There’s an old CCC lookout tower at the top, with a couple different levels to explore. With some slightly scary (to me) drop offs….but then you’ve made it! Woo hoo! Most of the hike up is through a wooded area, but there are some places where the trees clear and you get nice views:Īs you approach the peak, the trail gets very steep: You pass out of the park and into the Black Hills National Forest: Most of the trail moves pretty steadily upwards, but there are a few places where it levels off and one lengthy portion where it goes back downhill for awhile (which is nice on the way up, but really discouraging on the way back down, six miles or so into your hike). We each had a backpack with snacks and a water bladder, and everyone’s water was empty by the time we finished. The hike is pretty difficult–it gains about 1100 feet in elevation over the 3.8 or so miles–but it’s a heavily trafficked trail, and we saw a lot of people attempting it who didn’t seem very prepared (like the couple who appeared to have brought nothing with them but one small plastic bottle of water to share). There’s a large parking area here, and there’s also a store where you can stock up on snacks to bribe your four year old with. The most common trail up to the top (and the one we took) is trail 9, and it starts from Sylvan Lake. And the hike, at just under 4 miles each way, was by far our most ambitious on this trip (or ever). Hiking Black Elk Peakīlack Elk Peak (formerly Harney Peak) is the tallest peak in the Black Hills, at 7242 feet and, in fact, the tallest peak east of the Rocky Mountains. I didn’t get photos, sadly, but we saw a group of mountain goats right next to the road at one point–probably our favorite wildlife sighting in Custer. The road is steep and winding, but relatively short on steep drop offs right next to the road, so that a scaredy cat like me can handle it fairly well.
This is not a road for your RV, but our big old van made it through safely: If you’ve done any reading about Custer State Park, you’ve probably come across photos of cars squeezing through the very narrow tunnels on the route. Needles highway is named for the tall, skinny rock formations that you’ll see along the way. Handily, the drives often double as a good way to get to an area attraction, and I’m all about efficiency! We took Needles Highway to get to the Sylvan Lake area, where we planned to hike up Black Elk Peak.
There are a number of scenic drives in the park, and we managed to get to all of the big ones, I think. Here’s a rundown of what we did: Needles Highway We chose Game Lodge Campground inside the park as our Black Hills base camp in part because we knew we wanted to spend a lot of time exploring here.
After visiting a million or so National Parks and a fair number of state parks this summer, I’m prepared to concur: Custer State Park can hold its own with many of the 59 National Parks when it comes to facilities, beauty, organized programs, wildlife, and sheer variety of stuff to do. People like to pay Custer State Park in South Dakota the compliment of saying that it’s so good it could be a National Park.
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