If you’ve ever seen a Nicolas Cage movie called “National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets” you’ve seen one of the beautiful lakes of Custer State Park in South Dakota. The lake in that movie – inaccurately portrayed as being directly behind Mt. Rushmore – was the exquisite Sylvan Lake. Like most of the lakes in the Black Hills, Sylvan Lake is man-made, but the sheer walls of granite at one end come close enough together to create the illusion of a natural cirque.
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Only when you hike closer to that end of the lake do you get a clear view of the narrow dam which completes the basin.
Although all the lakes of Custer State Parks are examples of the artificiality I have mentioned in previous chapters, that doesn’t make them any less beautiful. There’s a reason Hollywood came calling here. I’ve called Custer State Park an elaborate amusement park – perhaps it is also an enormous art project.
No, Nicolas Cage is not hiding behind those rocks to show you to the great Mayan treasure inexplicably hidden in the Black Hills for hundreds of years, apparently without the knowledge of the Lakota people. Mr. Cage is probably somewhere in California sipping the family wine and not thinking about any of that. But what is behind those rocks is pretty exciting, nonetheless.
The photo above is from the beginning of the Sunday Gulch Trail, which starts behind the granite spires of Sylvan Lake. The trail leads directly into a narrow canyon which is in and of itself fascinating. As the trail drops down stairs, we encountered a large amount of flowing water, to the point that the trail was blocked and we were unable to proceed. I dearly wish we could have continued as what lay beyond was a cascading trail lined with bursts of green and walls of granite, diving further and further down into what looked like Narnia. And like Narnia, I found it nearly impossible to get a good photo.
Sylvan Lake has an easy trail all the way around, so after leaving the entrance to Sunday Gulch we took a walk around. With each turn, the granite outcroppings appear slightly different – it’s worth taking the walk. Just before the Sunday Gulch trailhead you’ll run into a slot canyon – I assumed unnatural, but I don’t know for sure – and can experience a moment inside a granite sandwich.
Around the side of the lake furthest from the lodge every step makes the view different.
The second major lake in Custer State Park for hiking is Legion Lake – smaller than Sylvan, it’s an even easier walk, so no excuses. Walk around the whole thing. Just beautiful. Its artificiality is a bit more obvious as a large earthen dam holds up the far end.
Like Sylvan Lake, Legion Lake has a lodge, a campground, and other services. The boat rental dock is a prominent feature at Legion Lake.
There are two other large lakes in Custer State Park: Center Lake and Stockade Lake. Center Lake is near the Black Hills Playhouse, an improbably but beloved cultural institution in the Hills which features plays all summer long. The Center Lake campground is the premier camping spot for the theater lover – you can walk to the show from your camp site. We were unfortunately in the park days before the season opened.
Stockade Lake was the site of our second Camping Cabin in the park (our first was in the lovely Bluebell Camping Cabins) and was disappointing. Unlike Legion Lake or Sylvan Lake, Stockade has no decent lakeside trails save the historic Stockade area next to the highway. There’s no lazy afternoon walks by the lake from the campground – in fact, there’s no walking anywhere, because in Custer State Park, trails are often an afterthought. It appears campers are not expected to be interested in hiking. In the Stockade Cabins area (Stockade Lake South), there is nowhere to go without walking on a paved road or bushwacking. Still, it’s a mountain lake, and it’s hard for a mountain lake not to look darned pretty.
Stockade Lake does have the advantage of being right next to Custer, a nice town with two supermarkets (one a natural food store), a Pamida general store, and some good restaurants. But don’t expect a lakeside cabin or campsite – though the Stockade Lake North campground is fairly close to the lake, none of the sites appeared to have much of a view.
One last thing: that lake behind Mt. Rushmore? Well, there is one. It’s called Horsethief Lake, though isn’t nearly attractive as Sylvan Lake – no dramatic granite outcroppings. But it’s quite pleasant, and is on US Forest Service land. That’s important to hikers, because the USFS is pretty good at making trails. So if you’re in the Black Hills for more than a few days and have finished all the premier trails in Custer State Park, take a peek at the trails on USFS land behind Mt. Rushmore. We ran out of time, but all looked fabulous and intriguing.
Other resources:
- Black HIlls National Forest
- Allblackhills.com’s Sylvan Lake pages
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