march 2021
The Black Hills
Where: southwest corner of South Dakota
Directions: I-90 from east and west; US 385 from south
Good to Know:
* Dogs are not allowed at Mount Rushmore
* Dogs are not allowed on the trails at Badlands National Park but can hike anywhere that is open to vehicles
* Dogs are not allowed in the cave or on most the trails at Wind Cave National Park; dogs can go on two short nature trails, at the campground and at the visitor center
* No dogs on the trails, service roads or in the cave at Jewel CaveNational Monument
Why so good:
BLACK HILLS NATIONAL FOREST.
Most of the Black Hills are covered in the Black Hills National Forest that equals dog-friendly. The Black Hills themselves describe a small, isolated mountain range with trees so thick early arrivals saw them as “black.” From the dozens of canine hikes some have set themselves apart. The waterfalls in Spearfish Canyon are some of the most beautiful in all of the Black Hills; the trails to Little Spearfish and Roughlock Falls are manageable for any trail dog. Do your dog a favor and hike the one-mile trail up to Roughlock Falls from the lodge. The Flume Trail is a National Recreation Trail follows the actual flume bed that carried water 20 miles from Spring Creek to the placer diggings of Rockerville that enabled miners to take over $20 million in gold out of the Black Hills. It is an out-and-back adventure but make sure you go far enough for your dog to experience one of the unlighted stoop-down tunnels on the trail. When Teddy Roosevelt died in 1919, his friend Seth Bullock lobbied to get a favorite peak, Sheep Mountain, renamed Mountain Roosevelt and worked tirelessly to construct the nation’s first monument to the great man on its summit, even though he himself was close to death. The cylindrical stone “Friendship Tower” was dedicated just before Bullock passed that very same year. Now part of the Black Hills National Forest, the Mount Roosevelt Trail winds in a loop to the summit - an easy romp for your dog even though the entire hike is over one mile high. The Swede Gulch Non-Motorized Use Area offers old dirt roads behind closed gates for your dog to run. Four trailheads lead to the 10-mile Lake Loop Trail around Deerfield Lake.
CUSTER STATE PARK.
General George Armstrong Custer led an expedition into the Black Hills in 1874, then considered one of the last unexplored regions of the United States. Custer and his men discovered gold and the region was a secret no more. Custer State Park is the largest state park in the Continental United States with over 73,000 acres. Sylvan Lake, a calendar-worthy pool of water flanked by giant granite boulders was formed when Theodore Reder dammed Sunday Gulch in 1921. A pleasant one-mile loop circumnavigates the lake and offers plenty of dog-paddling along the way. Harney Peak, at 7,242 feet, is the highest point in America east of the Rocky Mountains. The most traveled route to the summit is on Trail 9, a 6-mile round trip. There is some rock scrambling near the top but your dog can make it all the way and even go up the steps into the stone observation tower. A big attraction in Custer State Park is one of the world’s largest free-ranging buffalo herds that grazes on over 18,000 acres of mixed prairie grasslands. The 3-mile hillside Prairie Trail off the Wildlife Loop Road is a rolling loop that explodes into a spectacular wildflower display in the summer. For a short woodlands walk, take your dog to Badger Hole, home to Badger Clark, South Dakota’s first poet-laureate. Clark planned part of this footpath behind his four- room cabin that picks its way along rocky hillsides through a mixed pine and hardwood forest.
INFORMAL TRAILS.
There is plenty of room for your dog to roam in the Black Hills on informal trails and jeep roads, much of it on Bureau of Land Management Land. Two spring-fed lakes known as the Mirror Lakes and a 70-foot deep sinkhole that is ow Cox lake offer wide-open fields and no vehicle traffic. At the Carson Draw and Sundance Trail System there is something for all level of canine hiker on the 17 footpaths that cover 47 miles here. Some of the routes that dip into densely forested canyons and explore scenic ridgetops will test even the most energetic of trail dogs. The Fort Meade Recreation Area sends your dog down rolling paths and roads used in the one-time cavalry post.
RAIL TRAILS.
The Centennial Trail, completed in 1989 to mark the 100-year anniversary of South Dakota statehood, highlights the diversity of Black Hills topography from grasslands to the high country. It covers 111 miles with multiple trailheads for day-hiking. To level off the roller-coaster terrain of the Black Hills railroad builders constructed more than 100 wooden trestles on the right of way that became the Mickelson Trail. The largest was the Sheep Canyon Trestle, 126 feet high and 700 feet long; the rickety trestle was considered so dangerous engineers and brakemen would walk over the bridge instead of riding in the train.
DON’T FORGET THE GRASSLANDS.
The Black Hills are circled with National grasslands that receive much less visitation and hiking explorations through wispy prairie grasses are often on two-lane jeep roads. But these grasslands - Buffalo Gap, Fort Pierre, and Grand River - are no slouches when it comes to spectacular geological formations and are a wonderland for rockhounding. Just south of the Badlands, across the Nebraska state line, the Oglala National Grassland gives your dog a chance to explore unique lands of sculpted rock in the lesser- known badlands of Toadstool Geologic Park where the relentless tag-team of water and wind have carved fanciful rock designs into the stark hills. The “toadstools” form when underlying soft clay stone erodes faster than the hard sandstone that caps it. A marked, mile-long interpretive loop leads you on an educational adventure where your dog is welcome on the hard rock trail but can also explore off the path for close-up looks in the gullies at fossil bone fragments that lace the rocks and 30-million year-old footprints preserved in the stone. For extended hikes, Toadstool Park connects to the world-renowned Hudson-Meng Bison Bone- yard via a three-mile trail. This archeological marvel seeks to unravel the mystery of how over 600 bison died nearly 10,000 years ago in an area about the size of a football stadium. Human predation is the leading suspect.