State Highpoint #9 - South Dakota

 Harney Peak (7,242’)

The first state highpoint that required a decent sized hike, and was an actual mountain, belongs to one of the highpoints with the most amount of controversy regarding it’s name. You can read more about the history of the name of the peak here https://www.summitpost.org/black-elk-peak-harney-peak/150511 and for the sake of being void of confrontation, I’ll just call it Harney Peak. Neither Taylor or I had been to the Black Hills of South Dakota, and to be honest, neither of us had even been to the state of South Dakota. I wasn’t quite sure what existed there and didn’t know what to expect. 

Pulling into the town of Custer, it felt touristy, but on a very small scale. There were fun little restaurants, campgrounds, and souvenir shops. I also didn’t know how close it was to Mount Rushmore. I was still getting the area mapped out in my mind and curious about this new spot on the Earth I’d never set foot. I was wondering why there were so many tourist traps. We continued up the road, following the GPS route to the Harney Peak Trailhead, found a parking spot, and began the hike. Taylor’s previous long hike was 4.5 miles, done a few weeks before, and this one was going to be that same distance, one way. She was going to have to double that effort, and I was a little nervous with how she’d do. To my surprise, she was a trooper, and complained very little. I tried to keep her distracted by playing word games and keeping conversation interesting. This peak has 2,900’of prominence and is a relatively easy hike. It’s all class 1, with maybe one or two maneuvers that could be considered class 2. There is a great fire lookout tower on the top of the peak, that was meant as a fire spotter tower, and was built by the CCC in 1938. A big man made dam catches rainwater and it’s quite fascinating. 

From the tower and summit, you can see the backside of Mount Rushmore. So Taylor and I decided to visit the monument after we finished this hike. 

Taylor on top of Harney Peak, with Mt. Rushmore in the distance.

In the summit tower. Check out my cool Bose headphones. The perks of dating a Bose saleswoman. 😉

Taylor in front of Mt. Rushmore. Maybe the future 5th president?