Parking
Start at the west end of the Legion Lake fishing-dock parking lot, beside the water. This is the shoreline-loop access, separate from the wooded campground route across U.S. 16A.
Overview
About Legion Lakeshore Trail
Why go
- Easy lakeside loop with frequent views of water and rock outcrops
- Lodge, beach and picnic amenities nearby
Heads up
- A brief circuit if you want a longer or strenuous hike
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Custer map
Full mapElevation5,016–5,034 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Custer Tour Guide
Your drive to Legion Lakeshore Trail, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Custer State Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this trailhead
Legion Lake: A Short Walk and Lakeside Lunch0:00 / 0:29
“Legion Lake is coming up, a handy stop for a short walk and a meal beside the water. Choose the Lakeshore Trail from the fishing-dock lot for an easy circuit of about two-thirds of a mile, taking around half an hour.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Custer Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- The Dragonfly's Underwater Life
- Why Turtles Share a Sunny Log
- Badger Hole: The Poet’s Cabin
- The Vulture's Wobbly Glide
- 82 audio storiesacross Custer’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Bison, Wapiti, Bighorn Sheep, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 40 trails, 49 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“We recently toured Badlands, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore and more! We learned so much from this app as we toured each of these sites. The audio tours are worth the money.”
Trail guide
Hiking Legion Lakeshore Trail
A short lap by the lakeLegion Lakeshore Trail is an easy, nearly level loop around Legion Lake.
Legion Lakeshore Trail is an easy, nearly level loop around Legion Lake. The complete circuit is about 0.66 mile from the west end of the fishing-dock parking lot, on mostly dirt shoreline path with two short footbridges. Allow about 30 minutes with a few pauses to look across the water at the pines and granite. It is a relaxed leg-stretcher, not a long or strenuous hike.
Stay with the shorelineStart at the west end of the lot and keep following the path beside the water to close the loop.
Start at the west end of the lot and keep following the path beside the water to close the loop. A few small rocky patches interrupt the otherwise easy tread. This is not the separate wooded Legion Lake Trail across U.S. 16A, which climbs away from the shore through the campground woods.
Water, rock and pineThe lake fills the foreground while granite outcrops and pine-covered slopes rise across the…
The lake fills the foreground while granite outcrops and pine-covered slopes rise across the water. Leave some water in a photo to show the scale of the rock faces; a tight crop makes them harder to place. Legion Lake takes its name from an American Legion post that once leased the land.
Make the stop workThe fishing-dock lot is the trail access.
The fishing-dock lot is the trail access. Legion Lake Lodge has patio dining and a general store beside the lake; the beach, picnic areas and boat rentals are nearby lake amenities rather than features of the walking path. Custer State Park requires an entrance license.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Custer
993 sightingsBisonMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
91 sightingsWapitiMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
258 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
85 sightingsMountain GoatMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
256 sightingsBurroMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
707 sightingsPronghornMost seen around 6 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Custer. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
