A long rides makes for the necessity of many, many stops for gas and a stretch of the legs, and the ride to Sturgis, South Dakota is nothing if not long if you’re coming from either coast.
With that in mind, we’ve come up with a list of rather bizarre places you can stop along the way to check out the local color and takes some photographs sure to make the family album and get posted on your Facebook page.
So here they are…
40 Bizarre Spots to Stop By the Roadside on the Way to the Sturgis Rally
999 Main St.
Sturgis, SD
2 Muffler Man With Beer Mug
12997 SD Highway 34
Sturgis, SD
(~3 mi. away)
3 Bear Butte
Hwy 79
Sturgis, SD
(~5 mi. away)
4 Deadwood – Where Wild Bill Hickok Was Shot
657 Main St.
Deadwood, SD
(~11 mi. away)
5 Adams Memorial Museum
53 Sherman St.
Deadwood, SD
(~11 mi. away)
6 Boondocks 1950s Retro Complex
21559 US 385
Deadwood, SD
(~13 mi. away)
7 Big Carved Wood Bear and Fish
711 South Main St.
Lead, SD
(~14 mi. away)
8 World’s Largest Log Chair
US Hwy 385
Deadwood, SD
(~19 mi. away)
9 Sheep Capital of the Nation
Hwy 79
Newell, SD
(~21 mi. away)
10 “Center of the Nation” Monument
415 Fifth Ave.
Belle Fourche, SD
(~25 mi. away)
1301 Sheridan Lake Rd
Rapid City, SD
(~26 mi. away)
12 Dinosaur Park
940 Skyline Dr.
Rapid City, SD
(~26 mi. away)
13 Art Alley
6th Street
Rapid City, SD
(~27 mi. away)
14 America’s Street Corner Presidents
W. St. Joseph St.
Rapid City, SD
(~27 mi. away)
15 Men Made from Tires
327 E Omaha St
Rapid City, SD
(~27 mi. away)
16 Muffler Man – Stamper Miner
7201 S Highway 16
Rapid City, SD
(~30 mi. away)
17 Prospector Statue Of Johnny One Feather
US Hwy 16
Rapid City, SD
(~30 mi. away)
18 Reptile Gardens
8955 S. Hwy 16.
Rapid City, SD
(~31 mi. away)
19 Putz-n-Glo Indoor Black Light Miniature Golf
23694 Strato Rim Drive
Rapid City, SD
(~32 mi. away)
20 Black Hills Institute – Dinosaurs
217 Main St.
Hill City, SD
(~33 mi. away)
21 Ornate Junk Metal Horse
U.S. Hwy 385
Hill City, SD
(~33 mi. away)
22 Cosmos Mystery Area
24040 Cosmos Rd
Rapid City, SD
(~34 mi. away)
604 Blair St.
Keystone, SD
(~36 mi. away)
24 National Presidential Wax Museum
609 Highway 16A
Keystone, SD
(~36 mi. away)
25 Clinton Rock
Keystone, SD
(~36 mi. away)
26 Abandoned Shepherds Monument
Belle Fourche, SD
(~39 mi. away)
27 Chief Crazy Horse Memorial
202 Ave. of the Chiefs
Crazy Horse, SD
(~40 mi. away)
Wyoming 585
Sundance, WY
(~40 mi. away)
This is thoroughly surreal, and maybe a touch disturbing. The fact that it’s the only tree you’ll see on the roadside for many, many miles makes it that much more, well, unique. Somewhere along the lonesome highway 3.5 miles southeast of I-90 on Wyoming 585.
29 Center of the Nation – 50 States
Old US 85
Belle Fourche, SD
(~41 mi. away)
30 Big President Heads
State Hwy 79
Hermosa, SD
(~42 mi. away)
31 Lonely Dinosaur
Hwy 44
Rapid City, SD
– Location Approximate –
(~42 mi. away)
32 Sundance Kid Jailed Here
309 Cleveland St.
Sundance, WY
(~43 mi. away)
33 Mini Dinosaur Park
1020 Mount Rushmore Rd
Custer, SD
– Location Approximate –
(~44 mi. away)
34 Flintstones Bedrock City
301 W. Mt Rushmore Rd
Custer, SD
(~45 mi. away)
35 Creston Dinosaur
Hwy 44
Pennington, SD
(~52 mi. away)
36 Bicycle Sculpture
Pringle, SD
(~55 mi. away)
37 Mammoth Site: Indoor Boneyard
1800 W. Hwy. 18 By-Pass
Hot Springs, SD
(~68 mi. away)
And Our Favorite Three:
Snake Alley. Call it the Lombard Street of Iowa. Snake Alley is a block-long switchback made up of seven bends built by the lunatic town father’s 1894 as an “experimental” street design. Yes. Paved with cobblestones and lined with Victorian lampposts, it’s not exactly motorcycle friendly, but consider it another in a long line of challenges you can take on.
Address: N. 6th St., Burlington, IA ,Next to the Phelps House Museum between Washington and Columbia.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Monastery. Carmelite religious shrines are always, well, interesting, and this one is wild in the extreme. The awesome glow in the dark Memorial Chapel is a black light maelstrom which includes depictions of the archangel Gabriel and Jesus rising from the dead. Hands reach up out of the ground and glowing yellow crosses decorate the ceiling, so it’s not for the faint of heart. It is, in a word, apocalyptastic.
Only open Sundays, so this one might be best for the ride home and it would be a great place to make any acts of contrition for the way you behaved while you were in Sturgis at the rally…
Address: 1628 Ridge Rd, Munster, IN. Just east of the IL-IN border. I-80/94 exit 1 at Calumet Avenue.
The Oasis Bordello Museum. In an unhappy accident of fate, the museum was created when the former staff of shall we say, women of questionable virtue, bolted when they became convinced the FBI was going to raid the joint. The current owner, Michelle Mayfield, says the cathouse has been preserved exactly as it existed on that chaotic evening.
Address: 605 Cedar St., Wallace, Idaho. Take the I-90 to exit 62 and turn south onto Residence Street to Bank Street. Summer hours are in effect daily 9:30 am – 5:30 pm, and you can bet the place was open on a much, much different schedule in its heyday.
