7 Days in Rapid City, SD to Explore the Black Hills

7 Days in South Dakota, Based in Rapid City

I recommend you arrive early on a Saturday, sightsee for a week straight, and then fly home again on a Sunday. This gives you 9 days in Rapid City, and you’ll gain an extra 3/4 of a day if you catch the early direct flight.

If you fly into Denver and drive the rest of the way, you’ll lose Days 1 and 9 entirely to travel. That’s ok. You’ll still see a lot in 7 days.

• Day 1: Rapid City
• Day 2: Badlands, Wall Drug, and Minuteman Missiles
• Day 3: Mount Rushmore & Iron Mountain Road
• Day 4: Custer State Park
• Day 5: Crazy Horse & Small Towns
• Day 6: Spearfish Canyon & Deadwood
• Day 7: Devil’s Tower, WY

If you can stay for 9 days or prefer to skip some of these, consider adding some of the sights from the More to See section at the end.

How to Get to Rapid City

Rapid City’s airport is, unsurprisingly, not a big place. You’ll be limited on your flight times, and they’re almost always more expensive than you’re used to paying for flights.

The advantage of flying direct to Rapid City is you’ll have more time for sightseeing. Catch the early morning flight, arrive mid-morning, and spend the rest of the day exploring downtown Rapid City.

You could fly into Denver and drive the rest of the way to Rapid City, but it’s 4 hours each way. It will compact your itinerary down to 7 days for exploring. If you’re on a budget, this may be worth it.

Day 1: Rapid City

Don’t skip Rapid City itself! There are quite a few surprises here, including dinosaurs, a Viking chapel, and a presidential statue scavenger hunt.

Check out Prairie Edge Trading Co. for a gloriously authentic Dakota shop. It’s got big general store-type vibes, selling a little bit of everything, all with a huge focus on locally made Dakota tribe products like blankets, jewelry, household goods, furniture, and artwork.

You’ll also find cheesy tourist souvenirs like magnets and toys for kids, but that’s not why you come here. Set aside some time to just wander the aisles and appreciate a culture that’s had to fight to stay alive for the past 200 years.

Across the street at the Rapid City visitor center, pick up a presidential scavenger hunt map. This is the Presidential City, after all. Mount Rushmore gave it that moniker, but they’ve embraced it. Every former president has a statue on a street corner.

On the ridge above town, you’ll notice the silhouettes of a brontosaurus and T-rex. Drive up to Dinosaur Park and explore this small sight built in the 1920s. It’s now on the National Register of Historic Places.

The dinosaurs and their info plaques are interesting (and a big hit with kids), but you also get fantastic views over the city. It’s free to visit and ADA accessible, so worth a stop for everyone!

Get off your feet for a little bit and take a trolley tour around downtown for all the historical highlights of Rapid City. The trolley will take you out to Chapel in the Woods, the Viking wooden chapel that’s literally plopped in the woods behind a random neighborhood on the other side of the ridge from the city.

Day 2: Badlands, Wall Drug, & Minuteman Missiles

One of the more underrated national parks in the US, Badlands National Park is an eerie landscape with fantastic colors. There’s zero shade here, but the colors in the rocks are stunning at sunrise and sunset.

On your way to Badlands, you’ll pass Wall, SD and its famous Wall Drug Store. You’ll notice the hand-painted roadside signs well before you get there. They drummed up business in the 30s by offering free ice water, and they still do today!

The store has morphed into a sprawling indoor shopping complex with cafeteria. It’s very kitschy, but worth a stop once in your life for the experience. There’s a “backyard” area for kids to run around and adults enjoy the cheesy photo ops with a giant jackalope and T-rex.

Another fascinating piece of American history is literally buried in the corn fields of South Dakota along I-90. The Minuteman Missiles National Monument visitor center is at the same exit as Badlands’ eastern entrance.

Stop by for a quick movie that sets the stage for this period of history and to explore a museum with outrageous artifacts (to post-Cold War eyes). Then, drive down the interstate a few exits and actually walk around the surface of a decommissioned missile silo still in the ground in the fields of South Dakota.

A launch control facility is also open for tours, but they sell out months ahead of time. Due to space constraints, only 6 people can go on a tour at a time and they’re not accessible because it requires climbing a metal ladder.

