Hiking to Roughlock Falls & Canyon Lookout

Hiking to Roughlock Falls & Canyon Lookout | Terry Peak | Camping in the Black Hills | July 2025

We may have made it through last night’s storms unscathed, but the same cannot be said for all the trees in our neck of the woods — and one in particular happened to fall across the dead end road, blocking us from leaving! Thankfully it wasn’t too wide, so Curtis whipped out his little pocket chainsaw that we’ve carried around for moments such as these, and he chopped that tree in half and cleared the road in such a way that no one else will ever know what happened…but now you do!

Once the obstacle was cleared, we continued on with today’s plans. We took forest roads over to Roughlock Falls, a waterfall I had enjoyed seeing with my family back in 2015 (almost 10 years ago to the day, as it turned out!!) but Curtis hadn’t seen before. The forest road took us right to the parking lot closest to the falls, so we first got out and admired them before hiking through the canyon in reverse from how I visited a decade ago. The falls looked much different than I remembered them — it seemed much more lush, with green mossy areas taking over where water flowed last time. I also remembered the canyon walk to be beautifully scenic, following the creek and gazing up at the canyon walls, and besides it being hotter and busier than I remembered from last time, it was just that today.

To change things up though, we added on a very short and steep hike that started across from the lodge. It began very overgrown which made me wonder if we were the only ones crazy enough to do this, but eventually we ran into multiple other hiking groups that proved otherwise. The trail, like I mentioned, was very steep, ascending almost 600 feet in less than 3/4 of a mile. The hardest part for me was the bigger steps that took more effort for someone like me with shorter legs — Curtis was very helpful and gave me a hand several times on the way back down. The rocks that made up the trail were also slick at times. And honestly, while it was a nice view at the top, I really think I prefer this canyon from the ground level looking up. But nevertheless, I’m proud of myself for pushing through the strenuous hike and enjoyed seeing a familiar place from a new perspective. If you’re interested, check out our trail recording here.

Next, we decided it was time to knock off the last peak on Curtis’ list that met his prominence goal: Terry Peak. It was while we were leaving the area that we learned that the highway just North of the falls had closed the day before because of a large rock slide — thankfully we didn’t need to go that way! We drove South through Spearfish Canyon on 14A to US-85, then turned onto Terry Summit road where we drove up to the peak. And honestly, it was not our favorite spot. While initially we were relieved to see how good of condition the road was in, we soon realized it was because there’s a lot of development happening in this area, particularly lots of new McMansions being built all the way up to the peak, which happens to be a ski area. On top of that, right when we arrived, another group of people showed up that were all dressed up and were taking over the little tower to set up some elaborate little picnic spread, for either a cutesy little photo shoot or maybe an engagement/celebration? We climbed the tower and took our pictures as fast as we could before vacating the area to not be in anyone’s way. But we couldn’t help thinking how this was possibly the worst view we’ve had from any peak in the Black Hills and wondering why of all places these people chose this spot?? An open pit mine, cell towers, and the now and future McMansions all tend to detract from the beauty of mountains. Oh well, a peak is a peak, and now Curtis can check this one off his list and we never have to return.

Finally, it was time to begin our search through the forest for another dispersed site. Since we had been having luck with just driving roads and stumbling across sites, we did that once again. We ended up following forest roads South of US-85 for a while until we finally found a suitable spot. It took longer than it had the other nights, and it wasn’t necessarily close to anything, but at least we were alone and it wasn’t supposed to storm again…..until a few hours later, when surprise! The forecast changed and we ended up having big storms all night again! At least the clouds were cool and we enjoyed a pretty sunset before all that started.