Elevation
7,242 ft / 2,207 m
Prominence
2,922 ft / 891 m
Region
Most climbed route
Highlights
- Harney Peak is the highest peak in South Dakota.
- It is also the highest summit in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains.
- Harney Peak is located within the Black Elk Wilderness area within Black Hills National Forest.
- The summit can be reached by following the trails either from Sylvan Lake, Camp Remington, Highway 244, Palmer Creek Road, Mount Rushmore, or Horse Thief Lake.
- An abandoned fire lookout tower is on the summit.
Latest summits
"It was 42 degrees when I started. I expected rain, so I packed my rain gear- just in case. I made it up to the summit in just under two hours taking trail #9. The tread was good with few rocks as I'm used to. The work that went into making the tower on the summit is really incredible. Anyway, I had the summit for about 10 minutes before a group of kids appeared. One of them immediately put his empty water bottle on the wall and watched it blow away. I decided to loop around on trails #3 and #4 instead of going back down #9. Soon it started to rain. Then the rain turned to snow. Fortunately I w" - Hillary, May 22, 2017
"Left the Sylvan Lake Lodge at 6am......made it to the top at 9am.....awesome weather, great views and a real blast climbing over rocks to get to the marker......the watchtower was a thrill and met a local named Craig who we had some enjoyable dialogue with......it's on to ND now and our next summit....bye....
Walter & Tracey Oddo" - walteroddo, Sep 27, 2015
"Hiked up to the top with my wife to celebrate our 10th anniversary. It was a great hike both up and down. The weather was fabulous and the top was quite cool and really windy. The views were amazing and mind blowing. The skies were clear and the view went on forever. There were four horses with riders at the top and how they did that I'll never know. I would have loved to have seen that happen. I barely made it in several places. I was an interesting assortment of people that made this climb...from the hardcore couple that spent the night on the peak to a lady hiking this difficult trail in fl" - lasttofallthedogs, Sep 17, 2015
"Hiked it solo. Not a difficult hike. The summit was shrouded in clouds so there was no view unfortunately, but still very cool. There was a US Forest Service crew doing some renovation work on the lookout tower, and a local Fox TV station reporting crew arrived just as I started to head down. They did a piece on the renovation work. Was distressed to see the large stands of pine trees killed by mountain pine beetle; it is an epidemic." - jefff, Sep 9, 2015
"Doug and I stopped to hike Harney Peak on our drive from Las Vegas to Winnipeg Canada. Beautiful weather, but it was the weekend of Sturgis... which meant it was crazy busy and we heard bikes roaring down the road nearby for at least the first third of the hike. Incredible wild raspberries everywhere! Fun little peak!" - Brenda, Aug 6, 2015
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About peakery awards
Log successful summits on peakery to earn awards:
Peak Badges: Earn a special badge for each unique peak you summit. See all of your badges on your Badges page.
First Ascent Award: Only 1 available per peak. Goes to the first peakery member to log a successful summit of a peak. Snag this award and the peak will forever bear your name.
King of the Mountain Award: Only 1 available per peak. Summit a peak more times than any other member. Beware: this award can be lost!
Summit Steward: Summit a peak at least 5 times to become one of its Summit Stewards. As Steward of a peak, you’re encouraged to keep that peak’s info up-to-date on peakery and spread goodwill on your future climbs up the peak.