General Information
South Dakota Highway 87 (SD 87) is a 37.894-mile-long (60.984 km) state highway in the southwestern part of South Dakota. It travels through the Black Hills region. The highway's southern terminus is at an intersection with U.S. Route 385 (US 385), about 6 miles (9.7 km) southeast of Pringle, within the southwestern part of Wind Cave National Park. Its northern terminus is at an intersection with US 16/US 385 about 3 miles (4.8 km) south-southwest of Hill City, within the east-central part of the Black Hills National Forest.
The northern 14 miles (23 km) of the highway is also known as the Needles Highway. The Needles Highway, along with the concurrency with US 16A, are also part of the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway. Portions of the highway are also a section of Custer State Park's Wildlife Loop.
Because of the highway's mountainous, curving nature, it is closed during the winter.
Highway 87 begins at US 385 in Wind Cave National Park, east of Pringle and west of the park headquarters. North of US 385, the route crosses Cold Spring Creek and provides access to the upstream Lake Norbeck, named after Senator Peter Norbeck, instrumental in establishing several of the national and state parks in the Black Hills. From the start, SD 87 is a very twisting and winding route, with a 180° hairpin turn only a one-half mile (800 m) from the southern end. This results in the route taking a westerly track, though it eventually turns back north and crosses Beaver Creek. Three miles (4.8 km) into the route, it bridges itself and executes a 270° turn.
The route enters Custer State Park one mile (1.6 km) north of US 385. Highway 87 then becomes part of the park's Wildlife Loop, and runs through the town of Blue Bell.
At milepost 17.180 (27.649 km), Highway 87 intersects U.S. Route 16A. From this point onward, the road is part of the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway. The two routes form a concurrency and proceed east, passing Legion Lake. The roads split after just under 1.5 miles (2.4 km).
After splitting from US 16A, the route is known as the Needles Highway. This segment is 14 miles (23 km) long. Finished in 1922, the highway is named after the high granite "needles" it winds among. Access to the portion of the Needles Highway between the intersection with SD 89 and the intersection with US-16A east requires a Custer State Park entrance license, making that portion of SD 87 a toll road. Along this stretch lies the Black Hills Playhouse. The highway passes through two tunnels blasted through sheer granite walls—Iron Creek Tunnel and Needles Eye Tunnel.
Just after Needles Eye Tunnel, Highway 87 serves as the northern terminus of SD 89. After this junction, SD 87 has one more tunnel, Hood Tunnel. It then provides access to the Sylvan Lake Resort. The route finally ends at US 16/385 south of Hill City.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "South Dakota Highway 87", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