I visited Minuteman Missiles, Wall Drug, and Badlands in that order to make sure I didn’t miss lunch and to experience Badlands at sunset. You could reverse it if you prefer to catch sunrise and be back in Rapid City before dark.

Day 3: Mount Rushmore & Iron Mountain Road

Today’s the reason you came to South Dakota in the first place: to see Mount Rushmore! It’s quite the patriotic display with the avenue of state flags and the faces of four American presidents blasted out of the rock of the Black Hills.

The free movie is worth a watch to get the history behind this monument. They focus a lot on the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum. Using a hammer and chisel is impressive, but they had to use dynamite and jackhammers for a sculpture of this size.

It took them 14 years to complete the carving between 1927 and 1941, and they technically rushed to finish it right before WWII broke out for the Americans.

There’s a short hiking trail around the base, which offers a few different angles for photos, but you’ll run out of things to do here pretty quickly.

Get some lunch, either at the cafeteria on site or in Keystone, and then go drive Iron Mountain Road (US16A).

This road is windy and narrow but well-maintained, and it offers some awesome, unique photos of Mount Rushmore through its tunnels!

The Doane Robinson Tunnel is closer and has the best view, but the Scovel Johnson Tunnel works, too, if you have good zoom on your camera.

Your Mount Rushmore parking ticket is good for a full 24 hours, though, so you can visit during daylight, leave to drive Iron Mountain Road, turn around before entering Custer State Park (to avoid paying the entry fee today), and come back to Rushmore after nightfall to get photos of the monument lit up at night. In the summer, they have an evening illumination show.

Alternative Option: If you don’t want to spend much time at Mount Rushmore, like you’ll get a photo and then be done, I still recommend driving Iron Mountain Road for the tunnel views, but then continue on into Custer State Park instead of turning around.

You could cut across the center of the park and do some hiking or even add Needles Highway in today (but that’d be a lot of driving on windy roads for one day).

Day 4: Custer State Park

Get up early for your day in Custer State Park! It’s a big place, and there’s a lot to see.

The two biggies I recommend you not miss are the Wildlife Loop in the southern half of the park and the Needles Highway in the northern half of the park.

The first is so you can see bison up close and personal (from the safety and distance of your car), and the second so you can appreciate the Black Hills in all their otherworldly glory.

Bring cash for your entry fee. They take credit cards, but they sometimes lose signal and the machines go down. Save yourself the hassle, and bring cash.

The wildlife loop could move quickly but more often moves very slowly. The bison roam freely throughout the park, unless you visit in early October right after the annual Bison Roundup, and they frequently block the road, or tourists block the road to get their photos before moving on.

There is a visitor center on this route which offers the only place to use the restroom and stretch your legs for a minute. Keep that in mind before you start the one-way loop.

Needles Highway is another busy route that’ll move slowly, but it’s worth it once you find a parking spot and get out and hike! Some of my favorite views in the park are on Needles Highway or a trail in the area.

The Cathedral Spires hike is very popular, but so are the Sylvan Lake area hikes.

Day 5: Crazy Horse & Small Towns

While you came here because of Mount Rushmore, you can’t miss Crazy Horse while you’re here. The Black Hills are sacred to the Dakota tribe, and it’s only fitting that one of their last great chiefs is memorialized here.

The Crazy Horse Memorial will not accept donations or aid from the federal government. They are 100% privately funded, so it’s been a long journey. They’re on the third generation of sculptors, all from the same family, and they’re making big progress.

The visitor center for Crazy Horse is also a large Native tribe museum with some amazing artifacts and photos. Don’t skip it! There is a wall of windows in the back, but also a large viewing deck outside with viewers.

This is very much like Mount Rushmore, though, in that once you’ve taken your pictures, watched the 20 minute video on the making of the monument, and perused the museum, there’s not much else to do here.

Spend the rest of your day either exploring the small towns nearby or take another day in Custer State Park.

Custer, Hill City, and Keystone are all small towns in the hills. Each has a cute main street with shops and restaurants, but these aren’t big places.

Keystone has mining and cave attractions, and the 1880 Steam Train turns around here before returning to Hill City.

