Spearfish Recreation Trail -- Spearfish, SD

This is Part 1 of an 8-part blog series chronicaling a 7-day road trip, during which we were able to achieve riding our bikes in 8 different states toward our goal of riding in all 50 states. 

Links to all posts:

Day 1: South Dakota

Day 2: Montana

Day 3: Idaho

Day 4: Washington and Oregon

Day 5: Utah

Day 6: Wyoming and Colorado

Day 7: No rides or posts, just finished driving the rest of the way home.

The Grand Adventure begins 

Day 1:

 On a road trip to move a kid to college on the west coast, we were able to knock out 8 states on our
"Ride in all 50 States" goal. 

This post chronicles day #1 of our 7-day trip.

The rental van was packed to the gills with college student "stuff",

but we made sure there was room for our two folding bikes in the back!

As we headed east out of town just after 7:00 am we saw 

this beautiful Kansas sunrise.

We traveled through Nebraska

took I-29 up through Iowa

and into South Dakota

at Sioux City

proclaiming itself

When the driver saw this just after we rolled north beyond Sioux City, 

you should have seen his eyes light up.

And then we got on I-90 and headed west, with the ultimate destination being "until we hit ocean",
but not today.

This part of South Dakota was a dead ringer for 

the landscape of our Kansas home

We had a great time as we rolled along, singing along to the sounds of our formative years on satellite radio "80s on 8" and "Hair Nation." 

Hands down the best song in the history of forever, right here, says her.

We entertained ourselves poking fun at:

"The World's Largest Bull Head."
What would possess one to need an up close picture? ~S

"The World's Only Corn Palace."
Been there! :D ~S

The bazillion Wall Drug Billboards

And the rest stop with a miniature church. (I'm sure there's a story there.)
There is a matching one in the Eastbound rest stop area as well.   ~S 

See how much fun we were having?  It's awesome when you can spend 11 hours in a vehicle with your spouse and have a great time doing it!

Er-ma-gard look!!!  Wall Drug!  FINALLY! (We didn't stop).  LOL 

We arrived in Spearfish, South Dakota, our destination for this day, at about 6:00 pm. Stayed at the Super 8 at this exit. All along I-90 in all the western mountain states that it crosses, there are these "closed when flashing, exit now" signs everywhere. Mother Nature still calls the shots.

We changed into our riding clothes and went to ride the Spearfish Recretional Trail. We just rode our bikes from the parking lot of the motel over to where the trail began at the 14A exit off of I-90 referenced in the picture above.  There are no parking facilities at that location. The trail immediately went down a hill and just kept going down a hill and we were concerned at what we had gotten ourselves into, but at that point we were already pretty much committed, so we just keep going.

The trail paralleled a busy street for probably a couple of miles.

beside a golf course

had a couple of sections that were built out of railroad tie timbers
That smelled awful! ~S

But we really wanted to get to the portion of the trail that paralleled the creek we had read about on the
Trail Link site.

Finally, we found it and had a hallelujah moment.

There's Spearfish creek

There's the bike path beside the creek.

The path traveled between the creek and an RV park, the Spearfish City Campground.

and came out at an Historic National Fish Hatchery.

Beyond the hatchery, the trail continued on thru a park where we discovered this pretty waterfall area.

Coming back up the long uphill at the end of the ride
The bike has many gears and we're gonna use 'em all!  :D ~S

Mr. Funny faked chest pain. I don't think he expected me to capture it so well on camera. :)
Who me? :D ~S

We had a great 7 mile ride and can mark South Dakota off the list now.  Check!!!

Total miles for the day:  

766 miles in the van. 

7.19 miles on the bike.

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