Whether You Have A Day, An Hour, Or A Week, the Mickelson Trail Is Worth It
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Biking the 109 mile long Mickelson Trail has long been on my travel to do list as I love a bike-packing trip. Spending 3-4 days riding through the scenic Black Hills on a dedicated bike trail sounds like a fantastic vacation to me.
It didn’t quite turn out the way I envisioned on this trip to South Dakota because we were trying to squeeze so much in that I ended up with only one day on the trail. (I blame South Dakota- there is entirely too much fun stuff to do in this state.) But it was still absolutely worth it even if we only did part of the Mickelson Trail.
Since I am not quite in shape enough for 109 miles in one day, we only did about 17 miles of the trail as an out and back trip (so about 34 miles total), but it was some of my favorite miles ever done on a bike trail. I think this is hands down one of the most scenic rails-to-trails I have ever ridden. I loved every bit of the Mickelson Trail, and my 13 year old nephew who rode with me is already planning our return trip to conquer the whole thing.
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What Is The Mickelson Trail?
A 109 mile long crushed gravel, mixed use trail between Deadwood and Edgemont, South Dakota
The Mickelson Trail is a rails to trails project, using an old train line that was originally built in 1888. After the rail line was abandoned in the 1980s, enthusiasts in the area saw the potential and it was converted to a mixed-use trail in the 1990s. Runners, hikers, bikers, horseback riders, and even cross-country skiers in the winter now all enjoy this incredibly scenic trail.
There are more than 100 old rail bridges, 4 tunnels, and many signs pointing out historical landmarks along the trail. The rail line was built just after the gold rush of the 1870s saw thousands of people suddenly descend upon the Black Hills. Many of the signs we saw pointed out old mining camps as well as former logging towns or even where General Custer shot a grizzly. (Yes, that Custer.)
You do need a $4 day or $15 annual pass for the Mickelson Trail which you can purchase at a number of places in the Black Hills- basically at most of the bike shops or at the Chambers of Commerce in Edegemont, Hill City, Custer, Lead, and Deadwood. The annual pass can be purchased online from the SD Dept of Game, Fish, and Parks.
Trail map courtesy of SD Game, Fish, and Parks
What We Did- An Out And Back Around The Mystic Trailhead
The Details
Total trip mileage: 34 miles - 17 miles each way (MP 72 to MP 89)
How long it took us: 4 hours 45 minutes. Quite a bit of that (maybe 45 min or so) was not riding though, according to my Garmin. We did stop for water and snack breaks frequently and I stopped to read all the historic signs because I am that person, which annoyed my 13 year old nephew to no end.
Our route: Mystic TH > MP 89 > MP 72 > Mystic TH. We started at Mystic TH (MP 74.7, #7 on the map above) and rode 14.3 miles north to MP 89 (just south of Dumont TH, #5 on the map). Then we turned around and rode south 17 miles to MP 72 which is just south of Tunnel A on the map. We turned back north again for 2.7 miles to bring us back to Mystic TH.
Elevation change: +1251 ft in total gained. Mystic TH is near a low point so we gained 863 ft going north to MP 89 and we gained 388 ft going south to MP 72. The graph next to the map above shows the elevation changes on the trail. Lots of fun downhill after the turnarounds though!
* Pro-Tip- Each mile on the Mickelson Trial is marked with a nice big stone plinth, and every landmark is marked by its mileage from Edgemont which is MP 0. (The MP stands for mile plaque I think.)
These large stone plinths mark each mile on the Mickelson Trail. This is very handy for map reading since GPS/phones don’t always get a clear signal out here but it is sometimes disheartening when you have been going uphill for what seems forever but turns out to be only a mile.
How We Decided On This Section Of The Mickelson Trail
It was all about the old train tunnels for me
Since we had only one day, we decided to aim for 20-30 miles of the most scenic section of the trail. This is by most accounts the section around the Mystic Trailhead.
Most of the trail north of Mystic follows a picturesque creek and all 4 of the train tunnels found on the Mickelson are in the sections just north and just south of the Mystic TH. I really wanted to see the train tunnels. The pictures I found on the internet looked so neat and big ol’ railroad tunnels are not something you find on every bike trail.
These tunnels were surprisingly large for something built in the late 1800s and were definitely as cool as I thought they would be.
The Mystic Trailhead at MP 74.7
We started our ride at the Mystic TH at 945 am on a Sunday morning in early October. We had picked up the bikes the day before from South Dakota Outdoor Shop in Custer (more on that below under “Rentals”) so we were able to hit the ground running as soon as we finished breakfast at the hotel (the Holiday Inn Express Hill City which was great).
