Flume Trail

This small section of the Flume Trail is a 0.6 mile out-and-back hike at the Black Hills National Forest in Rapid City, South Dakota. This trail starts at the Upper Spring Creek Trailhead along Sheridan Lake Road on Section 1 of the Flume Trail; however, it's a tiny portion of the trail because the recent rainfall had flooded Spring Creek only 0.3 miles into the hike and made the trail impassable. The Flume Trail is a great backpacking trail and all Black Hills National Forest backpacking/camping rules must be followed. If you find Spring Creek is flooded out, you can usually still find a place to camp in case you're using the National Forest as a roadtrip stopover.

The entire Flume Trail is divided into three sections and is 11 miles from point-to-point, including an optional 3 mile loop trail in Section 3. For more details on the Flume Trail, check out this Black Hills National Forest PDF.

History: The Flume Trail dates back to the mining boom of the 1800's when the Rockerville Flume carried water for 20 miles from Spring Creek east to the placer diggings near Rockerville. The flume operated until 1885, and enabled miners to take over $20 million in gold from the Black Hills. The Flume Trail now follows the old flume bed for a majority of its length, so you'll likely see artifacts left over from the flume - do not touch or remove these if you find any.