Foggy Trail to Black Elk Peak, Black Hills, South Dakota

Foggy trail through ponderosa pine forest on Black Elk Peak in South Dakota's Black Hills.
Foggy trail through ponderosa pine forest on Black Elk Peak in South Dakota's Black Hills.

Black Elk Peak, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, rises to 7,244 feet, making it the highest point in the state and the highest point in the United States east of the Rockies. The trail to its summit, part of the Black Elk Peak Trail system within Custer State Park and the Black Hills National Forest, climbs through stands of ponderosa pine and spruce over several miles of granite terrain. The peak, formerly known as Harney Peak, was renamed in 2016 to honor the Lakota holy man Black Elk. The Lakota and other Plains tribes regard the surrounding Black Hills, or He Sapa, as sacred ground central to their creation stories and spiritual practices. A stone fire lookout tower, built in 1938 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, still stands at the summit.

Photo taken in July 2019.

Photo Part Of
South Dakota
Badlands, Black Hills, and Custer State Park across multiple trips
26 photos
Black Elk Peak
Trails, fog, and the 1938 CCC stone tower at South Dakota's highest summit in the Black Hills
10 photos
Custer State Park
Bison along Wildlife Loop Road, granite spires on the Needles Highway, and trails to Black Elk Peak in the Black Hills
36 photos
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