 to complete the circuit, you are back in Spearfish, so the circuit is a natural, regardless of your starting point.

Monday was hot in Sturgis so I figured a cruise in the hills was just the thing to cool off. Traffic moved well going up Boulder Canyon until the final hill before the road drops down into Deadwood. Then it was stop and go until I got into Deadwood, where it was gridlock. I finally got through and out the other side and then it was a quick – and cool – ride on to the head of Spearfish Canyon.

Cut through rock of sandstone, shale, and limestone, the canyon has steep, sheer rock walls of varied colors and lots of curves. In other words, a motorcyclist’s dream. Through its 15-mile length I saw maybe a thousand other motorcyclists dreaming this same dream with me. I’ll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours.

© Ken Bingenheimer / RumBum.comI pulled off at Bridal Veil falls to see the falls, and snapped a few shots of a couple posing for friends in front of the falls. I made sure to get passing motorcyclists in my pictures. Just as I pushed the starter button to be on my way, the couple I’d just photographed called out to me to wait. It turns out they were on a Kawasaki Concours just like the one I was on, but a year newer. He wanted to know about my highway pegs.

These highway pegs are great and I totally understood his interest. For years you couldn’t get any for the Concours but a few years ago a guy named Murph, who makes a living designing and fabricating products for Concourses, came out with these. So I told this guy all about Murph and where to get the pegs.

The funny thing is, of course, that I first ran across these pegs when Judy, my wife, and I were in the Black Hills two years ago. We were on the Needles Highway, one of the two other best roads in the area, and I spotted a guy on a Concours with these same pegs. We we stopped at a viewpoint along the road and I approached him just like this guy approached me. Murph wins another fan.

A little later on I pulled out at another viewpoint and then noticed a group with cameras gathered around a couple on a bike. On the windshield was written “Just Married” and they were posing for their wedding pictures. I shot a few of them, too.

Down the road I cruised, taking it easy so as to stop and shoot more pictures whenever I saw a good shot. I do this a lot, but with the rally going on I don’t have to stop and wait and wait and wait in hopes that a bike will come along so I can get it in the picture. The only question here is getting a good group of bikes in the picture, and if this group isn’t bunched up enough for the shot I want I just wait for the next group.

Coming around a curve at one point a rider going the other way signaled for me to take it slow, presumably because of a speed trap ahead. I was already going slow so it was no problem for me but a moment later three bikes tore around me and rocketed on ahead. Just then we came upon the cops and one standing by the road pointed demonstratively at the three, one by one, waving them over. Better luck next time, guys.

Not much later I rolled out onto the rolling prairie and the amazingly attractive small town of Spearfish. At a different time of year I might turn around and go right back up the canyon. But with the bottleneck in Deadwood I opted for the interstate back to Sturgis. And dang, now I was back in the heat.