Beaver Creek Bridge is a historic bridge located in Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota. It is located 2 miles north of the Wind Cave National Park Visitor’s Center on S.D. Hwy 87.
Taking a picture of the Beaver Creek Bridge was on my Black Hills, South Dakota Bucket List. I decided to knock this and visiting Wind Cave National Park off our bucket list at the same time. I wasn’t sure what to expect as we were coming from the Keystone area. There were no pull outs or scenic overlooks coming from the north, but we did find one coming from the Visitor’s Center headed north that allowed us to pull over and get a snapshot real quick.
If I had more time, I would have taken a short hike for a better picture, but after spending several hours at the Visitor Center for a tour of the caves, my kids and husband were not interested in any more leg work!
About Beaver Creek Bridge
Built in 1929 the bridge spans one of two perennial streams that flow into Wind Cave National Park. It is a 225 ft long deck arch bridge constructed of steel and concrete and sits 115 ft above the canyon floor. The historical significance of this bridge is that the builders created the illusion that the concrete arches rise naturally from the rock walls on opposite sides of the canyon. It is the only bridge of this particular arch type in South Dakota.
Getting the Picture
Find the pullout on S.D. Hwy 87 near Centennial Trailhead, which is 1.6 miles north of the visitor center. Drive slow or you may miss it (we did the first time and had to turn around).
I also suggest using a telephoto lens with at least a 200mm focal length if you don’t want to do any leg work to hike down closer to it (although I would highly suggest getting closer). I used my 24-105mm lens on a full frame camera then cropped in post-process for the shot in this post.
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