Here's a link to some maps that will help you put this in perspective.

http://www.blackhillsbadlands.com/maps

If you click download, you will be able to see a great map of the area with all roads identified.

You are asking which is better between the Needles and Iron Mt Rd. They are both equally great and need to be experienced. As Road Runner mentioned, driving direction is key, particularly when driving IMR.

I have reported some things about our trip to the black hills area on the Keystone forum so I wanted to thank the Hill city people too. We stayed 3 days in Hill city, the people there are so nice, helpful and informative! We stopped at the visitor center and had a lovely conversation with a lady there! I am so sorry I don't remember her name if I don't write people's names down I forget easily. One route she told us about that was fun to drive was the Old Hill City road right beside our hotel to keystone. It was very pretty and we saw a lot of deer along the road. The big rocks were really coolI don't know why I was so worried about routes and roads, everything was very easy to navigate. I wrote a lot about Iron Mountain Road and Needles Highway on the Keystone forum. Some of our favorite places to eat were Desperados and the Alpine Inn. The fish and country fried steak were delicious at Desperados and the staff were great! We went to the Alpine Inn 20 years ago it was the same great place! loved the atmosphere, food and especially the desserts! We didn't need those but it was after all vacation! I had the german white chocolate mousse so good lots of caramel that soaked into the cake, coconut, pecans yum! My husband had the cheesecake great too! I think every dessert there looked fabulous! Of course the wait staff there did wonderful especially for as many people that eat there! We ate at the Hill City Café and the staff there were fantastic also! Our waitress was so quirkey and funny entertaining us! The other waitresses answered some questions about the town and were very interesting and informative telling us about some of the history and giving us booklets to read more. Such great, caring, nice people there, putting up with all of the tourists daily and treating everyone kindly! We were much more impressed with people from hill city, when asked questions they didn't just say" I don't know I'm from Rapid City" which we heard alot in Keystone. We had fun mining at Wade's gold Mill, they made us feel at home like we were family! One of my favorite places to go are the rock shops, we bought some new specimens to put in our pond at home very pretty! Wanted to take a big boulder home from the hills but I don't think we could exactly get one into our truck much less drive home 10 hours! Where's a forklift when you need one? On the way to Hill city we took a 3 hour drive through the badlands so beautiful! This is a must do every time you go to the black hills! We also went to reptile gardens, thought that would be bigger, neat alligators, felt sorry for the tiny habitats they lived in! The dinosaur museum was cool my grandkids would have loved that! Bear country was so fun! If I remember right the last time we went there 20 years ago the bears were behind fences and just the other animals were out. This time they were out in the open wandering around, so fun don't miss it! Thanks Hill City we had a great time! I forgot to mention Mt Rushmore, of course this is a must do every time so much to see!

Nice trip and trip report.

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