South Dakota trails · Centennial On Northern Hills
Centennial On Northern Hills
A 22.1-mile point-to-point in South Dakota, with 1,422 ft of climbing. Reaches Dalton Lake. Managed by the U.S. Forest Service.
Elevation profile
The climbing leans toward the first third: 51% of the ascent falls between mile 0.0 and mile 7.4. It gives back about 2,781 ft along the way, so it rolls rather than climbing steadily.
3-D terrain
USGS 3DEP ELEVATION × ESRI WORLD IMAGERY · VERTICAL ×1.5
Reaches
- Dalton Lake (lake)
Heads up
Getting there
ELK CREEK — parking nearby, restroom, water. About 49 min drive (29 mi, 2 of them unpaved) from Spearfish. 44.30231, -103.51606 · directions
Daylight at the trailhead
On October 14, 2026 — the day this page was generated — first light reaches this trailhead at 6:38 a.m., the sun rises at 7:07 a.m. and sets at 6:11 p.m., and the last usable light fades about 6:41 p.m. (MDT) — 11 h 04 min of daylight. At about 2.7 mph plus 30 minutes per 1,000 feet of climbing, the 22.1-mile route takes roughly 8 h 53 min, so leaving the trailhead at sunrise puts you back around 4:00 p.m. — 2 h 11 min before sunset.
Loop options
- CENTENNIAL BYPASS NH + CENTENNIAL ON NORTHERN HILLS — 4.2 mi loop, 584 ft gain
- CENTENNIAL BYPASS NH + CENTENNIAL ON NORTHERN HILLS + NEMO 8550 — 8.2 mi loop, 1,317 ft gain
- NEMO 252 + CENTENNIAL ON NORTHERN HILLS + NEMO 251 — 3.3 mi loop, 363 ft gain
Nearby trails
- Snow-7 — 10.2 mi
- George S. Mickelson Trail — 11.5 mi
- Bear Butte Lake Loop Trail — 11.6 mi
- Snow-7C — 12.3 mi