Offhand I don’t think we’ve visited a nicer state park than Custer State Park, located just south of Rapid City, South Dakota.
The park has several visitor and education centers, four lodges with restaurants, cabins, RV and camping sites, incredible scenic drives through the mountains, horse riding, a few lakes and streams for swimming, kayaking, fishing, abundant wildlife, and numerous hiking trails. The amenities are fantastic.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Custer State Park is incredibly popular. It fills up fast once schools are out in the upper Midwestern states. Jeez, are there a lot of families vacationing here. A lot. Kids are everywhere.
We are staying in an Airbnb in Rapid City, a drive of 45 to 60 minutes from the park’s main activities. The drive to the park takes us through several small towns, such as Keystone, Three Forks, and Hill City. Think Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Gatlinburg, Tennessee, or Branson, Missouri … tourist traps spread out along the highway.
The benefit to staying in Rapid City is being centrally located to other area attractions, such as Badlands National Park, Devils Tower National Monument, Sturgis, Deadwood, and Spearfish Canyon. Not to mention easy access to grocery stores and restaurants.
A seven day pass for Custer State Park costs $25. We bought our pass online in advance. Upon entering the park, we showed our pass and were given a small window sticker to keep on the front windshield for the duration of the week.
We previously visited Custer State Park in 2010, so we somewhat knew our way around. Instead of typical sightseeing, our destination is several of the area’s hiking trails.
On our first day in the park we drove straight to the Cathedral Spires Trail. This trail is about 1.8 miles out and back to the Cathedral Spires rock formations. It is quite rocky and steep in sections, so we were glad to have our hiking poles. Great views at the end make this a worthy hike, and definitely one of our favorites on this trip.
We saw a lot of people on the trail, solo hikers, couples, families with kids, and dogs. Stephanie repeatedly said how much she liked this hike, notwithstanding the modest 500 feet in elevation gain. Maybe it was because of the dogs.
The only potential downside to hiking this trail is finding parking, which is limited. The parking area can accommodate only about 20-25 cars, and will be full or close to it for most of the day.
The Cathedral Spires Trail intersects, via a short connecting trail, with Trail #4 and the Little Devils Tower Trail. We hiked the Little Devils Tower Trail in 2010. That trail is longer and steeper, but the payoff is even better. The view from the top of Little Devils Tower is fantastic. We skipped taking the connecting trail over to Little Devils Tower for reasons I don’t remember. Anyway, don’t make that mistake.
It was a little after noon when we finished hiking the Cathedral Spires Trail, so we drove over to the Sylvan Lake Day Use Area to have our picnic lunch. Damn the area was overrun with families. It was a madhouse. We had to park way out in the auxiliary parking area and were lucky to grab the last open picnic table.
After lunch the plan was to walk the mile loop around Sylvan Lake. We quickly abandoned that idea because of the crowds. Instead we drove over to the Wrinkled Rock Climbing Area with the goal of hiking the Old Baldy Mountain Trial.
This is another out and back trail, 2.1 miles total. That is if you can find the trail. Per reviews, some sections of the trail are overgrown and hard to find. No kidding. We missed the turn towards Old Baldy Mountain and instead ended up doing a 1.0 mile loop around the rock climbing area.
Because it was a decent hike, though not exactly what we planned, we decided not to circle back and look for the actual Old Baldy Mountain Trail.
Rather than trying to squeeze in another hike that afternoon, we elected to stop in at Mount Rushmore National Memorial. We’ve been to Mount Rushmore before. Honestly, it’s not a place we would ever visit twice, but since we were literally driving past it, we decided to stop in.
Stephanie pulled up to the entrance booth, presented our America the Beautiful Pass, and was immediately told that the pass does not cover the $10 parking fee. Nope. We weren’t paying $10 to see Mount Rushmore again even if it is just the cost for parking. One visit is enough.
Several days later we returned to Custer State Park for more hiking, specifically the Lovers Leap Trail, a 4.1 mile loop. We hiked the trail clockwise to get the steep uphill section out of the way at the beginning. This was actually Stephanie’s idea. I was somewhat surprised she wanted to tackle a steep uphill, but it was the right choice.
After the tough uphill, we walked across a ridge line to Lovers Leap, where a small rock scramble is necessary to get to the best viewpoint. Next is a longer, less steep, downhill section, followed by a flat walk alongside a creek (including 10 creek crossings over small bridges). The last mile or so of the trail is a traverse across a rolling hillside.
The trail to Lovers Leap (hiking clockwise) is mostly in the sun, as many trees on this side of the ridge line were downed in a fire years ago. After Lovers Leap the trail is mostly in the shade of a pine forest. Ending a hike going mostly downhill in the shade is always a good thing.
We thought about taking another short hike, but decided against it because of the heat. This was the hottest day of our trip, near 90° F (32° C), and we did not need to start a second hike at 4:00 PM.
Instead we spent the late afternoon driving Wildlife Loop Road, a beautiful drive over and around rolling green hills. Of course, late afternoon is not exactly prime wildlife viewing time. We saw one herd of buffalo, mostly just laying down, a few pronghorn, and more prairie dogs.
It was a nice drive after our hike.
Though we were in Rapid City for a week and had time to see many of the area’s other attractions, we skipped them without a second thought. One of the benefits of returning to an area is not feeling the need to revisit what you’ve already done before.
With that in mind we skipped Wind Cave National Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, Crazy Horse Memorial, Bear Butte State Park, Spearfish Canyon, Sturgis, Deadwood, and the 1880 Train. FN1 Basically we took it easy for a week with the exception of a few hikes.
Hiking in Custer State Park:
Cathedral Spires Trail: 1.8 miles
Wrinkled Rock Climbing Trails: 1.0 mile
Lovers Leap Trail: 4.1 miles
Total Miles Hiked: a decent 6.9 miles
Garrett and Stephanie
1. On vacation in 2010 Stephanie insisted that we ride the 1880 Train, described on its website as “A scenic steam train ride through the beautiful black hills of South Dakota.” Here’s what I remember. It’s a two hour ride through the woods. Stephanie fell asleep almost immediately, leaving me to look at trees. I could have killed her.
To read other posts about our adventures in the National Parks and National Monuments, or elsewhere in the world, check out our Travel Blog. It contains collected links to all of our travel posts.
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