Highway 18 from Minnekahta to Hot Springs and 385 south of Hot springs

I will be doing the Mickelson north to south and will then be connecting to the cowboy trail in Nebraska. I'm considering cutting off the southern part of the Mickelson to go to Hot springs. How bad is highway 18?

Also, does anyone know how bad 385 south of Hot springs into Nebraska would be? It looks like it's fairly busy which I don't necessarily mind if it has a large shoulder, but based on street view the shoulder is just okay.

Any thoughts on that? Is Dead horse canyon not worth missing?

Thanks!

18 to hot springs has a good shoulder and is not bad for biking. 385 once it joins 79 is like being on interstate 90. If you don't mind the noise and being pushed by draft of fast trucks it’s basically safe but not fun.

I really liked Dead Horse Canyon and the area immediately south with the scenic view of the valley you descend into before Edgemont. I felt like the only area I thought was disappointing was the last three to four miles into Edgemont where the trail is right next to the highway and meanders around a little. Nothing wrong with the town itself, just that stretch by the highway due to noise, not original railway section, sometimes the trail is below the highway, etc.
About that Cowboy Trail: I have read quite a few reviews that are critical of the trail surface being very rough and resistant to good rolling. Many people also received more than their share of flats because of goats head thorns. The Cowboy is immediately adjacent to the highway and apparently the trail surface is so unpleasant that many of the reviewers opted to ride on the highway shoulder instead. Most of the reviewers did mention how awesome that bridge was at one end of the trail….This is just food for thought, perhaps dive deeper for your own consideration. I have not done the Cowboy, but after reading so many negative reviews I thought there might be some merit to it. Perhaps more people need tubeless tires or armored tires like Schwalbe Marathon Plus or similar.
I personally want to ride the Mick again and also the Needles highway by bicycle due to the speed limit being so low….and the sights. Another consideration in the area is Custer State Park which has an excellent and newly repaved wildlife loop, plus numerous gravel roads in the park. I actually wanted to ride to Mt Rushmore but due to time and safety concerns on the highway I deferred. I recently saw a YouTube video where the guy figured out a safer way to bike from the Mick to Rushmore by taking Old Hill City Road east from Hill City, then turning south on Palmer Gulch….into the KOA then turning onto highway 244. This reduced the highway 244 miles from 9 to 6. I looked closely at the map, used streetview when possible and figured out how to shave even more highway 244 miles off….by continuing further east on Old Hill City road to the Centennial Trail, then taking the trail one mile south to 244 then east to Mt Rushmore. I don’t know if the Centennial is rideable or if hike a bike is required. I don’t mind riding highway if it can be made safer via a shoulder. I do have flashy taillights and a rear radar.
Here is a link to the YouTube video I saw. If you prefer to search for it, the video name is “Cycling to Mount Rushmore”
https://youtu.be/THClfN7EwQk?si=9EpxxZ-VRqLs3oKF

In case anyone doesn’t know: The Sturgis motorcycle rally brings hundreds of thousands to the state of South Dakota, not just Sturgis. There are people staying, eating, seeing the sites throughout the region. They deserve their fun too. Just know if you decide to ride the Mick during and immediately before/after, you’ll pay more to stay/camp, compete with others for seeing stuff, dining out, etc. There will be many side by side UTV’s on the roads and AUTHORIZED trails (not the Mick) so be prepared to encounter them as they are street legal in the state. Many of them are rental units. I planned my August trip to avoid the crowds.

After reading the info about the Cowboy, I've got to respond, having just returned from my annual ride from end to end and returning to the east end. I first did it 8 years ago and yes, it was rough due to the problems mentioned. That said, it was a great adventure such that I've made it a part of each summer since. My brother started 7 years ago and was also hooked. About 4 years ago trail conditions improved and have steadily improved, such that it's now, in my humble opinion, an equal to any non-paved trail in the midwest, and I've done most of them. There are two great bridges on the trail, and although parts of it parallel the highway there is plenty of the trail out in the isolated sand hills. So don't count the Cowboy Trail out because of outdated information

Thanks everybody for the advice! Having done the ride I was asking about now I feel that I should come back to close the circle.

I rode highway 18 from the Mickelson to Hot Springs and the shoulder was quite large for almost the entire trip, and traffic was minimal. I felt very safe the entire time, so if there's anyone else thinking of doing that I wouldn't hesitate.

The next day I rode 385 into Chadron. I took a few short detours on dirt roads along the same corridor, which were delightful if anyone has a little bit more time than I did, but 385 itself was no problem at all to ride on. The traffic that there was was going fast, but everybody moved over and the shoulders are quite large. Maybe this would be different in the core of tourist season, but in early September when I did it it was absolutely fine.

As far as the Mickelson trail versus the cowboy trail surface, based on prior reports, I was expecting the cowboy trail surface to be extremely bad to the point where I wasn't expecting to be able to ride the entire thing on my 42 mm gravel tires, or to end up with a bunch of flat tires due to goatheads. While I think that the Mickelson surface was still slightly better, the cowboys maintenance must have stepped up quite a lot over the last few years. There were a few deeper sand spots that I had to navigate carefully, and a few spots where you would get bogged down by slightly deeper gravel, but most of the surface was extraordinarily good. I saw a few patches of goat head vines along the side of the trail in one area, but absolutely none in the trail and had no flat tires the entire way.

One definite edge the Mickelson has is the number of trailheads that all have water and bathrooms. But the cowboy trail has many more small towns and nearly all of them had nice little city parks to camp at very inexpensively. That was a definite edge over the Mickelson, where you had to plan where to camp a little bit more and they tended to be more expensive RV parks (though not always).

I thoroughly enjoyed both trails and wholeheartedly recommend either.

Thanks for the follow up. Dougt I’m glad you described the improvements over the last few years. I will be looking further into this and perhaps I can start considering it once more. Jason, that is a LOT of miles in seven days! I think adding a ride through Pine Ridge Indian Reservation would make it even more interesting…..there is a great coffee shop in the town of Pine Ridge. My drive home brought me through the sand hills of Nebraska. They would be even more enjoyable on a bike.