Category Archives: Drive

Driving (and Jumping) Along the Needles Highway- South Dakota

Custer State Park, Drive, Jumping, Needles Highway, South Dakota
a rocky mountain with trees
There are lots of scenic drives that you can go along in South Dakota. I am usually not a fan of long drives but the roads in SD are in great shape, there are few cars on the road and the scenery is incredible.
a rocky mountain with trees
One of my favorite drives was along the Needles Highway. The highway is 14 miles of curving and winding roads located in Custer State Park. The highlight of driving the highway is viewing the incredible rock formations called “needles”. There are also two narrow rock tunnels that you get to drive through along the way which we enjoyed checking out.
a group of people standing in front of a large rock formation
The Needles Eye
The most famous rock formation along the highway is the Needles Eye. I think the reason for the name is pretty self-explanatory. We stopped for a while to take pictures and really enjoyed the views. This was also the most crowded area that we stopped at.
Right by the Needles Eye there are some other interesting rock formations and one of the two rock tunnels.
a car driving through a tunnel
The tunnel is pretty amazing to see and was a great place for a photo-op. I really liked seeing the cars squeeze through. As you can see, there is only one lane but we never really saw a traffic jam at the tunnel.
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We passed through the second rock tunnel towards the end of our drive.

a road with a tunnel in the middle
Here are a couple of jumping pictures by my favorite (close-up) rock formation along the highway.
a man jumping in the air between large rocksa man jumping in the air between large rocks

Check out the Visit Rapid City page about the Needles Highway HERE

Ridiculous Street Signs #3- Drive On Left- Australia

Australia, Drive, Great Ocean Road, Left, Melbourne, Sign
a road sign on the side of the road
While in Melbourne, my wife and I decided to do a day trip that drove along the Great Ocean Road. It was going to be a long day but the natural sites that we’d get to see along the coast would make it well worth our time.
At the beginning of our tour, the bus stopped at Bells Beach where we got to see some locals surfing. This beach is known for it’s surfing competitions and is the setting for the final scene in the movie Point Break.
A short while later we stopped again to take photos of the sign for the starting point/ entrance to the Great Ocean Road. I snapped a few shots and then wandered around the road a little bit and came across the important and informative sign shown above.
I am definitely hoping that if you decide to rent a car while visiting Australia,you remember to drive on the left!