Black Hills National Forest is located in southwestern South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming, United States.

There are local ranger district offices in Custer, Rapid City, and Spearfish in South Dakota, and in Sundance, Wyoming.

The lower elevations include grassland prairie, but the National Forest System lands encompass most of the mountainous region known as the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming.

[4] After a series of devastating wildfires in 1893, U.S. President Grover Cleveland created the Black Hills Forest Reserve on February 22, 1897.

[7][verification needed] The mountains and other key features in and around the Black Hills and now within the Forest were considered sacred to indigenous peoples and many came here on vision quests, for hunting and for trade.

In descending order of forestland area they are Pennington, Custer, Lawrence, Crook, Fall River, Meade, and Weston counties.

Bald eagles, hawks, osprey, peregrine falcon and another two hundred species of birds can be found in this forest, especially along streams and near water sources.