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Al_4_ISU

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Anyone with a lot of familiarity with the Black Hills out there?

We swung through for a day on our way home from Yellowstone last year and had our expectations wildly exceeded.  It was easy to get away from the touristy shit, and the area was really fucking beautiful.  And it's less than 8 hours from home.  

We spent a night in Spearfish which was a cool town (hit Spearfish Brewing and Crow Peak Brewery), and a night in Lead (adjacent to Deadwood).  Hiked Black Elk Peak (high point of the Black Hills), which was absolutely gorgeous, and had a good stop at the Miner Brewery/Prairie Berry Winery on our way to Lead.

We'll be going back in June spending 3 days in Hill City and 1 in Spearfish.  Have some hikes and mountain biking planned in the Black Elk Wilderness/Needles Highway area.  While we have a taste of the area, we are far from experienced with it.  Any recs out there?  In my experience, you name the place and there's at least 3-4 Surly posters with extensive knowledge of it.  We aren't terribly interested with the tourist traps, and probably won't go back to Deadwood at all (don't care for gambling), but it seems like there was kind of an endless potential for hidden gems there.

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30 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Anyone with a lot of familiarity with the Black Hills out there?

We swung through for a day on our way home from Yellowstone last year and had our expectations wildly exceeded.  It was easy to get away from the touristy shit, and the area was really fucking beautiful.  And it's less than 8 hours from home.  

We spent a night in Spearfish which was a cool town (hit Spearfish Brewing and Crow Peak Brewery), and a night in Lead (adjacent to Deadwood).  Hiked Black Elk Peak (high point of the Black Hills), which was absolutely gorgeous, and had a good stop at the Miner Brewery/Prairie Berry Winery on our way to Lead.

We'll be going back in June spending 3 days in Hill City and 1 in Spearfish.  Have some hikes and mountain biking planned in the Black Elk Wilderness/Needles Highway area.  While we have a taste of the area, we are far from experienced with it.  Any recs out there?  In my experience, you name the place and there's at least 3-4 Surly posters with extensive knowledge of it.  We aren't terribly interested with the tourist traps, and probably won't go back to Deadwood at all (don't care for gambling), but it seems like there was kind of an endless potential for hidden gems there.

I can't claim extensive knowledge. My parents had a summer home there after they retired for awhile, just a little track home in Spearfish they used to avoid Houston summers. So I visited the area 2 or 3 times. I certainly agree that it is gorgeous, underrated, and a great use of time. I can't remember much on specifics, and I'm sure the restaurants have changed quite a bit since I was last there (at least 8 or more years). That being said, we used to drive the Spearfish canyon once or twice a week, just a delightful drive. There's a restaurant halfway through the canyon loop that has some decent fish they pull right from the river, I believe. And if you're lucky you can see eagles fly in and out of their nests on the canyon wall while eating. The loop is about a 30-45 minute drive.

If you're an RV or camping guy, there's a public campground in the middle of spearfish that is one of the most beautiful places I can imagine to hole up. It's next to a fishery. I used to jog to that park, it's got a huge river bordering the entire park. You can literally pitch a camp and be 10 yards from an amazing river. I'd run over the bridges and see elk and deer just chilling mid river in the mornings. There's also a decent little golf course if that's your thing with some nice elevation drops. I can't golf for shit but it's still fun. 

Black Hills is also cool, obviously. I think they have a casino now, and there's an unmarked restaurant owned by Kevin Costner (steak house type place) in downtown Black Hills somewhere that is supposed to be really good. In terms of hiking, there's some tremendous stuff. I only went on one hike, buy I picked a trailhead from dozens of options and it was great. It had huge maintain elevation views, as well as plenty of stretches of walks literally through folks's farm and land. I had my parents drop my off somewhere at 8 or 9 am and pick me up in Black Hills that evening. Definitely awesome. 

That's about the extent of my knowledge. Everything else that is obvious is well documented touristy stuff. Needles park, Rushmore, etc. 

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52 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Hiked Black Elk Peak (high point of the Black Hills), which was absolutely gorgeous

It is the highpoint of South Dakota, not just the Black Hills. It was named Harney Peak when I went up it just over 20 years ago. Check out Custer State Park, there are several hiking trails, or you can just drive the park loops and look for prairie dogs. The Centennial Trail, which passes through this area, uses a longhorn symbol as a trail marker, for some good karma. Devils Tower is not far away, and cool to see.

