Summer Challenge Custer State Park - 8 trails to complete before September 9, 2023. When you complete a rubbing at each site of the medallion listed, bring the collection back to the Custer State Park Visitor’s Center for a prize.
Legion Lake Trail - Legion Lake Trail is an easy scenic trail that is about 1 mile long and circles Legion Lake. The trail starts at the lake and is an easy hike for the family.
2. Lovers Leap Trail - The trail is a loop that begins behind the State Game Lodge School House which is across from the Peter Norbeck Outdoor Education Center on Highway 16A. It begins with a pretty steep but not too long of a climb. This trail is 4 miles long and does a nice loop.
3. The Bison Trail - The Bison Trail is the newest trail in Custer State Park and it is behind the Bison Center. The trail is about 3/4 of a mile long and goes in a loop. Part of the trail is done, but you can tell they are still working on a majority of it. . This trail was pretty nice and had lots of different wildflowers and gorgeous open blue skies.
4. Centennial Trail - South of Iron Creek Trailhead - goes about 1 mile in on the Centennial Trail which is part of a 124 mile trail that crosses different terrain and counties in the state.
5. Grace Coolidge Walk-In Fishing Area - Grace Coolidge Trail is a 5.8 mile out and back easy trail in Custer State Park. The hike follows Grace Coolidge Creek and ends up at Center Lake/Campground. The trail is really pretty and there are several lakes near the trail and lots of small bridges to cross over the creek.
6. Cathedral Spires Trail - Cathedral Spires Trail is a short 3/4 mile one way trail in Custer State Park on the Needles Highway. You can do the trail out and back or meet up with the trail that leads to Black Elk. There is some scrambling to do on this hike and it can get wet and muddy when it rains. The trail goes through the needles and is pretty neat. The parking for this trail is small and around a curve and it can be hard to find a place to park if busy.
7. Prairie Trail - Prairie Trail is a trail on the west side of Wildlife Loop Road in Custer State Park. It claims to be about 3 miles and goes in a loop. We actually tracked it around 2.1 miles. The trail goes through the prairie and the forest and although there wasn’t anything spectacular on this trail, some of the views were pretty and by the creek was nice. While we were there, the buffalo were far off, but there were buffalo chips everywhere. I would use extreme caution if buffalo are near the trail since you are exposed a couple of times in the prairie with no adequate means of cover if needed.
8. The Lost Trails - The Lost Trails is a moderate trail that is around 2 miles and circles Center Lake in Custer State Park. The trail also has a separate section where there is a short loop trail that gives you an option to go to a lookout point as well. This adds about another mile to the trail. Both trails start at the Center Lake swimming area on the south side of the parking lot. The trail actually starts by following a gravel road at the west end of the parking lot for a 1/2 mile or so, but we decided to follow the lake shore line instead until we met up with the trail near the spillway on the southeast end. The actual medallion is near the lookout point.
After turning in our sketches, we received an antelope pin which was really nice. We are collecting different ones each summer and winter.