Last week I got a peek at the four options for a new extension of the Mickelson Trail to Mount Rushmore National Memorial. I didn’t get a chance to talk in any detail with the folks at Wyss Associates, who are doing the leg work on the project. But they did give me a map of the routes.

I think I told you before that an extension was in the works. The South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Department is looking at a spur line that would let Mickelson Trail mountain bikers and hikers travel directly to Mount Rushmore.

The 100-mile Mickelson Trail follows the old Burlington Northern rail line from Deadwood to Edgemont. It takes you through some of the best scenery the Black Hills have to offer. A few years ago, they added a spur line at Custer that taxes bikers and hiker to Custer State Park.

One scenic stop that’s missing, however, is Mount Rushmore. Right now the nearest point on the Big Mick to Rushmore is near Hill City.

I hope you can read this map well enough to see what they’re talking about. It looks like all of the routes would follow pretty much the same path between Rushmore and Horsethief Lake. From there, they diverge.

– The blue line is Highway 244, which runs past Horsethief Lake the Palmer Gulch KOA Campground. It’s also one of the proposed routes. About 12.5 miles.

– The Rabbit Gulch Route (red) is 18 miles. West of Horsethief, it would head north toward Summit Peak.

– The Peter Norbeck Route (gold) is 17.9 miles. It would actually drop south of the highway for a significant distance.

– The North of Norbeck Route (green) is 16.1 miles. It would run along the old Hill City-Keystone Road for part of its route. By the way, that’s a great drive if you haven’t done it.

This is all very early in the planning stages; you won’t be making any off-road runs to Rushmore this summer. But it’s a start.