Parking
Reach the roadside access from the southern arm of Wildlife Loop Road via Oak Draw Road. The Robber's Roost start is just east of Prairie Trail; no separate trailhead lot was confirmed.
Overview
About Robber's Roost Trail
Why go
- Short out-and-back over open, rolling prairie hills.
Heads up
- Little shade on warm days.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Custer map
Full mapElevation4,252–4,423 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 Robber's Roost 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
Robber's Roost: An Hour in the Open Hills0:00 / 0:23
“Up ahead is the Robber's Roost trail access on Oak Draw Road. If you want an hour in the open hills, choose the short out-and-back on the old fire road, one point six miles in total.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Custer Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Prairie Trail: Grassland and Bison Wallows
- The Woodpecker Hunting Ants
- The Prairie's Flute
- How Gold Ends Up in a Creek
- 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 Robber's Roost Trail
A short out-and-backRobber's Roost Trail is a 1.
Robber's Roost Trail is a 1.6-mile round trip on an old fire road over the park's open southern hills. Start from the Oak Draw Road access, just east of Prairie Trail, and allow about an hour. The grade rolls over hills rather than aiming for a summit, making this a straightforward open-country walk.
Follow one mapped corridorThe park trail map shows several Robber's Roost corridors with different distances.
The park trail map shows several Robber's Roost corridors with different distances. This entry follows the short 1.6-mile option from Oak Draw and returns on the same track. A separate 3.3-mile listing does not make its endpoints clear; check the trail map before joining another branch or assuming the longer distance describes this out-and-back.
Sun and leashesThe fire-scarred open hills have little shade in warm months.
The fire-scarred open hills have little shade in warm months. Carry water and choose cooler hours when temperatures rise. Pets are allowed on park trails, but must stay on a leash no longer than 10 feet.
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.
