1 - Plan Ahead and Prepare
Get the Lowdown: Research the areas you plan to visit. Know the trail conditions and where to find bathrooms, water, and trash cans. Knowledge is your ticket to a safer, more enjoyable adventure. Know before you go:
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Permits or entry fee required? Custer State Park, Badlands National Park, and Mount Rushmore National Monument all require entrance fees. To travel on off-road trails in a UTV or other off-road vehicle, you need a Motorized Vehicle Use Trail Permit from the Forest Service. Hunting and fishing require licenses from South Dakota Game Fish and Parks.
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Bathroom? “Go” before you go whenever possible, and be prepared to know what to do when there isn’t a bathroom around.
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Pets? While most trails are pet-friendly, some are not, like Mount Rushmore, Badlands National Park, and Bear Butte State Park. Check the pet policy before you hit the trail.
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Weather report? Make sure you’re not left out in the cold on this one!
Beat the Rush: Visit less popular spots or opt for off-peak times like early morning, late afternoons, or weekdays. Remember, parking lots fill up fast so have a backup plan ready.
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Plan for extra time during popular times, and pack patience.
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There is so much to explore, check out these lesser-known destinations:
Stay on Track: Use maps or GPS to chart your course. Keep them handy and charged, as cell service can be elusive in some areas. Printed maps are also available throughout the area.
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Read up on these travel tips
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Visit the Rapid City Visitor Center
Pack Smart: Don’t let the unpredictable South Dakota weather catch you off guard. Bring enough food, water, and gear to fuel your adventure and protect you against the elements.
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Learn the Ten Outdoor Essentials and discover what Leave No Trace pros bring in their packs.
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Need to pick up some supplies? Check out these local outfitters.
2 - Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
Trail Etiquette: Stick to designated trails to protect plants and respect private property. Even if the trail is muddy, don't veer off – walking or riding in the middle of the trail prevents erosion and keeps our trails nice and narrow.
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Check out local trail maps and conditions: Visit Rapid City Trails
Pick a Solid Spot: When taking a break, choose durable surfaces like rocks, sand, or bare ground. Enjoy the view and let others pass without creating a new path.
- Learn more about durable surfaces: Leave No Trace – Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
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The Black HIlls and Badlands are both beautiful and unique geological wonders with different considerations. The Badlands provide a unique opportunity for skilled navigators to explore off-trail, but make sure you avoid creating a visible trace of your path, and avoid disturbing sensitive habitat or trampling vegetation.
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The Black Hills are generally very rocky - click here to learn more about the history of the area’s unique geological features!
Camp Right: Use designated campsites to avoid damaging vegetation and prevent the creation of new campsites. Leave the landscape as you found it — legendary.
- The best campsites are found, not made — keep your equipment on designated areas in developed campgrounds, and find already camped-in spots in the backcountry to avoid creating new campsites whenever possible. Learn more about Leave No Trace camping.
3 - Dispose of Waste Properly
Pack In, Pack Out: Carry out all trash, even crumbs and peels. Trash bins aren't always available, so be ready to bring it back home.
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Did you know? Fruit peels and nut shells can persist for up to three years outside. And even though they aren’t a natural source of healthy food, they usually attract animals to places they usually wouldn’t visit, like campsites, roads, and trails. Take the Trash Timeline challenge.
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Most litter on trails is from visitors who just didn’t have a good place to stash their trash. Pro-tip: sealable food bags like what you might buy trail mix in, make great trail-trash bags when they’re empty. Reusable roll-top bags make a great option for carrying out trash, too.
Nature Calls: Use bathrooms when available. If not, dig a hole 6-8 inches deep and 70 steps away from water, campsites, and trails to bury your waste.
- Why bury?
- We want to avoid polluting water. Burying your poop helps prevent that
- We want to avoid contact with insects and other animals. Ever had a fly land on your sandwich? Yeah … that’s why.
- We want to avoid contact with other humans. “Stepping in it” is no one’s idea of a good day.
- We want to maximize decomposition - burying waste about 6-8 inches deep is the sweet spot for microorganisms that will quickly break down waste safely.
- Find yourself in a no-dig situation? It’s good to keep a portable personal toilet bag in your pack. Also known as a WAG-bag, these are a good backup for those times when you’re between a literal rock and a hard place. Learn how to use a wag bag here.
Clean Pet Practices: Pick up after your pets. Their waste can pollute water sources and make other animals, including humans, sick. Use a bag to pick it up and toss it in the nearest trash can.
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Pet waste contains parasites, bacteria, and pharmaceuticals that don’t exist naturally in the wild, and can make other animals sick. Learn more about the importance of packing out pet waste. An empty peanut butter jar taped to your dog’s leash makes a great poop-caddy. Since most trails in the Black Hills and Custer State Park are dog-friendly, it’s good to have a durable way of packing everything out!
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Know before you go: While most trails are pet-friendly, some are not, like Mount Rushmore, Badlands National Park, and Bear Butte State Park. Check the pet policy before you hit the trail.
4 - Leave What You Find
Keep Nature Natural: Resist the urge to take rocks, plants, or other natural objects. Each item plays a significant role in the ecosystem.
