Sunday Gulch Trail Scrapbook Page

If there is one hike you should definitely do at Custer State Park, it's Sunday Gulch. This trail has it all - rocky climbs, flat easy sections, great views, rocks, water, and woods. It is not a flat hike, but it's not too strenuous either and you'll be rewarded with great scenery and a wonderful experience.

We started our hike to Sunday Gulch late in the day, around 4pm. The trail picks up back behind Sylvan Lake, is a an offshoot of the Sylvan Lake Trail - it is clearly marked with signs, you can't miss it. There are 2 options for hiking Sunday Gulch since it is a loop - you can go either clockwise or counter-clockwise. We choose counter-clockwise (the opposite of what almost everything I read recommended), which saved the rocky gulch part of the trail until the end (we didn't want the kids to get bored after the "fun" part and complain the whole way back.) And we were glad we did, even though we had to hike up the rocks (rather than descending into the gulch) and climb our way out of the gulch, which was a little harder of a hike.

Going the direction we did, we began to climb the mountainside right away - it was a steep climb but steps in the rocks made it a much easier climb. After about 15 minutes of climbing, we reached the top and the views were incredible! By this time we were a ways off the main trail and away from the Sylvan Lake, and you really felt like you were in the wilderness. 

After the overlook, the crowds basically disappeared and we were literally on our own back there for an hour before we saw another family. We were starting to get a little worried since we had not seen anyone in so long, but they assured us that we were on the trail and almost to the gulch. As we continued on, we could begin to hear the sound of water and knew we were getting close. We reached the gulch after 90 minutes of hiking. Since it was August and the water levels were pretty low, it wasn't too wet of a hike and we didn't have any rushing water to contend with.

It took about 30 more minutes to climb the gulch, and the kids loved climbing over the rocks. There is a metal handrail most of the way to help guide you and help you not slip on the wet rocks.

This was such a fun hike and I'm glad we did it in the evening. Most reviews say that this is a very popular hike and can be very busy, but we didn't see anyone else even when we reached the gulch. We finished the hike at about 6pm. This 3 mile hike took us about 2 hours but we did stop often to look around and take photos.

I made 5 layouts for this hike:

If you are ever in Custer and thinking about doing this hike...DO IT! It's great.