The Black Hills, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore, Deadwood, The Badlands, Jewel Cave
All distances and times are indicative and do not include stops.
Total mileage; Around 300 miles depending on how you plan your route
Total drive time; Around 7 hours depending on how you plan your route
How long do I need? You can see most of the highlights of this area in a week
This part of the world makes for a great trip if you don’t want to do any really long single stretches in the car. You can also easily base yourself in one place and do the main sights as a series of day trips if the faff of moving around is unappealing. You get to see some fabulous country, cool wildlife and amazing sights.
Bison giving directions, Custer State Park
Fly into Rapid City, South Dakota. Hang out around here for several days in the beautiful Black Hills, there is tons to do. Custer State Park has three scenic drives and plenty of opportunity for wildlife spotting, water sports and hiking. Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sight to behold, as is Crazy Horse Memorial and both of them are definitely worth a visit. If you want to know what life during the gold rush was like, head to Deadwood for a wander round and visit the Homestake Gold Mine. Take a trip to Badlands National Park to check out the crazy moonscape and coloured rock formations, it looks particularly amazing as the light changes. There is the beautiful Jewel Cave, lined with crystals to visit and the massive, honeycombed Wind Cave National Park.
If you want a longer break and fancy getting on the road, you have two great options for a road trip from the Black Hills area.
You can head south towards Denver and the Rocky Mountains National Park. Rapid City to Denver is 400 miles and takes just over 6 hours. Denver is a great city and there is tons to do in the Colorado Rockies.
If Colorado does not appeal then why not head west towards Yellowstone National Park. Rapid City to Cody, Wyoming is around 400 miles and takes about 6 hours. Cody is a fun town to visit and is around 120 miles or 2 and ½ hours from Old Faithful, well inside Yellowstone. Yellowstone is an incredible place to visit with amazing wildlife, incredible geysers, hot springs and beautiful scenery.
Getting there…
You can’t fly directly into Rapid City but will need to change somewhere. There is a great choice of flights through Dallas, but several of the other US hubs work well.
To get the best deals on your flights and accommodation, we recommend 1 Plus 2 Travel. They search the consolidators for you so you don’t have to!
We recommend Holiday Autos or Easycar for car hire. Check out our car hire info for ways to save money. You may want to cover your excess and increase your liability cover with a policy like that from Worldwide Insure or Insurance4carhire.com.
Where to Stay…
If you are after a broad choice of hotels, Rapid City is your best bet. Our top pick there is Cambria Suites. This is an unusual choice for us as the hotel is a little way out of town and not within easy walking distance of shops and restaurants. However, the modern large rooms with kitchenettes and separate sitting area in the King Suites more than make up for this. There is an onsite restaurant and bar (as well as a pool) and it is not expensive to get a cab downtown if you fancy going out for a meal and having a beer. The hotel also offers a shuttle service from the airport which is nice as it means you don’t have to pick up your hire car if you arrive feeling a little weary and jet lagged.
If you feel like getting away from it all, ignore Rapid City and get some accommodation within Custer State Park. We have stayed at the State Game Lodge before in one of the larger Housekeeping Cabins with full kitchen and had a brilliant time. We had a bison in the car port for company which was pretty cool. The wardens came and moved him on for us as we were worried about getting too close when we wanted to get to the car. We were able to walk across the road to eat in the Lodge dining room when we couldn’t be bothered to cook and had a lovely time cooking out in the fire pit a couple of evenings. Blue Bell Lodge is another good pick with a mix of hotel style and cabin accommodation. This is particularly good for families as the dining room is more casual than at State Game Lodge, and there are chuck wagon cook outs, horse riding, hay wagon rides and various other cowboy style activities. Finally, Sylvan Lake Lodge has the same kind of accommodation set up, but as it’s name suggests is overlooking Sylvan Lake where there is swimming, fishing and boat rental.