When we initially started planning this road trip across the United States, the first location I knew I wanted to include was Mount Rushmore. I tried to include it on our trip to Yellowstone last year, but my husband didn’t approve the additional 8-hour drive. Who knew those western states were so big?!

For me, Mount Rushmore is one of those iconic American spots that I had always wanted to visit. But, it’s a bit out of the way. In order to include it on our trip, I had to find some other things to do near Rapid City. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there are TONS to see. We could have spent a whole week just in the Black Hills alone. The Black Hills are a small mountain range in South Dakota and Wyoming known for the majestic beauty of the granite hills blanketed with beautiful green forests. The Black Hills area alone includes several National Parks, monuments, memorials, state parks, and iconic features. The Rapid City area is also close to Badlands National Park. This park is a stark contrast to the forest-like beauty of the Black Hills, with its desert-like landscape and grass prairies.

Crazy Horse Memorial

On our way into the area, we stopped at Crazy Horse Memorial. It is a mountain carving depicting the Lakota Native American warrior Crazy Horse.

It was commissioned in 1948 by a Lakota elder and construction funded by the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation continues today. When we visited, we were able to do a bus tour that takes you closer to the monument and gives you a history of the area, the monument, and the construction. The memorial grounds also house the Indian Museum of North America and the Native American Educational & Cultural Center. We did the bus tour and then visited the museum. There was far more information available than we had the time or the stamina to review, but the museum was incredibly well-done and interesting. We even got to leave with a piece of the mountain!

Mount Rushmore

After touring Crazy Horse Memorial, we made our way through the Black Hills to Mount Rushmore for sunset and a view of the mountain with the lights on! In the evening, the sculpture is lit with giant spotlights for several hours. It’s an incredible view of the mountain with the beautiful night sky above. We enjoyed our first look at George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln carved onto iconic Mount Rushmore and then made our way to the Happy Holiday Campground near Rapid City for the evening.

The following day, we returned to Mount Rushmore to enjoy the National Monument in the daylight. We picked up our audio tours on the way in and then walked down the flag-draped path to the monument overlook.

We started our tour in the Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center to view the exhibits and watched a short film. Then, we made our way outside to the Presidential Trail where we completed the 0.6-mile loop trail and enjoyed close-up views. We also enjoyed beautiful views of the Black Hills and surrounding area from the base of the mountain. The loop makes its way around to the sculptor’s studio, but it was closed when we were visiting. We were able to peek through the windows and then continue our tour back to the main overlook and visitor center. We enjoyed lunch at Carvers Café with a gorgeous view of Mount Rushmore from the full-size picture windows.

Badlands National Park

After our morning at Mount Rushmore, we drove about 1.5 hours to the east to Badlands National Park. It might as well have been the other side of the earth with how different these two parks are! We drove down Route 44 from Rapid City to Scenic, SD and entered the park through the Interior Entrance. We stopped at the Ben Reifel Visitor Center to get a little more information about the park. The drive along Route 44 is through large untouched grass prairies that are quintessential of the Western Plains. The views were beautiful.

Once we left the visitor center, we decided to do two short hikes – the Window Trail and the Door Trail. Both hikes started at the Windows parking area just north on the loop road from the visitor center. The Window Trail is a short (0.25-mile) boardwalk that ends with a natural window in the Badlands wall with a gorgeous view of the canyon below. The kids easily walked this boardwalk trail with us. The Door Trail starts as a boardwalk and then enters a door in the Badlands wall and continues on to an un-maintained area of the Badlands that you can explore. The canyons are steep and the layers of rock in each formation are unique and interesting. It looks like what I imagine the surface of the moon to look like!

We explored for an hour before heading back to continue the drive through the park on the Badlands Loop Road. We made several stops at the overlooks to take in the scenic beauty. There were miles and miles of prairie dogs playing in the grasses along the route.

There was so much that we didn’t explore in our short visit, but we hope to return one day! On our way back to Rapid City, we made the obligatory tourist stop at Wall Drug. We had seen billboards and signs advertising their huge store for hundreds of miles. It’s not much more than a tourist attraction, but still fun to stop once!

After a very busy day in South Dakota, we returned to our campground with a gorgeous prairie sunset view!