Today Kelly and I backpacked the Hells Canyon Trail near Custer SD. This is a 5.3-mile trail with a .2-mile hike to an overlook. Total was 5.7-miles, we did in around 3 hours and 30 minutes with no lunch break. The first ½ mile is a pretty steep uphill to get to the top of the canyon and then we walked about 2.5 miles around rock formations on top of the canyon before we dropped into the canyon itself and the hiked back the last 2.7 miles through patches of knee to thigh high tick filled grass. We do spray our clothes to help ward off ticks/bugs, but Kelly ended up with one tick found on her leg. She safely removed it before it had dug in, so hopefully nothing will come of it. Most of the ticks in this area are not carrying the Lyme disease, but we will keep an eye on the location to see if anything happens. It was a beautiful day and most of the hike was in the upper 60’s to lower 70’s with a nice breeze on top of the canyon, but once we got into the canyon the breezes were harder to come upon and the humidity level increased, still not oppressive just annoying. Met a few people on the trail today one set of 3 ladies from the area, another family from Georgia and most seemed prepared with enough water but hiking in clothes not appropriate for the area with all the ticks. The ladies said they were picking off ticks by the dozens. Oh well live and learn. The other 3 from Georgia were just enjoying themselves in this area and just looking for a good hike. Going backwards doing canyon first than the rock ledges is a challenge we have done and seems a lot more difficult. Did not see any big horn sheep this time and no rattlesnakes. Enjoy the pics and thanks from reading the story. For more stats elevation, distance, time, etc go to www.ramblr.com and explore for tleon14.

Hiking/Backpacking

Start with the 1/2 mile uphill. Much easier to enjoy the trail.

Hells Canyon, Tleon14

Custer, South Dakota, United States

time : Jun 23, 2018 8:31 AM

duration : 3h 37m 10s

distance : 5.7 mi

total_ascent : 1111 ft

highest_point : 5732 ft

avg_speed : 1.6 mi/h

user_id : Tleon14

user_firstname : Tom

user_lastname : Leonard

Today Kelly and I backpacked the Hells Canyon Trail near Custer SD. This is a 5.3-mile trail with a .2-mile hike to an overlook. Total was 5.7-miles, we did in around 3 hours and 30 minutes with no lunch break. The first ½ mile is a pretty steep uphill to get to the top of the canyon and then we walked about 2.5 miles around rock formations on top of the canyon before we dropped into the canyon itself and the hiked back the last 2.7 miles through patches of knee to thigh high tick filled grass. We do spray our clothes to help ward off ticks/bugs, but Kelly ended up with one tick found on her leg. She safely removed it before it had dug in, so hopefully nothing will come of it. Most of the ticks in this area are not carrying the Lyme disease, but we will keep an eye on the location to see if anything happens. It was a beautiful day and most of the hike was in the upper 60’s to lower 70’s with a nice breeze on top of the canyon, but once we got into the canyon the breezes were harder to come upon and the humidity level increased, still not oppressive just annoying. Met a few people on the trail today one set of 3 ladies from the area, another family from Georgia and most seemed prepared with enough water but hiking in clothes not appropriate for the area with all the ticks. The ladies said they were picking off ticks by the dozens. Oh well live and learn. The other 3 from Georgia were just enjoying themselves in this area and just looking for a good hike. Going backwards doing canyon first than the rock ledges is a challenge we have done and seems a lot more difficult. Did not see any big horn sheep this time and no rattlesnakes. Enjoy the pics and thanks from reading the story. For more stats elevation, distance, time, etc go to www.ramblr.com and explore for tleon14.