Custer County High Point Trip Report
Sylvan Hill (7,000+ ft)
Date: July 21, 2002
Author: Dave Covill
From Meade we drove south on US 385 to the vicinity of the Custer SD cohp. This is a 7,000 ft pinnacle on a
hill southwest of Harney Peak. Mike Schwartz's directions are good; from US 385/16, go 5.1 miles on SD
87 to a turnout on the right, with a gate, signed "Firewood Area". It is 0.2 mile from the crest of the hill,
and the tunnel was at mile 4.5.
We walked up about 300 feet on several switchbacks of a good dirt road to a water tank facility. This has a
red spigot below, and we used that after the hike to refresh ourselves and clean off. Very cold! Follow the
white blazes all the way up the steep hill, passing 4 rocky outcrops which you could confuse to be false summits.
The 5th is the cohp, and is rocky but not difficult to ascend to a small area with a cairn. We could
easily see Harney Peak to the northeast, and Crazy Horse to the southwest. The white blazes are mostly on
the left, south side of the ridge. They go all the way to the summit.
Great hike, steep, 50 minutes up, 22 minutes down. Very hot out.