Western South Dakota is home to the Badlands and the Black Hills. The landscape is otherworldly — eroded spires, vast grasslands, and trails that feel like they're on another planet. Part of our South Dakota trail guide.
The Badlands earned their name. The landscape looks like another planet - sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires rising out of the surrounding prairie. The colors change with the light throughout the day, from soft pastels at dawn to blazing oranges at sunset. It's one of those parks that photos genuinely cannot prepare you for.
Custer State Park is the Black Hills at its best. Granite spires, pristine lakes, roaming bison herds, and trails that feel like they belong in a national park. Sylvan Lake alone is worth the trip - and then you find out there are trails dropping into canyons and scrambling through boulder fields right from the shore.
ModerateThe longest maintained trail in the Badlands, combining the Castle Trail with the Medicine Root Loop for a route through prairie grasslands and alongside towering erosion formations. Flat but exposed - it feels like hiking on Mars.
ModerateA short hike to the base of the Cathedral Spires - massive granite needles jutting out of the Black Hills forest. The trail ends in a boulder field surrounded by towering spires on all sides. One of the most dramatic payoffs for a relatively short hike anywhere in South Dakota.
ModerateA loop that combines the scenic Sylvan Lake shoreline walk with the rugged Sunday Gulch descent through a boulder-choked canyon. Short distance but surprisingly challenging with ladders, rock scrambles, and creek crossings. One of the best hikes in the Black Hills.