Hill City got the Mickelson Trail and the 1880 Steam Train’, which connects to Keystone’s main depot. I highly recommend you rent bikes and get on the Mickelson Trail for an hour or two!

Pro Tip: Worried about the hills? Rent an ebike. It’s more expensive but oh so worth it, especially if you’re trying to save your legs for running the Crazy Horse Half Marathon in October. Ask me how I know…

Custer is a great base for exploring the state park and other attractions on this side of the hills.

You might consider staying out in Custer for a few nights if you want to cut down on drive time from Rapid City to sites like Jewel Cave, Wind Cave, or Mammoth. Lodging in Custer sells out months ahead of busy season, though, so plan ahead.

Day 6: Spearfish Canyon & Deadwood

First, Deadwood, SD surprised me. It earned its infamous reputation during the days of the gold rush and the Wild West. Drinking, brothels, and shoot outs with outlaws were all commonplace.

Today, it’s still home to casinos and drinking, but also swarms with tourists during peak season. There’s a very popular historic ghost tour which explains the history of the town and some of the more notable shoot outs, like when Wild Bill Hickock was shot dead in a tavern.

There are a few history museums in town, but you could also just stroll around the historic area, popping into shops and restaurants as you please.

Next, there are two ways to experience Spearfish Canyon, and both are worth your time.

First option: drive the canyon and pull over for photo ops as often as you want.

There are a few waterfalls you can see from roadside pull-offs, and the local mountain goats aren’t scared of cars or humans. Remember to give them space, though! They’re still wild animals.

Second option: hike the canyon and find all the beautiful waterfalls.

Many of the trails in Spearfish Canyon are short, less than 5 miles, and reward you with stunning views you can’t get from the roadside. I highly recommend you get out of the car, even just for a couple of short hikes.

Good to Know: This route is incredibly popular during fall. The foliage in the canyon is gorgeous when it turns. Expect crowds and slow traffic on weekends.

When I visited, I went to Spearfish Canyon first and stopped in Deadwood only as an afterthought in the late afternoon/early evening. US14A curves like a horseshoe through the canyon, connecting the towns of Spearfish and Deadwood.

Spend as much time as you want in each location, but keep in mind that the tours in Deadwood will sell out in summer and you might get stuck in slow traffic in the canyon.

Day 7: Devil’s Tower, WY

Today’s main attraction isn’t technically in South Dakota. It’s just across the state line in Wyoming, but it’s easier to visit Devil’s Tower National Monument from Rapid City than it is from other points in Wyoming.

If you’re a national park bucket lister, it’s worth adding on a visit to Devil’s Tower from Rapid City.

You could spend a half day here rather than a full day. There’s not a ton to do at Devil’s Tower, but you for sure want to save yourself enough time to walk the perimeter around it.

Depending what time of year you’re visiting, parking could be difficult. Don’t stay in line for parking at the visitor center at the base of the tower. Park at the lower lot and hike the connector trail to save yourself time.

You’ll pass the prairie dog town on your way into the park. Consider saving that for last, on your way out. If you went to Badlands already, you probably got your fill of prairie dogs there, too.

What to Do with More Time

There are a few ways to spend some more time in the Rapid City area.

Wind Cave and Jewel Cave

Go explore another national park and a national monument. You can’t visit both in one day, not just because tour times are tight and you have to drive between the parks but because you can’t wear the same clothes or shoes without washing them first. You could accidentally spread fungus spores that could impact the caves’ ecosystems.

More Time in Custer State Park

If I had had more time, I would have spent one day on the Wildlife Loop and a separate day for the Needles District. There are so many hikes in the park!

Hot Springs & The Mammoth Site

How about some hot springs? The cleverly named Hot Springs, SD is popular for its natural hot springs, but also for its incredible collection of mammoth remains. The Mammoth Site is the world’s largest mammoth research facility, having found over 60 mammoths on site, and it’s indoors.

Sturgis

If you’re a motorcycle fanatic, then you’ve probably heard of Sturgis, SD. Every year in August, the small town hosts the country’s largest motorcycle rally. Visiting in the off-season? There’s a motorcycle hall of fame museum to explore.

Happy travels!

---

---

Share it!