Highland Ridge Overlook

Highland Ridge Overlook is a roadside viewpoint at the last stop of Wind Cave’s geology driving tour. It looks down into Red Valley and across to the hogback ridge on the Black Hills’ outer edge. It’s a short stop, but a good one if you want the layers behind the landscape to click. For a photo, keep the pale grass and scattered pines in the foreground with the red valley beyond.

From the previous tour stop, continue 4.4 miles north on SD 87, then turn onto gravel NPS 5 just before Custer State Park. Drive four miles to a lone pine on the right; the gravel parking area is on the left. That’s 8.4 miles from Stop 6. NPS 5 and NPS 6 aren’t maintained in winter, and heavy snow can close park roads, so check conditions before heading out. The full 20-mile tour takes about 60 to 90 minutes. There’s no fuel for sale in the park, so start with enough for the drive. The loose gravel on NPS 5 can make access difficult for wheelchair users.

The low, red land is the Spearfish Formation: fine-grained shale and siltstone colored by iron oxide. Those rocks erode readily in the Black Hills’ semi-arid climate, which is why they form a valley. Beyond it, iron-rich sandstone and claystone of the Inyan Kara Group make the more resistant hogback that marks the Hills’ outer rim.

Lakota and Cheyenne oral traditions also connect the wider Red Valley landscape to the Great Race, a story of a race between two-legged and four-legged beings. A magpie riding a bison crosses the finish first, and the exhausted animals’ blood stains the track red. That’s a cultural story tied to the landscape, alongside the geological explanation visible from this stop.