Things to Do in Spearfish, South Dakota

Where Spearfish is, and how long you need

Spearfish sits at the northern edge of the Black Hills, right on I-90 in the far northwest corner of South Dakota. Rapid City is about 50 miles southeast. Sturgis is about 20 minutes east. Deadwood and Lead are 20 to 25 minutes south. Wyoming starts a few minutes west.

Most people arrive here with a Mount Rushmore itinerary and treat Spearfish as a place to sleep. That's a mistake, but an understandable one. The town is small, you can walk most of what matters, and the best thing about it is a canyon that begins at the south edge of town and doesn't announce itself from the interstate.

How long to stay: one night gets you the Canyon drive and a dinner. Two nights gets you the Canyon on foot, downtown, and a day trip. Three nights and you can add Devils Tower or Rushmore without spending the whole day in the car.

Spearfish Canyon and the waterfalls

This is the reason to come. Highway 14A, the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway, runs south from town through a limestone canyon with walls a thousand feet high, spruce and birch and aspen the whole way, and a creek beside the road for most of it. It's fully paved, it's easy driving, and you can do the whole thing in a car with no clearance and no plan.

The stops most people make:

• Bridal Veil Falls - right off the highway a few miles in. You pull over, you look, you take the photo, you leave. Five minutes. Good for anyone who can't or doesn't want to walk.
• Spearfish Falls and Roughlock Falls - both reached from the Savoy area, roughly the middle of the canyon. Roughlock is the one most families choose: a walkable path along the creek that ends at a wide, layered falls. Spearfish Falls is the shorter, steeper one.
• Devil's Bathtub - a slot in the rock with a pool at the bottom, reached by a trail that crosses the creek repeatedly. Expect to get your feet wet. Not the one to do in sandals or with a stroller.

Give the drive half a day if you're stopping. Give it 45 minutes each way if you're only driving it. We wrote a full guide to the Canyon drive, which stops are worth it, how hard each one is, what there is to eat out there (not much), and what to do when you come back into town hungry.

The creek, the trail and downtown

Spearfish Creek runs right through town, and the trail that follows it is the most underrated thing here. It's paved, it's flat, it's shaded in places, and it connects a chain of parks end to end. Locals run it at 6 AM and push strollers on it at 6 PM. If you have an hour and no plan, this is the answer.

Downtown Spearfish is a handful of walkable blocks of brick storefronts, coffee, a bookstore, outfitters, galleries, bars and restaurants, with the creek and the university a few minutes either side. It is small enough to see in an afternoon and good enough to spend one in. Park once and walk.

D.C. Booth Historic Fish Hatchery

A working historic fish hatchery on the creek, right in town, and one of the better free-ish things to do in the Black Hills with kids. There are ponds full of very large, very visible trout, a fish car railroad exhibit, a historic house, and a walk along the water. Children can feed the fish. Adults reliably end up doing it too.

Plan on an hour, more if the kids get into it. It's a five-minute drive from downtown and connects to the creek trail.

Matthews Opera House and Termesphere Gallery

The Matthews Opera House is a restored 1906 theater on Main Street with a gallery attached, live theater, music and touring acts through the year, plus rotating local art downstairs. Check what's on the night you're in town before you assume there's nothing to do after dinner.

Termesphere Gallery is the genuine oddity of the region: the studio and gallery of artist Dick Termes, who paints on spheres, six-point-perspective worlds you look into rather than at. It's a small, strange, memorable stop and unlike anything else in the Hills. It is not a drop-in-anytime kind of place.

Black Hills State University and the Rec Center

BHSU sits on the north side of town and shapes the place more than a visitor expects, it's why Spearfish has a decent coffee scene, live music on weeknights, and a town that doesn't shut down out of season. The campus is pleasant to walk. Public events, games and performances run through the school year.

The Spearfish Rec & Aquatics Center is the rainy-day answer, and the one locals recommend to visiting families without hesitation: pool, slides, courts, fitness space, day passes available. If you're traveling with kids and the weather turns, go here.

Day trips from Spearfish

Honest drive times, one way, no traffic. Add time in July and August, and add a lot during Rally week.

The pattern that works: base in Spearfish, drive out in the morning, come back for dinner. It's cheaper than Rushmore-area lodging and the drive home through the Hills is not a chore.

Spearfish by season

Where to eat

Downtown Spearfish punches above its weight for a town this size. There's good coffee, a couple of solid breakfast spots, a brewery, Crow Peak is brewed right here in Spearfish and worth trying on tap wherever you find it, and a handful of dinner options within a few blocks of each other.

We're one of them. Killian's Food & Drink has been at 539 W Jackson Blvd since 2012, steps from downtown. It's a scratch kitchen run by Chef Nick Caton: hand-pattied burgers including a bison patty, steaks and chops, bison short ribs, a Dakota meatloaf made from elk and bison, rum-cured trout, and a bar that makes its own grenadine and bitters and ages two cocktails in barrels. Seventeen rotating drafts with Crow Peak among them. Gluten-free buns and fries, a bean patty, zucchini noodles and gluten-free beer, so nobody in your group gets stuck with a side salad. TripAdvisor ranks it #3 of 49 restaurants in Spearfish. Open every day at 11 AM.

Ask a local for two more names and go with what they say. That's how this town works.

Frequently asked questions