20.aug.19 - Iron Mountain Road - Black Hills South Dakota
This narrow, winding, scenic road with overlooks of the Black Hills and narrow, low tunnels opening to unique views of Mount Rushmore Memorial was a great little road trip.
The RV could just about fit through the first tunnel and care had to be taken on some of the switchbacks. I was the largest vehicle on the road but a somewhat larger vehicle could make it as well. I understand full size buses have done so - probably with some grease and a shoehorn and a better driver than I am.
The Lazy Daze is 10' 1" to the top of the Air Conditioner and 9' Wide mirror to mirror - which I measured myself, carefully. And I got the tunnel dimensions from the Custer State Park Newspaper and queried the Park Rangers as well.
There are various dimensions posted on-line and I used the smallest to make my decision to travel the road.
For a caution as well as an inspiration:
https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/3997-iron-mountain-road.html
There is another road, also designed to be scenic, called "Needles Highway" and I travelled a bit of its lower reaches but its tunnels are too narrow and low for the RV.
The narrowest tunnel is 8' 0" Wide and the lowest is 9' 8" according to the Custer State Park Newspaper.
Scovel Johnson Tunnel - the narrowest and lowest - 10' 9" Wide x 11' 0" tall according to the Custer State Park Newspaper (vol 40 2019)
View of Mount Rushmore Memorial on exiting a tunnel (I forget which one). The entire road travelling east to west is designed to dramatize the approach to the Memorial. That is the direction I took and would recommend.
Center Lake - Custer State Park
"Pigtail Bridge" in the rear view mirror of the RV
The RV could just about fit through the first tunnel and care had to be taken on some of the switchbacks. I was the largest vehicle on the road but a somewhat larger vehicle could make it as well. I understand full size buses have done so - probably with some grease and a shoehorn and a better driver than I am.
The Lazy Daze is 10' 1" to the top of the Air Conditioner and 9' Wide mirror to mirror - which I measured myself, carefully. And I got the tunnel dimensions from the Custer State Park Newspaper and queried the Park Rangers as well.
There are various dimensions posted on-line and I used the smallest to make my decision to travel the road.
For a caution as well as an inspiration:
https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/3997-iron-mountain-road.html
There is another road, also designed to be scenic, called "Needles Highway" and I travelled a bit of its lower reaches but its tunnels are too narrow and low for the RV.
The narrowest tunnel is 8' 0" Wide and the lowest is 9' 8" according to the Custer State Park Newspaper.
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