We drove to Mystic from Hill City, which took us 30 minutes even though it is only 14 miles because the last 7 miles or so is a packed gravel road. The road was in good condition though and I think any car could make it—but you can only go so fast on gravel, even on good gravel roads, so plan on it taking a bit.
The Mystic TH was nice, with a big parking area, a vault toilet (not great but I have seen worse), a covered pavilion with maps, a water pump, and a bike stand with air and a multi-tool. If you are expecting an actual town in Mystic to get supplies though, you will be out of luck. There is nothing in Mystic besides some houses, a quaint historic church, and the trailhead.
The Mystic Trailhead was nice, with a tiny vault toilet (seen on the left of the trail), a water pump, a covered area handy for waiting out rain, maps, and bike station with air and a multitool.
The Ride North from MP 74.7 To MP 89
14.3 miles, 2.5 hours, +863 ft, 2 train tunnels
Within 20 minutes of starting, we had already passed over our first train trestle and thru Tunnel C (MP 76.9) and I was in love. It was just so incredibly scenic and we saw no one else on the trail. You start off along Castle Creek but it soon changes to Rapid Creek after you pass what looks like a small group of vacation houses just north of Mystic. This is the same Rapid Creek that runs through Rapid City which I found interesting since we had seen that creek while in downtown Rapid City just a few days ago.
The trail was packed gravel and in good shape but it was a pretty steady gradual incline the whole way so we weren’t flying. We averaged about 6-7 mph and stopped for a lot of pictures. Plus, you cross quite a few privately owned cow pastures so you need to stop to open and close the gates across the trail. And we had some cow encounters on the trail itself. Sadly, that was the only wildlife we saw but it kept things interesting. You really needed to pay attention to dodging cow pats on the trail in some parts lest you end up with a pretty foul smelling bike.
We passed Rochford TH at MP 82.6 which also had a covered pavilion, water pump, bike stand with air/multi-tool, and tiny vault toilet. I think this is standard for most of the trailheads on the Mickelson; it is really a well-funded and maintained trail.
You could ride 0.3 miles up the road into Rochford itself, a tiny town (population 8, in fact) of not much more than a crossroads. It does have two places to eat though- the Moonshine Gulch Tavern and the quirky Rochford Mall of which I had heard much about and was sad to see it closed the day we were there. We really wanted to poke around this fun little general store that has personality in spades as well as ice cream and drinks. I couldn’t tell if it was just that day or I think the Rochford Mall might close all together in the offseason. The Moonshine Gulch was open but we didn’t want to stop for a sit-down meal. It looked nice though.
Tunnel D was at MP 85.3 and after that, the trail opened up into some wider pastures around us making for some beautiful surroundings but also meant we could really feel a wicked headwind. Originally, we planned on biking all the way to the Dumont TH (MP 92.6) but I was petering out by this point and the headwind was really sucking the fun out of it for me so we turned around at MP 89. Then life was good again as we barely pedaled all the way back to Mystic, reaping the rewards of all that uphill work.
Click images below to enlarge
The Ride South From MP 89 To MP 72
17 miles, - 863 ft then +388 ft, just under 2 hours
It was a fantastic trip back to Mystic from MP 89 as we mostly coasted with some minor pedaling.
To compare our uphill versus downhill:
trip from Mystic to MP 89- 2 hours 30 min, avg about 6 mph
trip from MP 89 back to Mystic- a little over an hour, avg about 12 mph
My batteries were recharged by that point and I was ready to tackle another bout of uphill so we could bag the last 2 train tunnels on the Mickelson Trail. So we pedaled past our car at the Mystic TH and continued south for 2.7 miles. The trail started climbing again as soon as we passed Mystic and more steeply than the section going north so my recharged batteries didn’t last long. Luckily, it took us under 30 minutes to reach Tunnel B at MP 73 and then Tunnel A at MP 72.5.
Click on images below to enlarge
The Ride North From MP 72 Back To Mystic TH At MP 74.7
2.7 miles, -388 ft, 10 min
After we bagged the last of the 4 tunnels on the Mickleson Trail and my thoughts were turning to a post- ride beer, we decided to turn around at MP 72. We then enjoyed a very speedy 10 minute downhill ride back to Mystic, at one point hitting 22 mph according to my Garmin. I think this may have been my nephew’s favorite part of the trip although I was terrified he was going to hit something.
We finished up our day around 2:30 pm, so approximately 5 hours after first pulling into the Mystic TH, tired but elated from such a great day riding.
I took no pictures going downhill on the last bit going back to Mystic section because both hands had a death grip on my handlebars. But you can see how fast we were going downhill on that last section. The time is not quite right because I forgot to hit start until we were already a couple of miles up the trail. But this is basically our route- uphill north to MP 89, then downhill back to Mystic, then uphill again to MP 72, then downhill back to Mystic.
