Iron Mountain Road

A big shout out goes to my cousin Vanessa for recommending that we do Iron Mountain Road. Had she not done so, I would have missed what turned out to be my favorite part of the trip. Iron Mountain Road is a very narrow road with lots and lots of curves.



Some sections of the road are one lane, with oncoming traffic on the other side of a little gully.



The road had what they called pigtail bridges, where you had to wind up like a corkscrew (or a clover leaf freeway entrance/exit) to get up to the bridge. I guess the corkscrew of the road looks like a pigtail and that's why they were named that.



So, first you go under the bridge and then you do a big turn and you're on top of the bridge. It's actually a pretty smart way to change elevation when there's not a lot of room.



In addition to the one-way roads and pigtail bridges, there were also very narrow tunnels.



Only one car could go through at a time (reminds me of the Road to Hana!).







Look how close the edge of the tunnel is to my car! When they say narrow, I guess they mean narrow.



One of my favorite things about the bridges is that there were two of them that you could see a glimpse of Mount Rushmore off in the distance as you drove through them.



And this one is my favorite. The bridge makes a perfect frame for Mount Rushmore. Love it!