The Hills change fast in the last week of September. One weekend the aspen up on the high roads are still green, and by the next the whole draw has gone yellow. If you are trying to pick a weekend to come see it, here is how the next month lays out from where we sit on Main Street.
The color comes in from the top down
Most Black Hills fall-color guides point at roughly September 25 through October 10 as the window worth planning around. The high country turns first — aspen going yellow, sumac going red along the road cuts — while the lower valleys hold their color into the middle of October. That spread is good news for anyone who can only get away one weekend. There is usually somewhere in the Hills doing something worth the drive.
The classic loop out of Hill City runs south and east: Needles Highway on SD 87 with the leaves framing the granite, Sylvan Lake where the water doubles the view, the Wildlife Loop through Custer State Park, and Iron Mountain Road on the way back with its tunnels lined up on Mount Rushmore. It is not a fast drive and it is not meant to be. Give it most of a day, check road conditions before you go, and pack a jacket, because the mornings up there have started to bite.
Main Street becomes a finish line October 3 and 4
The first weekend of October, Hill City hosts Run Crazy Horse. Saturday, October 3 brings the Fast 5K and the Kids 1K, both point-to-point downhill on the Mickelson Trail. Sunday, October 4, the marathon and half marathon start at 8 a.m. at the Crazy Horse Memorial visitor center and run north, finishing on Main Street in front of the Bumpin’ Buffalo. There is also a five-person relay for people who would rather split the distance with friends.
If you are not running, this is still a good weekend to be in town. The course stays open seven hours and the race encourages walkers on both the half and the full, which means the last finishers come in well into the afternoon and the street stays busy most of the day. Main Street is only a few blocks long. Find a spot along it, and the whole race comes to you.
Earlier in the month, the calendar is already full
Two weeks before that, the Mickelson Trail Trek runs its three riding days, September 18 through 20 — Custer to Edgemont at 44.5 miles, Custer to Rochford at 39.5, and Rochford to Deadwood at 24, about 109 miles of old rail grade all told. It is a supported ride, and the towns along the trail feel it.
Then, on Friday, September 25, the Custer State Park Buffalo Roundup. Parking lots open at 6:15 a.m., and the recommendation from the park has never changed: get there early. Roughly 1,300 bison get moved by riders on horseback while a few thousand people watch from the hillsides, and it is loud in a way that photographs do not capture. The Buffalo Roundup Arts Festival runs alongside it, September 24 through 26, with more than a hundred vendors. There is no entry fee for the roundup itself, though a park entrance license is required on the surrounding days.
That Sunday, September 27, Crazy Horse Memorial holds its autumn Volksmarch — a 10-kilometer hike, with a 5K option, and one of the few days each year the public walks up onto the mountain. Registration opens at 7 a.m. and hikers start any time before 1 p.m. It is a popular one, so expect company.
The middle of the day is the best part
Somewhere in every one of those weekends there is an unscheduled hour. The color drive is done and the light is wrong for photographs. The race has an hour left in it. The kids are cold. That hour is the reason a lot of people wander into a candy shop on Main Street, and we have been happy to be that stop since 1977.
Most of what we sell gets made a batch at a time in copper kettles, the same way it was when the shop opened. Caramel cooked slow and poured out to set. Fudge worked on marble until it loses its shine and turns creamy. Bear paws — pecans, caramel, and chocolate, in that order, which is the only order that works. There is coffee and tea if you need the warm cup more than the sugar, and ice cream for the people in your group who will order it in October anyway.
We keep two shops. Hill City, at 205 Main Street, is open year-round, which matters more in the fall than it does in July. Keystone, at 117 Winter Street, runs roughly March through October, so if Keystone is on your route, this is the stretch of the year to catch it.
Come find us
Whether you are here for the bison, the leaves, the finish line, or none of the above, both shops are on the way. Stop in, watch a batch get made if the timing is right, and take something home for the drive.
Turtle Town — Hill City, 205 Main Street · Keystone, 117 Winter Street