Other Details From Our Mickelson Bike Adventure
Why An Out And Back And Not A Point To Point
Organizing a shuttle was hard
When first planning, I really wanted to maximize the amount of the trail I could see in one day and so was thinking we could do a one way trip from either the Dumont or Rochford trailheads to Hill City or Custer, making a 30 -40 mile trip depending. We only had one rental car so we couldn’t do our own shuttle.
We were visiting in early October which is a bit late in the season, meaning I had trouble organizing a shuttle ride. There are a few companies that run shuttles as biking the Mickelson Trail is very popular, but many of them were winding operations down by this point in the year.
And also, being that late in the season and saving the Mickelson for the end of our trip meant I was gambling a bit on the weather. During our 8 days in the Dakotas it was mostly 80 and sunny, but it was 50 and rainy one day, and it snowed the day after we left so the weather gamble was real. I didn’t want to commit too much ahead of time because of this, also making organizing a shuttle ride harder.
So we decided to give ourselves two days at the end of the trip- one to bike and one to drive around the Black Hills and see some things we hadn’t gotten around to yet and let the weather forecast decide which day was which. That ended up being a good decision as it rained one of the two days but was gorgeous the next day- perfect for a ride. We wouldn’t have had that flexibility if we had done a shuttle so it was another reason to go for an out and back ride that we drove ourselves to.
*I did speak on the phone to Dave’s World Tours, one of the larger outfits that was highly recommended by several people we met and was still operating in October. He was extremely nice and helpful but was already booked by the time I waited to see what the weather was doing. When we come back and do the entire trail (with more time!), he will be the first person I call for a ride.
Just throwing in more pictures from the trail because I took a million.
Rentals
Two thumbs up for South Dakota Outdoor Shop in Custer
Finding bikes also turned out to be a little harder than I thought it would be because many of the shops had already closed for the season. I called every one in Custer and Hill City that I could find on the internet ahead of time. During the summer, you have lots of choices including many pop-up stations but in October, not so much. I also was interested in trying an ebike so I kept calling to find out about those too.
We ended up renting from the South Dakota Outdoor Shop, which is a good-sized outdoor gear shop in downtown Custer that stays open year-round. I can’t say enough nice stuff about them. Super friendly and helpful and the bikes were in good condition- no wonky shifters or cruddy tires. The owners encouraged us to take the bikes out on the streets by the shop before we rented to make sure they fit and nothing was wrong with them, which is not something every rental shop does. Plus, the owner gave us her cell phone number to call if we had any problems and the shop wasn’t open yet. That’s some next level service.
SD Outdoor Shop rents mountain bikes, kids bikes, and ebikes. Rentals include helmet, pump, tube, and tool kit which is helpful as much of the trail is not near anything for miles if you get a flat. They also sell the required Mickelson Trail passes in the shop, making it a handy one stop shopping kind of place.
We rented for 24 hours, picking up our bikes on Saturday afternoon and returning Sunday afternoon after our ride. If you are wondering how we did this in a rental car, it turns out you can put 2 full size bikes in the back of a Mitsubishi Eclipse if you put the all seats down and play some tetris. We really had to clean the cow dung off the bikes though after our ride before putting them back in the car. We used the water pump at the trailhead and a lot of paper towels we happened to have in the car. So you might want to think about that if you are planning on doing the same.
The E Bike Question
I had really wanted to try an ebike on the Mickelson for a lot of reasons. One, it is a great trail for an ebike with lots of up and down so you can have the help on the hills when you need it and save the battery when you are coasting down. And two, we wanted to maximize the amount of trail we could do in a day and an ebike would obviously help my old, out of shape self do that.
We ended up not renting an ebike because SD Outdoor Shop doesn’t let you transport their ebikes with your own car. Which makes sense as the bikes are so expensive. You either just ride them out and back from the shop or use one of their approved shuttle services, like Dave’s World Tours that they trust to carry the bikes properly. Since we wanted to do a very specific section of the trail too far away to ride to from the shop and we didn’t have a shuttle, the ebike thing wasn’t going to work out.
I did meet a lovely couple at the Mystic TH who were unloading their ebikes and I pestered them with questions. They were locals who took their bikes out on the trail once or twice a week and loved them. Said they usually did about 30 miles and had not run into any parts of the trail that their bikes couldn’t handle. They started off as mountain bikers who graduated to the ebikes as they got older, so definitely people speaking my language.
