Hiking at Custer State Park

After a full night of rain and wind we woke to cool temperatures on our last full day in Rapid City and decided to finally check out some hiking trails at Custer State Park.  We hiked the Sylvan lake trail with the Sunday Gulch Trail extension. 



We spent several hours completing the hike and had some pretty amazing views for most of the hike. 





Along the lake the path was flat and smooth.



We crossed these stepping stones to see the dam then headed back across them to start our official hike.



There were all kinds of nooks and crannies and rock formations to hike around and walk through.






We saw this adorable deer that seemed quite content to watch us.


There were some really amazing views on our hike.







We found that the end of our hike brought us by a lot of water; we had bridges to cross and rock formations to climb up (that were wet and slimy!) .  We were so thankful for the metal handrails.





Once we made it back to the lake we rested.






Alec and my husband took off to climb just one more rock.


By the time we finished the boys were all begging for some lunch.  We headed into Keystone for some shopping and stopped at a pizza place for lunch.  It was such a cute town and it was nice to relax after our morning hike.





Other posts from this trip include:

Driving from Denver to Cheyenne
Where we stayed in the Black Hills
Custer State Park Wildlife Loop Trail
Driving the Needles Highway through Custer State Park
Visiting Mount Rushmore
Our afternoon at the Reptile Gardens 
Visiting Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo


Comments

  1. Andrea NineOctober 21, 2019 at 7:10 AM

    Such gorgeous countryside. I adore the places you find to hike.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AniOctober 21, 2019 at 1:34 PM

    Whoa! Such amazing views. This looks like such a great hike! And I love that town at the end. I love seeing all the places you are visiting!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mother of 3October 21, 2019 at 3:56 PM

      We had a wonderful time and saw so many cute little "old west" feeling towns.

      Delete
  3. AnnsterwOctober 21, 2019 at 3:08 PM

    What a great trip! We have the most amazing State Parks in the US. I need to visit them more often!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mother of 3October 21, 2019 at 4:12 PM

      We really do and I kept thinking we needed to visit more of them too.

      Delete
  4. TomOctober 21, 2019 at 7:11 PM

    ...a gorgeous classroom!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Amy at Ms. Toody Goo ShoesOctober 21, 2019 at 11:44 PM

    These photos are breathtaking! I have never been to that part of the country, but would love to!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dara @ Not In JerseyOctober 23, 2019 at 1:53 PM

    This looks like a great hike and such beautiful pictures!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mother of 3October 23, 2019 at 3:16 PM

      Thank you! It was a great hike... a bit longer than we thought but great.

      Delete
  7. Claire JustineOctober 27, 2019 at 5:30 PM

    Beautiful photos. What a great place to explore. Thanks so much for all the support over the last few weeks. Thanks also for sharing at The Weekly Link-Up, I hope to see you tomorrow for our next blog hop :)

    ReplyDelete

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