Was in Custer during bike week. There will be lots and lots and lots of bikes. They go to ride the windy, roads thru the area so yes, there's lots of traffic. To some, the noise of so many bikes is annoying. I think it was a lot of fun to see all the different bikes. It was hard to find parking places in town (any of them) because of all the bikes. If you want it not to be so crowded you might reschedule. Also, the RV park I worked at in Custer, raised their rates during bike week as did most of them.
Karen West
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Two Spoiled Black Labs
We arrived last year at the Rafter J on the last Saturday of Biker Week. Went to Sturgis on Sunday looking for Sam Elliot. Obviously he forgot we were coming and had already left!!
Our site was fairly near to the main road and the noise was bearable. The bikers, like others have said, are very courteous and considerate of others. Some of the main streets in the surrounding towns are closed down for the bikers to park. WOW!!! What great bikes! A sure site to see!! We did a lot of siteseeing every day and did not have problems (again, this was now the week after). A lot of the bikers start for home on Thursday or Friday if they are riding home. Many of the "younger" biker set now ship their bikes to the area and fly in for the week, shipping their bikes back home at the end of the week. One of the downfalls is the added wait for a restaurant if you go out to dinner. Just take advantage of the extra time to check out the bikes, have a glass of wine (or three!) and meet some great people.
Rafter J was great! They were very helpful, the sites are large enough to be comfortable and the atmosphere is friendly. I did forget about the altitude and got pretty smashed the first night on ONE glass of mudslide mixed with peppermint schnapps. So beware the altitude if you plan to partake!!
Go with an open mind and a heart for adventure. You will meet some wonderful bikers, see some incredible bikes and have a great time!!
Say hi to the prairie dogs - - they are wonderful to watch!
We were there once during bike week. If I were to go again I'd avoid it. Rafter J wasn't that affected by it. Except in one part of the park that backs onto the road (is it called the Island?) heard bikers all the time careening down the road. You could hardly enter stores and restaurants it was that crowded. Mount Rushmore was crazy, as we could hardly find a parking spot because of the bikes.
Someone here mentioned that there were hundreds of bikers, well it's more into the hundred thousands of bikers. We didn't encounter any overcrowdedness in the caves, but like I said, the roads, Mt. Rushmore, stores and restaurants were FULL. At one point we were going down the road and there were so many bikers that we couldn't turn because we were so surrounded with (too many to count) bikes. We did know it was possible to find that many bikes at once. I did take quite a few pictures to show people back home. The pictures are good actually.
The bikers themselves weren't really any trouble, and some were even polite, many were somewhat rowdy ( I think just a little worked up with excitement)there were just too many.
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We went last year during bike week, had no choice. It turned out to be no problem. Sure, they are a bit harder to deal with while driving, and sometimes it seemed the line of them coming down the road would never end. But at Rushmore they had seperate parking for bikes and cars and it was real easy. If I was booking again this year and had to go then, I would without hesitation. Most of the bikers we saw (thousands) were professionals and their spouses having a good time. We only saw one "typical" biker chick. Rushmore, wearing leather chaps and her underwear. Not even a blind man wanted to see that.
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