When we come back to do the trail in its entirety, hopefully in the next few years, I plan to rent ebikes and ride over 3 days from Deadwood to Edgemont, staying in Hill City and Custer for my overnights. I may make the kids pedal regular bikes though. Maybe at the end of the day they will actually be tired?!
Other Tips for the Mickelson Bike Trail
1.Bring water and sunscreen. Most of the trail is not shaded and even in early October, it got hot. I can only imagine what it must be like in July. There are water pumps at the trailheads but they can be out of order and there is very little around otherwise, meaning no handy gas stations or stores to buy supplies.
2. Bring layers. It was chilly when we started in the morning and hot when we finished in the afternoon. Rain can be sudden and unpredicable even in the summer. It can also be hyperlocal in the mountains- I read one account of a group of riders that were spread out over a mile and one rider had perfect weather, one was rained on, and one was dodging hail. Be prepared.
3. Bring a basic repair kit with you and know how to use it. Even though the packed gravel trail was graded and in good shape, rocks happen and there were miles of nothing between some of the trailheads. And the trailheads weren’t exactly in major towns either. Our rental bikes came with a spare tube and tools to change a tire.
4. Cell service was spotty. I could receive/send some text messages on our ride but no calls and definitely not internet. (I use Google Fi which uses both T Mobile and US Cellular towers.)
5. Trailhead amenities are limited in the winter. The trail is open year-round but the water is shut off and bathrooms are closed late fall until spring I believe.
Where We Stayed In The Black Hills
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We spent the night before our bike adventure in Hill City at the Holiday Inn Express Hill City, and it was a fine hotel, exactly what you would expect from a Holiday Inn Express. It is within walking distance of the quaint downtown and its restaurants. The front desk people were super nice and let us leave our luggage with them while we rode so we didn’t have to leave it in our car at the trailhead. That always makes me nervous. If you wanted to stay here while riding the Mickelson, the hotel is about a block away from the trail as it cuts through Hill City so it's very convenient.
After our ride, we drove to Rapid City and stayed in the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott off of Interstate 90 because we were flying out the next day from Rapid City airport. It was a good hotel, just a little too busy for me because it is attached to a large indoor waterpark so there were tons of families staying there. If the kids were younger or we had more time and could have actually visited the waterpark, this might have been a big bonus.
We also stayed at the Residence Inn Rapid City earlier in our South Dakota vacation. It is at the same exit as the Fairfield Inn & Suites, just about 10 min west of downtown Rapid City. I actually liked the Residence Inn a little better as I thought the rooms were a little bigger and breakfast had a little more choice, plus, because it is not directly attached to the waterpark, it wasn’t quite as busy with bathing suit clad children running around.
Vacation Rentals
I also thought about renting a house while we were in the Black Hills although it didn’t work out for our schedule this time, it is what I will probably do on our next visit. You could rent in Hill City or Custer and organize shuttles to take you to different trailheads and just ride back to the house which would give you a lot of flexibility. The Mickelson Trail passes right through both of those towns and there are lots of rental options, especially in the summer. But they book up fast so get looking!
Where We Ate
*There were not nearly as many choices as there would be in the summer because several places had already closed for the offseason while we were there. I was surprised by just how quiet Hill City was on a Friday night for instance- there were basically only 2 restaurants open. Luckily they were both good.
In Hill City, we ate dinner one night at the Bumpin’ Buffalo Bar n Grill and enjoyed their signature buffalo burger. We also ate at the Mangiamo Pizzeria and thought it was good pizza and pasta.
In Custer, there were a few more choices than Hill City because it is a slightly bigger town. We had one of the best meals of our trip at The Custer Wolf and it had a nice little patio area for hanging out if the weather was nice. After our Mickelson ride, we had amazingly huge and delicious ice cream cones at Horatio’s Homemade Ice Cream which was just one block away from SD Outdoor Shop. 100% recommend this place- it had great ice cream, a cool vibe as it is in an old bank building, and fun seasonal flavors like rhubarb. Even has homemade sherbets and sorbets if you don’t like ice cream.
In Rapid City, we loved Firehouse Brewing Company- again, great food, a cool backstory (it’s in an old fire station), and a menu big enough that adults and picky kids were all happy. We also ate at Sabatino’s Italian Ristorante and while it was a more expensive and fancier meal than we usually go for on vacation, it was absolutely delicious and we all keep talking about it.
Click on images below to enlarge
Final Thoughts
If you have a chance to do the Mickelson Bike Trail while you are in this part of South Dakota, you should absolutely take it. Even if you just have an afternoon, head out for an hour or two and you won’t regret it. One of the most scenic trails I have ever cycled and we can’t wait to go back and conquer the whole thing. Probably with an ebike for me so my slow self can keep up with the kiddos on those hills!