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Rocks are important habitats for all sorts of living things — moving or stacking them can not only deprive a critter of its home, but you may discover a grumpy animal under the next rock you grab.
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Other natural objects like bone and antlers are exciting to find, but they’re a crucial source of nutrients for small mammals, and leaving them behind lets the next person enjoy the same neat experience you did.
Prevent Hitchhikers: Brush off your boots and tires before and after your hike or ride to prevent the spread of invasive species. Clean, drain, and dry your boat before leaving one area and entering another.
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It’s OK to interact with nature — just be mindful of how what you’re moving or taking could affect the environment and other visitors. With several million visitors each year, small things add up quickly! Learn more about gems and minerals in the Black Hills.
The Heart of Everything That Is: Finally, and most importantly, remember that these lands are sacred to the Lakota people. Remember to leave all heritage sites, past and present, as you find them.
5 - Minimize Campfire Impacts
Fire Responsibly: Ensure campfires are permitted and conditions are safe before having a fire. Use existing fire rings to protect the ground from heat.
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Did you know? Even though fire is a natural part of the landscape, as many as 85% of wildfires are caused by human activity, which means that most wildfires are preventable. Be aware of fire conditions in the Black Hills and Badlands, and never start a fire in very dry or windy conditions. Learn some great campfire alternatives.
Local Wood Only: Don't bring firewood from home. Instead, buy local or gather on-site where allowed to prevent the spread of tree-killing insects.
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If gathering firewood, make sure to follow the 4 Ds of Firewood Collection:
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Dead: Do not cut or break live branches. They don’t burn well anyway!
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Down: Dead branches still on the tree are important habitat, and removing them before they fall naturally can open up trees to infection.
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Dinky: Wood smaller than your wrist will burn better, hotter, and make for a more manageable fire. Just as importantly, smaller logs will burn completely, helping to minimize the visual impact of your campfire. Large logs on the ground are important habitat and help replenish soil nutrients as they decompose, which brings us to:
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Distant: Spread out when gathering firewood, to avoid the visual and ecological outcomes of removing all woody matter from a small area. Not only does it look unnatural, but removing all wood from the ground leaves the soil in campsites measurably poorer than elsewhere in the forest.
Learn more here.
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Be Thorough: Never leave a fire unattended. When you are done, burn the wood to ash and drown out the fire with water until the ash is cool to the touch.
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The best way of having a safe fire is to keep it small and manageable, and fully extinguish your fire before you leave or go to bed. Learn how to make “campfire soup."
6 - Respect Wildlife
Protect Wildlife and Your Food: Never feed wildlife no matter how hungry they may look. Feeding wild animals harms their health and changes their behaviors. Store food and trash securely to avoid attracting wildlife.
- Animals may look hungry, but it’s not healthy for them to eat human food or become reliant on it (especially when humans become scarce in winter.) An animal can go from wary avoidance to habitual nuisance (or worse) in just a few interactions with human food. Even when humans avoid feeding animals, poor food storage can lead to wildlife learning that humans = food, which can not only cause them to take on riskier behaviors, like spending time near roadways, but can also cause animals to become more assertive and even aggressive with humans over time.
- Food storage 101: Protect yourself, your food, and wildlife:
- Store food in a hard-sided vehicle. For extra security when you’re away from your vehicle, make sure to lock the doors.
- Use food-storage lockers sometimes available in campgrounds, and keep them fully closed.
- In the backcountry, store your food in an approved bearproof container, or practice and use a bear-hang to prevent animals from accessing your munchies.
Keep Your Distance: Observe from afar. To see if you are close enough, close one eye and hold out your arm. If you can cover the animal with your thumb at arm's length, you’re at a safe distance.
- Learn how to use the “thumb trick” for safe viewing.
- Keep your pets on a leash to avoid stressing wild animals.
- Did you know? Research has shown that animals can coexist fairly well to dogs on a leash, whereas off-leash dogs tend to cause stress and can lead to animals fleeing the area. When this “flight” response is triggered, it can drive animals away from a good source of food or water, cause them to abandon their young, and could push them toward a highway where they could be hit, causing injury or death to animals and people alike.
- Keeping your dog on a leash will also help protect your pet. Dogs that chase animals can easily get injured or killed. Most dogs are unaware of the risks that come hiking in the mountains, like cliffs, rushing water, and other environmental threats.
7 - Be Considerate of Others
Trail Respect: Yield to other trail users. Downhill hikers yield to uphill hikers, bikers yield to all hikers, and everyone yields to equestrians and wheelchair users.
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Read more about sharing the trail or check out this video.
Noise and Light: Be mindful of how your noise and light levels affect other people and wildlife.
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Your voice can travel far when you’re outside — respect the desire many people have to enjoy the sounds of nature. And let’s face it, not everyone has your excellent taste in music, so consider using earbuds instead of a portable speaker if you enjoy listening to music outside.
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The night sky in South Dakota is legendary! When camping or hiking at night, only use light sources where they’re necessary, and choose warmer colored light, pointed downward, whenever possible. Click here for more pro tips on enjoying night skies!