 

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9 minutes ago, pantone159 said:

It is the highpoint of South Dakota, not just the Black Hills. It was named Harney Peak when I went up it just over 20 years ago. Check out Custer State Park, there are several hiking trails, or you can just drive the park loops and look for prairie dogs. The Centennial Trail, which passes through this area, uses a longhorn symbol as a trail marker, for some good karma. Devils Tower is not far away, and cool to see.

 

I've heard some other folks say Custer has some great wildlife loops.

When we hiked, the trail head was actually in Custer State Park at Sylvan Lake, but from what I gather, that's a solid 45 minute drive back into the park.  I definitely think we're going to hike in that area and then do drive the park loop after.  Thanks for the rec!

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2 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Anyone with a lot of familiarity with the Black Hills out there?

We swung through for a day on our way home from Yellowstone last year and had our expectations wildly exceeded.  It was easy to get away from the touristy shit, and the area was really fucking beautiful.  And it's less than 8 hours from home.  

We spent a night in Spearfish which was a cool town (hit Spearfish Brewing and Crow Peak Brewery), and a night in Lead (adjacent to Deadwood).  Hiked Black Elk Peak (high point of the Black Hills), which was absolutely gorgeous, and had a good stop at the Miner Brewery/Prairie Berry Winery on our way to Lead.

We'll be going back in June spending 3 days in Hill City and 1 in Spearfish.  Have some hikes and mountain biking planned in the Black Elk Wilderness/Needles Highway area.  While we have a taste of the area, we are far from experienced with it.  Any recs out there?  In my experience, you name the place and there's at least 3-4 Surly posters with extensive knowledge of it.  We aren't terribly interested with the tourist traps, and probably won't go back to Deadwood at all (don't care for gambling), but it seems like there was kind of an endless potential for hidden gems there.

My parents made the drive in 2019 and were shocked at how beautiful it was, but at 18 hours I'll have to stick to New Mexico or Colorado and try to include it in a grand tour of the area at some point.

 

Edit: Looks like DFW non-stop to Rapid City is only 2.5 hours...hello new addition to the 3 day weekend calender.

Edited by SimonBolivar
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10 minutes ago, landman said:

Drive the Needles Highway and the Pigtails.

Drove Needles to Sylvan Lake last year, and I think we plan on doing the whole thing plus Pigtails after we hike in that neighborhood this year.  I Google Earthed the Pigtails.  Never seen a road do that before.

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2 hours ago, SimonBolivar said:

My parents made the drive in 2019 and were shocked at how beautiful it was, but at 18 hours I'll have to stick to New Mexico or Colorado and try to include it in a grand tour of the area at some point.

 

Edit: Looks like DFW non-stop to Rapid City is only 2.5 hours...hello new addition to the 3 day weekend calender.

Usually there's what, 1 flight to Rapid City a day? If you're lucky it's in the morning. I'd fly into rapid city, hit the Badlands, swing around to see Rushmore, and then head up to Deadwood or Spearfish and relax the rest of the weekend. 

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  • 4 months later...
Yeah, looks sweet. May have to extend the trip after seeing your pics. I’ve spent a ton of time in SD but have only been to the BH twice. 

Most of SD is basically Iowa. The Black Hills are some of America’s most beautiful mountains.
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Late to the party but you can spend 3 days at Custer state park and still feel like it is not enough.  Did a road trip with the whole fam damily and my kids still talk about how awesome that was. This was back in 2017 when they were 11 and 8. 

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Late to the party but you can spend 3 days at Custer state park and still feel like it is not enough.  Did a road trip with the whole fam damily and my kids still talk about how awesome that was. This was back in 2017 when they were 11 and 8. 

It has more than a lot of national parks.
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Late to the party but you can spend 3 days at Custer state park and still feel like it is not enough.  Did a road trip with the whole fam damily and my kids still talk about how awesome that was. This was back in 2017 when they were 11 and 8. 

Throw in Wind Cave National Park as well, and you can spend a good week in that portion of South Dakota.
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  • 2 years later...
On 7/7/2023 at 5:21 PM, ScottS said:

Headed to the area here in a few weeks.  Any updates to the recommendations in this thread?  Cannot wait to get up there.

Get the Guide Along tours app (formerly Gypsy Guide).  I've done this with Canada and Yellowstone now and it's fucking phenomenal.  They've been adding new tours like crazy this year.  It follows you on GPS and tells you the history and all sorts of awesome info about the route and where to stop.  It's seriously so well done.

https://guidealong.com/tour/mount-rushmore-black-hills-badlands/

 

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