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When my brother and I made our list of things we wanted to do out west, Harney Peak wasn’t on the list; in fact, I had never heard of it before! However, once I heard that it was the highest point in South Dakota (from a Custer State Park Ranger who suggested it to us!), I was immediately intrigued.
At Trailhead, there are options for several different hikes: Cathedral Spires, Little Devil’s Tower, and Harney (the longest one). We took the Little Devils’ Tower trailhead to Harney Peak, which is marked by the color blue. There’s a bathroom at the trailhead, but there’s no water, so make sure to prepare ahead of time. They suggested it would take 4-5 hours to hike (it took us about 3). I ended up bringing 52 ounces of water with me, and drank all of it (but didn’t need any more water than that), and my brother brought about 75 ounces, which he didn’t need (all of), so we were more than fine on water.
The first mile was pretty easy and gentle, which is how I like to ease into a hike. There were lots of little raspberries growing on the side of the trail, so we took time to eat those along the way! There’s nothing more delicious than fresh, juicy raspberries warmed in the sunshine! We wound through a beautiful meadow as well, and stopped to enjoy the views:
At the first mile we stopped to eat lunch, and enjoyed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and some killer views. And within 10 minutes we were on our way again! Around mile 1.3 or so the trail got a little more technical, with rocks and roots to navigate and some loose dirt/gravel to navigate. We popped out into an opening to see this:
Beautiful, right? In person, it felt pretty breath taking. One of the things that we talked about during almost every hike is how “big” everything felt that we were seeing. I’m not talking just about size, but also the emotion connected to being so small out in nature with huge, absolutely gorgeous scenery. It’s hard to really allow yourself to feel part of something as big as all of that- I feel like I don’t have the capacity to deeply appreciate all of it as much as I’d like!
The trail got increasingly technical as the trail continued up, but it never felt unreasonable. About 2 miles (give or take) into the hike we left Custer State Park and entered Black Hills National Park, so we had to fill out a registration form at that line (there’s a 100 dollar fine for not doing so). That took a few minutes, and we were on our way. About half a mile from the top we had a lot more stone stairs to climb up, and that felt a bit difficult after almost three miles of uphill climb! We hit the top at 3.3 miles and climbed out onto some rocks to sit and eat some dried fruit and enjoy the view. Unfortunately it was a bit hazy up there, so the pictures aren’t fantastic, but it was great to see it!
We sat up there maybe 15-20 minutes and headed down. The stairs and first mile of the hike felt a bit more difficult going down, as I felt that gravity was causing my body to jar a bit more as I hit the ground. Pretty quickly that stopped though and we were able to enjoy the rest of the hike down.
We hit the meadow area again and enjoyed more delicious raspberries! My body felt great throughout most of the hike, and we ended the hike back at our car at 6.6 miles! Like I mentioned, I needed all the water that I had brought, and in 20 ounces of water I had put some watermelon nuun, along with one nuun plus tab for some extra carbs!
A bit of a panorama view!
Again, I would definitely encourage any of you to consider Harney Peak if you’re looking for something to hike out there (as long as you/your doctor decide it’s safe for you to do so!). A few stats according to my garmin watch: The highest elevation we hit was 7,200 feet and we gained 1,176 feet of elevation throughout the hike. It definitely is a more substantial hike than many trails you would find out there, but it is absolutely beautiful and well worth it. This was another hike that was in our top three!
For other hikes I’ve done out west, check out: Pikes Peak Incline and Lover’s Leap at Custer State Park. For more information in general about my trip out west, click here!
