Hiking in the Black Hills AKA Custer State Park

This year, on our way to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, we did a two-day stop-over in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Our first day we did some driving and some relaxing, as it was our two-year anniversary. We enjoyed a visit to the Needles and a stint on the 1880 steam train.

During our planning of this trip, I attempted to look into the best hikes for each of the places we were to visit. It was strangely difficult to find information online for the best hikes in the Black Hills. And so we did only one major hike in Custer State Park. According to my research, trail #9 from Sylvan Lake to Harney Peak is the most popular trail in the park. The USDA Forest Service considers it a moderate 3.5 mi trail with elevations of 6100-7200 ft. So you can imagine my surprise that we only saw about five groups of people on that trail. It felt like we had the Black Elk Wilderness to ourselves. Granted, we were visiting a bit pre-season (May 31), and started out in the late morning. Compared to other hikes we have done with similar elevation changes, this was aptly named a "moderate" hike.

For most of the trail we were hiking through pine forests, but a couple of times we came to overlooks of the hills in all their black-ness.

The last ascension is a climb of over 100 steps on a rock stairway, but the view from the former fire lookout is well worth the extra stops to catch your breath.

Rather than return by the same route, we took the left fork when the path splits on trail #3, which connects to trail #4. From trail #4 we had some beautiful views of the Cathedral Spires.

There is a turn-off to Little Devil's Tower, which is another mile from the main trail we traveled, and since our full hike was already going to be about 7.5 miles, we decided not to veer. Most of these folks were headed to Little Devil's Tower, but if just our one experience of these two hikes would tell us the most popular hike in the park, I would guess it to be trail #4 rather than #9. We did meet with some people who'd ventured trail #9 just a few days before. They said they experienced snowfall at the peak. So we were grateful for the beautiful skies and lack of precipitation in our experience of Harney Peak. I would recommend to anyone venturing this hike to be prepared with raingear and warm clothing. Though no clouds decided to open up upon us, we did endure quite a lot of gusty wind. I would also say that the route we took - up to the peak on #9 and down on #4, was the best option as the ascent on #9 felt more gradual than the descent on #4, plus if one were traveling the other way, you'd have to turn round to see the spires and could therefore miss them by chance.

And by the way, I did take a few "normal" pictures, but what fun are those! Stay tuned...more on vacation, hiking, and crazy images: little planets, panoramas, and puzzles!

All photos copyright Katrina Kouba Boles.

Next up: Devils Tower and Little Planets

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