We visited this park in 2017. This park is just 15 miles (30 min) from Mount Rushmore.
Custer State Park is South Dakota’s first and largest state park covering an area of over 71,000 acres of varied terrain including rolling prairie grasslands and rugged mountains. The park is known for its scenic beauty, hiking trails, rock formations, and wildlife.
Custer State Park, Sylvan Lake – This beautiful lake located within the park was created in 1891 when the Sylvan Lake Water Dam was built across Sunday Gulch Creek. The lake area offers picnic places, rock climbing, small rental boats, swimming, and hiking trails.
The Sylvan Lake Shore trail is a popular 1-mile loop around Sylvan Lake. It is an easy hike, suitable for most skill levels, and takes about 20-30 minutes to complete. The trail offers scenic views of the lake and surrounding rock formations, with some sections featuring rock scrambling and stairs. We had a lot of fun walking on this trail and climbing many of the rocks.
Custer State Park, Wildlife – The park which is also a wildlife reserve, is home to Bison, Elk, coyotes, deer, mountain goats, prairie dogs, cougars, sheep and more.
Custer State Park, Needles Highway – South Dakota Highway 87 is a 38 mile long state highway. The northern 14 miles of the highway is also known as the Needles Highway, portions of which are also a section of Custer State Park’s Wildlife Loop. Finished in 1922, the highway is named after the high granite needles it winds among. The highway also passes through tunnels blasted through sheer granite walls – Iron Creek Tunnel and Needles Eye Tunnel.
