The Black Hills get all the postcards. Ride an hour east and the land opens into something quieter — the National Grassland, where the gravel runs straight at the horizon and you can go a long while without meeting a car. Three prairie towns put on a gravel event out there every summer, and together they make the Grasslands Triple Crown.
[Photo: Wide prairie gravel road running to the horizon, single rider]
These belong to the Oahe Wheelmen and the crews in Lemmon and Wall, backed by the Northern Great Plains Joint Venture and the South Dakota Grasslands Initiative. We’re Rapid City riders, and we’re pointing you east: these are worth the drive.
The hook
Ride all three this summer and a Lemmon artist named Ethan Thom hands you back a metal sculpture — not a medal, not a shirt, a sculpture. That’s the Crown. If you like a little competition, each long route carries three Strava segments that score toward the series; upload your ride after you finish and you’re in it.
[Photo: Last year’s finishers or the Ethan Thom sculpture]
The three
- Grassland Gravel — Fort Pierre — Saturday, July 18. 31, 53, or 71 miles. (register)
- Thunderhawk Wide Open — Lemmon — Saturday, August 15. 25, 50, or 115 miles of remote Old West country up near the North Dakota line. (register)
- Wheelin’ to Wall — Wall — Saturday, September 26. Its 10th year — gravel and pavement, 31 to 64 miles, mass start right in town. (register)
The local read
From the Hills: Wall is the close one — about an hour out I-90, an easy day trip. If you only do one, do that. Fort Pierre is two and a half, three hours east — worth a Friday night over by the river. Lemmon is the haul, three and a half hours north.
And no, you don’t have to race. Every event has a short route; ride the 31 at Fort Pierre at whatever pace gets you to the post-ride meal grinning. The long routes and the segments are there if you want them. Same thing we say about 8 Over 7: pick one, ride it, see how it feels.
A few of us are headed out. Want company for the drive to Fort Pierre or Lemmon — or just want to know what tires to run on grassland gravel? Come find us; we’ll carpool where it makes sense.
Register for all three on BikeReg (links above). Sign up early: prices climb as the dates near, and Fort Pierre stops guaranteeing shirts after July 1.
Three Saturdays, one big stretch of grass. Go find out what’s past the postcard.
— Stone Bicycle Coalition
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