Bear Gulch Trail

Bear Gulch Trail is a beautiful, little known trail in Custer State Park just east of Center Lake on South Playhouse Road. It is just inside the Custer State Park border, so you may need a pass to access it. The trail follows an old, unused dirt road which makes it easy to follow, although the grass could be pretty long in the summer and cover the trail. It’s a pretty cool trail with a wide variety of landscapes as it winds its way past a lot of really interesting rock formations, through the forest, and over a small creek several times. The trailhead is not really marked and there is limited parking along the road, but one can park in a small turnoff. The map on Alltrails showed it as being about 2.5 miles one way, but the road keeps going and looks like it finally comes out on Highway 16A after another couple of miles. We hiked about 3.5 miles in but want to return someday and follow it until the end.

This is a great hike for the kids. It was not too hard and has a lot to offer. After climbing slightly for the first 1/2 mile, it has a gentle descent the rest of the way. We would recommend hiking 2 miles in and turning around once the rock formations begin to disappear. When we were hiking this trail, we did not want to stop because we wanted to see what was around every corner. The only reason we turned around was because it was getting dark. This trail is used mostly for hiking, but we did see some mountain bike tracks. When we were there we saw only 3 people. Others have said they saw bison and mountain goats, but the day we hiked it, we saw nothing.