An Evening Hike to Sturgis City Dams Trail
It was Saturday evening and I was trying to decide between finding something good on Netflix and cleaning my house. Neither one of those sounded that appealing so I decided to go for a hike. I’m usually more of a morning hiker, but when its so hot, an evening hike can offer cooler temps and amazing light for photos.
I decided to tackle the Sturgis City Dams Trail which is a few miles outside of Sturgis off Vanocker Canyon Rd. I got to the trailhead at about 6:20pm. If you’re going to do an evening hike, it’s important to know the trail and know what time it gets dark. On this day, the sun was supposed to set at 8:28pm. That would give me a little over 2 hours to hike 4.5 miles which I figured would be about right. (I did bring a headlamp just in case.)
There is a good-sized parking area at the trailhead off Vanocker Canyon Rd, so you should not have any issue with parking.
You will see the sign at the start of the trail with a map showing all the trails that are part of the Sturgis Trail System. You will be traveling along Unnamed #1 starting at S9 according to the map.
The trail starts out through some fairly thick greenery and wildflowers.
You will come to a sign asking you to fill out a recreation use form. It takes just a few seconds and you don’t have to include any personal info, so just do it!
After the sign, the trail zig zags on a gradual incline through the pine trees. The trail is well marked and easy to follow thanks to the great folks at BlackHillsTrails.org.
At about a mile and a half you will come to a rocky area which offers some beautiful views. From this point, you will start a gradual descent on switchbacks down to the dams. A little ways down the trail, there is a fork in the trail with a sign directing you to stay to the left to get to the dams.
As you get closer to the dams, the trail gets a bit thicker with trees and vegetation before opening to a small meadow.
There is no swimming allowed at the dams, but you can bring along your fishing pole if you have a valid fishing license!
The one bad thing about doing an evening hike is you are bound by the clock if you don’t want to be hiking out in the dark. I could have spent more time here just enjoying the beauty of the dams. But I checked the time and realized I had about an hour before sunset and should start the hike back.
