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Running trails in Spearfish, SD
Spearfish has 12 trails in the directory — 1 paved and 4 on crushed gravel or dirt, 2 shaded, and 6 open 24 hours. 8 of them post opening hours, so you can check the gate before an early start. They're ranked here by rating weighted by review volume, across 3,541 Google reviews. Filter by surface, loop, distance, shade or lighting to get to the run you're actually planning — no made-up difficulty score, just the facts you'd check before driving out.
Bridal Veil Falls
4.7 ★★★★★ 1,833 reviews
Popular cascade on the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway, offering a platform, a deck and parking.
City Park
4.8 ★★★★★ 604 reviews
Park offering a playground and picnic facilities, plus sports courts and a fish hatchery.
Spearfish Parks & Recreation
4.8 ★★★★★ 393 reviews
Deep & narrow canyon lying within the Black Hills & featuring a fast flowing creek.
Salem Park
4.7 ★★★★★ 150 reviews
Kid-friendly park featuring playground apparatus like swings, slides and a merry-go-round, plus a creek trail.
Lookout Mountain Trail
4.6 ★★★★★ 129 reviews
Park featuring a variety of hiking and biking trails, including some that are kid-friendly.
Evans Park
4.6 ★★★★★ 113 reviews
Scenic park featuring a river, plus playgrounds (with rocket ship equipment) and picnic tables.
Spearfish Community Caves
4.6 ★★★★★ 86 reviews
Unmarked trail for steep hikes and waterfall views from hillside caves, plus winter sports.
Crow Peak Trailhead
4.8 ★★★★★ 81 reviews
Easy-to-follow 7-mile climb through forest to a mountain peak granting valley views.
Community Cave Trail
4.6 ★★★★★ 64 reviews
Visitors hike to the top of a waterfall at this park, which features a cave.
Lookout Mountain
5 ★★★★★ 12 reviews
No trails match those filters.
How to pick a trail in Spearfish
- Match the surface to your legs. Spearfish gives you a choice: 4 natural surface and 1 paved. Asphalt and concrete are fast, predictable and runnable year-round but the least forgiving; crushed limestone and dirt take the sting out of high mileage; boardwalk is flat and scenic but slick in the wet. If your shins or knees are complaining, the fix that actually works is varying the surface you run on rather than chasing one "best" one. More natural surface trails →
- Loop or out-and-back? A loop finishes back at the car with no backtracking; on an out-and-back you simply turn round at half your distance.
- Check the hours before a 6am run. 6 trails in Spearfish are open 24 hours — the rest can sit inside a park that gates at dusk and doesn't unlock until well after sunrise. 8 of the 12 listings carry posted opening hours — worth a look before you set an alarm.
- Long run? Check water and restrooms first. 5 have trailhead parking, 5 have restrooms, and 1 has a water fountain in Spearfish. Anything over an hour and those stop being nice-to-haves — and in summer, shade counts double.
- The small things that decide it. 2 shaded, 1 that runners describe as quiet, 3 dog-friendly, and 2 smooth and wide enough for a stroller or a wheelchair. Busy or quiet isn't a good-or-bad thing here: a busy path is the safer choice for a solo run at dawn, a quiet one is better for intervals.
More on all of this in the trail-running guides.
Browse Spearfish trails by type
Running trails near Spearfish
Worth the short drive — the closest towns with trails in the directory.