Eight Confirmed Arches

The following two arches are visible from the Cathederal Spires trail on the way to the feature Chris discovered as posted on June 25, 2013.

This arch is a needle's eye that is more slender and interesting than the famed Needle's Eye on the Needles Highway.

The above arch is in the Cathederal Spires formation.

Sixth bridge identified

Chris has identified an arch he has described as being visible from the end of the Cathederal Spires trail in Custer County.

The more than 5 natural arches in the Black Hills

This weekend, my friend Chris and I continued our search to find the natural arches in the Black Hills and found two additional arches. Off Playhouse Road near the intersection with iron mountain road, there is an unmarked Custer State Park road at about 43.82357, -103.4005, that is the nearest point to two natural arches.
The first we saw from the trail but have not inspected closer because our goal was a bigger arch.

The arch we sought to find is a named arch several miles south of playhouse road and about the same distance East of Center Lake. I will not give the coordinates because spotting the arches is part of the fun. EDIT: As a hint, a run of power lines is close by the arch.

Thus, we have personally confirmed 5 features exist in the Hills. Multiple sources confirm an arch in Calico canyon. I believe the following links are each referencing that arch: here, here, and here. Another source references an arch on Grand Canyon Road in Wyoming. Another source gives estimated GPS coordinates of an arch off Iron Mountain Road. Yet another source has a picture of an arch not referenced by any other source. The Natural Arch and Bridge Society has an arch listed in Harding County.
I thought research had led me to a feature called Fairy Window at Sylvan Lake, but this appears to be a suspended boulder. See here and here. On that note, I don't recall if the entrance to Chopping Block at Rushmore is a hanging boulder or a bridge.
Apart from the Hills, there may be two bridges in the badlands. See here and here.
The conclusion from our total confirmed count of five arches, along with the fairly clear documentation of other arches, is that there are easily more than five in the Hills. This site appears to be easily disproven. Now the question is whether there are 9, 12, or more? We have uncovered evidence of a likely 10 in the Hills if Slim Buttes in Harding County is considered the northern most reaches of the Hills.

The 12 (or 9 or 5) natural arches in the Black Hills

I enjoy discovering the secrets of the Black Hills. Every once in a while I will get an idea from the Black Hills Travel Blog and I was looking through contest pictures on their Facebook page and became intrigued with the question of how many natural arches are in the hills. I mean Utah is famous for its arches, but what about the Hills.

A little Googling came to this answer:

Natural Bridges in the Black Hills:
 True -- There are at least nine natural bridges in the Black Hills. The locations are not widely known. (Allegedly there are actually twelve, but we have only been able to confirm only nine.) The Eye of the Needles along the Needles Highway in Custer State Park is one.

Another site claims there are 5 confirmed natural bridges.

The hunt is on! I have set the goal to find these arches this summer. I had two down before I started - the needles eye, and I have climbed Gossamer, near Rushmore.

Upon hearing of my quest, my friend Chris revealed the location of another along Whitewood creek. We quickly launched an expedition.

The arch is beautiful but takes some scrambling over debris to get to.

A neat feature of the arch is the tree growing downward behind it.

Other features in the area are the C & NW tunnel and Barker's Cave. I found this image on the Lawrence County Historical Society site interesting.

Where are the others? I have a few leads: Here, here, here, here, here, and here.

I think it is safe to say there are more than 5 in the Hills. There is also at least one in the Badlands.

Edit 7/29/2014: The geocachers have identified this arch.