Don't Call Me Ishmael: Snow and crags atop Custer State Park

Sylvan Lake rock peninsula

Signature rock wall at Sylvan Lake

Windy inlet of Sylvan Lake

Cathedral Spires, Needles Highway

I had no idea that Wind Cave National Park and Custer State Park shared a border. But I crossed those mountainside roads frequently during the Black Hills trip.

Custer State Park covers almost 80,000 acres and could serve as a national park if it didn’t already border two national park units and many miles of national forest.

From Wind Cave’s less-explored northern regions, the road rolls into Custer, and then crosses some significant corridors of nature. There are fields of prairie dog towns on the way to the park’s Blue Bell entrance. Stretches of hill scorched by wildfire sprouted with small pines in the shadow of their blackened trunks.

French Creek

French Creek cuts a narrow but fast-moving swatch across the lower terrain of the Black Hills. Further into the high ground, primitive camping is allowed along French Creek. Every square foot feels pastoral and gentle at this elevation.

Soon the road pushes up to the lower elevations of Mount Coolidge. The drive to the top was closed due to recent winter weather. The views to the east showed how quickly the Black Hills gave way to the slow roll of the Great Plains. The craggy heights give way to the undulating plains well before the horizon.

Although much lower than the Rockies, descent from the Mount Coolidge area straddles the side of mountains, a thin railing the only barrier to major descents.

Looking east to the plains

Driving the Blue Bell region was only the prelude for a longer excursion across Custer State Park. Saturday morning, we set out for Custer’s signature lake and scenic drive.

The road to Sylvan Lake must be earned, as it climbs quickly from the U.S Route 385 and enters a series of hairpin turns and switchbacks. The Needles Highway, a 14-mile scenic route that crosses the top of the Black Hills, starts here. But the Needles Highway had a wait a little while - skipping Sylvan Lake would be criminal.

None of the Black Hills’ lakes are natural, all reservoirs, but the rock wall along the edge of Sylvan Lake hides its original state. Sunday Gulch Creek emerges from under the metal dam that has been in place since 1891.

Sylvan Lake lies 6,100 feet above sea level or slightly higher than downtown Colorado Springs. Despite movie depictions placing the lake right behind Mount Rushmore, it lies five miles south of the monument. Even in mid-April, winter still held court around Sylvan Lake. The lake was frozen through, and its shores were still coated with snow two feet deep in places. The wind hung onto winter and cut right through me whenever I stood in an unprotected spot on the lakeshore trail.

The flipside was the weather came with an agreeable lack of traffic. Sylvan Lake parking can prove tough in summer. In summer Black Elk Peak hikers depart from here on a six-mile roundtrip that goes to its peak at 7,244 feet, the highest spot in South Dakota. I arrived at an empty lot. I only encountered two other parties along the lakeshore trail, and just 10 cars sat in the lot after finishing the hike. One could imagine the Sylvan Lake swim beach thick with people, even as its ice showed no signs of softening.

I found relief when the path cut behind the rock wall and the dam. The wind vanished, although the air was colder and the rocky steps covered in snow and ice. But it grew intensely quiet back here. Some deer munched on greenery in the rocks behind the lake. I could almost hear them pulling tiny leaves off branches. A tiny spring of a waterfall came down through the rocks. The creek trickled slightly on its path down the mountains.

Grazing deer

Rock passage on trail

Sylvan Lake dam

The only way back to the lakeshore was a narrow pass through the rocks that seemed longer and more dangerous than they actually were. The snow was thick, but it was less than 100 yards back to daylight.

A rock path on the lake’s edge led to a catwalk atop the dam. There was no one on the dam, so I stayed out there till I saw the next party approaching the rock tunnel.

Completing the lakeshore trail, the Needles Highway awaited. One-time Gov. Peter Norbeck scouted and mapped the route himself on horseback before the tunnels were carved through solid rock. We only did part of the high-mountain route through Custer State Park. Once the Sioux were removed, South Dakotas were dogged in turning the Black Hills into a destination. Those efforts were not surprising since the region’s beauty is singular.

There are higher spots in the Black Hills but the Needles Highway skirts around awe-inspiring pillars of rock that make anyone feel insignificant. The Cathedral Spires might be the most notable. Stopping below them is not a deal-breaker, since the Needles Highway turns enough that the spires will be in clear view, albeit from a few miles away.

The road descents pretty quickly back to the French Creek watershed. The park is massive and in April, many of its facilities remain closed just as its signature lakes only show cursory signs of spring thaw. The park lakes at lower elevations also stayed frozen. Legion Lake had some signs of thaw at its edge, even if its namesake lodge was closed up tight. Both Legion and neighboring Stockade Lake are impoundments of French Creek.

Legion Lake

Stockade Lake turns back into French Creek

Inside the Gordon Stockade

One inlet of Stockade Lake houses a piece of history, where the first white settlers wintered in violation of the Fort Laramie Treaty. Outside Custer lies the Gordon Stockade, a reconstruction of a fort built by early treaty violators before gold led to greater incursions into Lakota territory. Several of the cabins inside the stockade date back to previous reconstructions. Early arrivals lived in the stockades to combat attacks from the Sioux, who were fighting those who incurred on their land. Gordon Stockade was abandoned by 1875, but other stockades would eventually turn into towns, including Sturgis and Spearfish.

We didn’t see significant chunks of the 77,000-acre park. Missing Custer’s bison herd could be excused since we ran into bison in Wind Cave and Badlands national parks. Iron Mountain Road departs from Mount Rushmore and runs along the east side of Custer State Park. Also part of the Badlands Scenic Loop, it covers 17 miles and has 314 curves, 17 switchbacks and three tunnels.

In the case of the Black Hills, it felt fine to leave that for another trip; then I could focus on the wonders of the Needles Highway. Custer is a rare state park that allows for a series of wild experiences and leaves room for another trip or two.