Needles Hwy Road Map

The Needles Spires — Exploration Print

This exploration print features the Needles Spires in Custer State Park, South Dakota, and is part of the Road Map series—created to connect photography with the experience of traveling through place. Known for its narrow passages, towering granite formations, and winding roadway, the Needles Highway is as much about the journey as the destination.

Overlayed onto the photograph is the primary roadway that threads through the Needles Spires, labeled by name and mapped directly across the image. The print also identifies the general location where I was standing when capturing the photograph, grounding the image in a real moment along one of the most recognizable drives in the Black Hills. A compass at the bottom of the print indicates the direction I was facing, offering orientation within the landscape beyond the frame.

Designed as interactive artwork, this piece invites the viewer to trace the road, follow it through the spires, and experience the scale and rhythm of the landscape in real life. Whether recalling slow drives through granite corridors or planning a future return, The Needles Spires Exploration Print serves as both a visual memory and an open invitation to revisit one of the Black Hills’ most iconic routes—again and again.