After test hiking a section of the Colorado Trail, we headed north to the Black Hills in South Dakota. Lower elevations, warmer temperatures, and an abundance of hiking trails made this area very appealing. The 124-mile Centennial Trail, which runs from Wind Cave National Park in the south to Bear Butte State Park (near Sturgis) in the north, especially caught our eye.

Multiple campgrounds and trailheads along the trail looked perfect for staging a series of 2-5 day in-and-out hikes. We started at Elk Mountain Campground at Wind Cave National Park on September 28, spending a couple of days talking to the rangers there, resting up, and planning our first hikes.

Unfortunately, the day after we got there campground staff began to shut things down for the season. Some of the campsites would remain available for a while, but the water was being shut off and the flush-toilet bathrooms were now locked. At least a pit toilet was available.

We continued with our plans, and set out on our first hike through Wind Cave National Park, 6-miles north to the border of Custer State Park and back. There was nobody at the trailhead, and we never saw another hiker. We did, however, see lots and lots of bison dung, also called nik-nik by the Sioux.

One week prior, the park staff finished their annual bison roundup, when they corral the bison to sort out excess animals to be sold, vaccinate the new members of the herd, brand the new calves, and check the cows for pregnancy. The big bull bison are not included in the Roundup because they are more aggressive and are simply too hard to deal with. We saw seven of them today, including one lying in the middle of the trail. We had to detour a couple hundred feet through a thick grove of young pines to get around that big guy.

We also encountered a large prairie dog town, with sentries passing the alarm as we marched along. They were very cute and funny the way they chirped, wagged their tails, and scampered down their holes with a trill if we got too close. It turned out to be a fairly easy and beautiful 12-mile hike, a stark contrast from the heady trails of Colorado.

We were back at the van by early afternoon, with enough time to drive to Custer for some extra supplies and drive north to Iron Creek Trailhead, which would be our base for a longer 4-day hike through Custer State Park. It turned out that Iron Creek Horse Camp was shut down for the season, so no water and no pit toilets, but there was safe parking at the trailhead just outside the campground gate.

For the next 2 days, we hiked south 28.5 miles through the entire Custer State Park. The days were sunny and in the 50s, while the nights were frosty 30s, almost perfect hiking weather. There were lots of ups and downs, some harder than others, nothing as hard as the Colorado Trail or the Appalachian Trail, but challenging nonetheless. We hiked through large stands of golden aspen trees fluttering on the breeze and huge areas of pine decimated by recent storms. We encountered the stray bison bulls, prairie dogs, praying mantis hunting grasshoppers, and even a small group of Pronghorns, which is the second-fastest land animal in the world. Overnight, packs of coyote yelped and howled intermittently as they hunted the forest all around us.

The hike back north was just as hard and just and beautiful. We met only a couple of thru-hikers, more than a few day-hikers, one rider with two horses, and an elderly couple taking selfies among the fall colors. At the end of day 4, we arrived back at our van, tired, satisfied and ready for an easy meal and a warm bed.

The next day we moved north 50 miles to Sheridan Lake, where we intended to stage two more in-and-out 4-day hikes, one back south and one north. Interestingly, the National Forest had closed all but one of the campgrounds surrounding the lake and turned off all the water for the season. The self-pay kiosk was empty of envelopes. I talked to the campground host, who was leaving the next day, and he said, “Merry Christmas! No envelopes. It’s free!” Well, that was fine by us. It was a beautiful campground, even if there was no potable water… and no cell service in this low-lying area.

After a day off and a good night’s sleep, we headed out on a 4-day hike to connect with our previous progress to the north end of Custer State Park. The weather was cool but sunny and the terrain was generally was moderate. The geology of this area was noticeably different, with white, pink and purple quartz littering the path. The Black Hills is often described as a “target” with a “bull’s eye” of granite in the center with rings of different rock types radiating outward. We were walking through 2 billion years of geological history.

After one of the day’s longest climbs, we rested at the top of a ridge for lunch, and found we had a signal. After checking our e-mail and FB messages, we checked the weather forecast for the next few days. To our surprise, a freak snowstorm was coming our way out of the Rockies. In two days, it would start as freezing rain, then dump up to 2 feet of snow overnight, and then slowly thaw and warm back up. Wow! After thinking through our options, we decided to cut this hike short, finish today’s section and head right back to our van tomorrow.

This was a good decision. We were back at Sheridan Lake by early afternoon the next day and the weather was already starting to turn. The morning after gave us some light snow flurries. We finished packing up and after breakfast headed to Rapid City to wait out the storm. That night was windy, with lots of rain and sleet. The next day dumped a couple inches of heavy, wet snow on us, but the reports from the Black Hills had snow totals there anywhere from 6 to 18 inches. More worrisome, it looked like it would take at least 5 days for the snow in the mountains to melt off, and for the temperatures at elevation to climb back up to the hikeable 50s with overnight lows above freezing.  

We could spend the next week waiting in a Rapid City Walmart parking lot… or we could finish this hike another year. We decided not to wait and head east, of course. Too many weather uncertainties this time of year. Winter is chasing us now and we have family and friends to visit in Chicago and New England before it gets too cold for life in our little van.