Battle Creek - Near Hippie Hole
If you enjoy my posts, please consider signing up below to get email notifications of my latest blogs. I will not share your email.
Going Off the Beaten Path in the Black Hills, SD
We found Hippie Hole in July 2020, during the COVID pandemic, when planning a trip involved pondering the question - there are 330 million people in the United States, where could we have fun without seeing any other people? At least as of 2020, Hippie Hole was still a secret in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We did pass one other small group of hikers on our way out, but other than that we had this beautiful swimming hole to ourselves for a couple of hours in the late morning.
Even today though, I’d doubt there are many people that venture to Hippie Hole with all of the other more mainstream tourist attractions in the Black Hills. Though a great spot to swim and cool off on a warm day, this is still a drive to the middle of nowhere on some pretty bumpy roads without cellular service. Perfect for anyone looking for relief from a busy day of crowds, but the journey is going to require a little bit of adventurous spirit.
Due to extremely rough roads, we ended up turning our minivan around, and we parked off road near this rock. The boys wouldn’t let us leave until we’d climbed to the top of it.
Location and Parking
The great news is that Hippie Hole is free to visit and parking does not require any type of pass. The “other” news is that I’m not sure the roads to get to the trailhead have names…. So that adventurous spirit I mentioned is going to be needed to get to the trailhead. You can type “Hippie Hole” into GoogleMaps and it will get you to the right spot, but you will lose cellular service, so write down the directions in case you accidentally close the app on your phone. Additionally, you won’t be able to map yourself back out of Hippie Hole due to lack of cell service, so having the directions written down will be required to backtrack in case you don’t remember the turns.
Despite being out on some questionable dirt roads, Hippie Hole isn’t too far from other interesting things to do in the Black Hills. It’s about a 30 minute drive from Rapid City, only 20 minutes from Reptile Garden, and 30 minutes from Mount Rushmore. US-16 is the closest main road to Hippie Hole. Exit off of US-16 at South Rockerville Road. In 3.2 miles, turn left (unmarked road). Drive another 1.2 miles and turn right. The parking area for Hippie Hole is in another 1.2 miles.
We eventually found the last road to be too bumpy, with too many potholes and large rocks, and we ended up turning around to park further back. We parked off road about a mile back from the trailhead where there was another split in the road and plenty of open grass to pull over onto. I’ve shown the off-road section in red, where we started hiking in blue, and I’ve indicated both where we parked and where the official parking area is with black stars in the map below.
Driving map to Hippie Hole
We did not feel comfortable driving on the extremely rough roads all the way to the official Hippie Hole parking lot, so we turned around and drove back to a pullout with plenty of space to pull off of the road. This is where we parked, and the hike out-and-back from here was 2.6 miles, with an elevation gain of 750ft.
This is where we ended up parking due to extremely rough road conditions.
Hiking Hippie Hole
Below is the hiking map with both where we parked and the official Hippie Hole parking lots marked with black stars. Our hike was 2.6 miles, while the hike from the official parking lot is 0.6 miles out and back.
Hiking map to Hippie Hole with parking areas marked with black stars.
This large rock marks where we parked our car
As we parked about a mile back, we simply walked along the road for the first mile to the Hippie Hole parking lot. Once we got to the Hippie Hole parking area, the official trail took off, which heads downhill and drops about 450ft in elevation in 0.3 miles, so this is a relatively steep trail. The trail goes directly downhill to Battle Creek.
Battle Creek at the bottom of the hill
There is a foot trail that goes upstream, but Hippie Hole is downstream. Turn left. On the way back, to make sure hikers don’t miss the turn, there is a large arrow painted in red marking the trail location back up the hill. This is the only spot in the trail that you really need to pay attention to, the rest is obvious in how to follow it.
Red arrow marks where the main trail leaves Battle Creek to get back up the hill to the parking area
The trail follows Battle Creek downstream for another tenth of a mile to get to Hippie Hole. This part of the trail was absolutely stunning.
Following Battle Creek downstream to Hippie Hole
Hippie Hole first comes into view from above as the water drops down a waterfall and the trail descends on rocks beside it. The trail follows rocks down to the water level, and then you can swim back over to the waterfall.
Approaching Hippie Hole - the trail continues to the left of this picture
Hippie Hole
There is a rope to climb up on the left side of the waterfall for anyone wanting to cliff jump. The water is not clear, so I couldn’t see the bottom. I was aware that people cliff jump at Hippie Hole, but without being able to see the bottom and any rocks underneath, we chose simply to swim.
Jumping in from the side, rather than cliff jumping
It was the middle of July, but the water at Hippie Hole was super cold. In fact, I was the only one brave enough to actually make it across the small pool to the waterfall. The boys played at the edge and swam up to about their waists.
Hippie Hole - so cold!
Playing at Hippie Hole
Behind the waterfall, the water gets shallow enough to sit on the rocks
Other Things To Do
Hiking at Sylvan Lake
Visiting Mount Rushmore
Exploring Waterfalls in Spearfish Canyon
Tour Jewel Cave National Monument
Tour Wind Cave National Park
Hike Around Devils Tower National Monument
Traveling through Badlands National Park
Visiting Minute Missile National Historic Site
More from NatureImpactsUs.com
To see additional hikes I’ve written about around the country, click on a pin, and then click on the hyperlink. Use two fingers to zoom in and move around within the map.