Packed with bison, views, and prairie dogs, the Black Hills, and Badlands, South Dakota is a great place for your next family vacation. In this post, I will share my experiences on a 5-day western South Dakota vacation, along with tips, tricks, and sample itineraries to help you make the most out of your trip.
Why You Should Visit The Black Hills
Western South Dakota is packed with wildlife and waypoints and is a great change of pace for most people. It is filled with friendly people and scenic views.
There are numerous reasons why you would want to visit this part of the country, but here are the most iconic:
- Landmarks and National Park Sites
- Wind Cave National Park
- Mount Rushmore National Memorial
- Devils Tower National Monument
- Badlands National Park (technically outside the Black Hills)
- Minuteman Missile National Historic Site (technically outside the Black Hills)
- Jewel Cave National Monument
- Crazy Horse Memorial
- Hiking, and Wildlife Viewing
- Black Hills National Forest
- Spearfish Canyon
- Custer State Park
- Bear Country USA
- Most of the NPS sites above have incredible hiking and wildlife viewing as well
- Scenery and Drives
- Needles Highway
- Iron Mountain Road
- Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway
- Wildlife Loop Road at Custer State Park
- Vanocker Canyon Road
- Iconic Small Towns
- Deadwood for wild west reenactments and saloons
- Sturgis for motorcycles
- Hill City for railroads and history
- Custer for art
- Lead for mining
- Hot Springs for mammoths and springs
Our Trip To South Dakota
May is hot in Florida, so we took a trip up to South Dakota for a milder climate and to visit 2 National Parks, 3 NPS sites, and a state park. This trip was selected to allow us to see four things that are scarce in our area: bison, caves, mountains, and badlands.
We planned our trip based on when we could get tours to Wind Cave and Jewel Cave and organized it into two sections: 2 days in Badlands area and 3 days in the Black Hills. My wife and I packed our bags and left early in the morning on our flight to Rapid City.
Day 1: Rapid City and Badlands
We arrived at the small Rapid City airport and grabbed our rental car. Leaving the airport, we saw our first pronghorn antelope! We stopped in a Rapid City grocery store for snacks and water then headed off towards the town of Wall, SD.
Dahl’s Chainsaw Art
It took just under an hour to travel to Wall from Rapid City, and our first stop was Dahl’s Chainsaw Art. We climbed the World’s Largest Jackelope! It was neat to see all the chainsaw art, but we did not purchase any since we traveled light. It did cost us $1 per person to enter the jackelope, but that is money well spent in my book.
Wall Drug
Our next stop was the iconic Wall Drug, known for its free ice water and $0.05 coffee. This is a place you can get lost inside, and I think we did. We stopped at the food court for our famous ice water and coffee. The bison hot dog was legendary too. When you go to Wall Drug, you must be careful not to end up spending all day shopping.
National Grasslands Visitor Center
While in Wall, we stopped at the National Grasslands Visitor Center, but unfortunately it was closed. There is a neat, but small display outside which shows the different plants in the grasslands.
Minuteman Missile National Historic Site
Next on our itinerary was the Minuteman Missile NHS, located just 20 minutes outside of Wall. This is a nice, quick site to visit to learn more about the Cold War and South Dakota’s role in it. There are three sites: the Visitor Center, the Delta-09 Missile Silo and the Delta-01 Launch Control Facility.
Hours are restrictive, and reservations are required for the Launch Control Facility. Make sure you plan to see those parts of the sites, or you risk missing them like we did. Check out our post to learn more about the site and plan your trip!
Giant Prairie Dog Statue
If you ever dreamed of seeing the World’s Largest Prairie Dog, come visit it! It is located 3 minutes south of Minuteman Missile on the way to Badlands National Park. We stopped here for about an hour to feed the prairie dogs and grab souvenirs as our last stop before entering the park.
If you have kids, this is a great place to take them to interact with prairie dogs. The ones in Badlands and maybe here too can carry the plague, so make sure you wash your hands before eating or touching anything.
Badlands National Park
As our last stop of the day, we visited Badlands National Park, just 7 minutes from the Giant Prairie Dog Statue. The parking lot was huge and had bathrooms available at the Door, Loop, and Notch Trail.
We started with the Door Trail, which was very fun. On this trail you travel through the Badlands to reach the next trail marker. These are yellow and easy to find, making for a fun navigational experience through the park. The Door Trail took us 30 minutes over 1.15 miles, but we spent some time climbing around and exploring.
Next up was the Window Trail, which was also fun and had great views. I would rank the Door Trail over the Window Trail, so hike the Window Trail as your first at this stop. Total time for this quarter mile trail was 5 minutes.
Our last trail of the day was the Notch Trail, which is probably why you wanted to come to Badlands in the first place. This trail features the iconic ladder, which can get backed up during busy times of the day. We spent an hour on the Notch Trail over 1.5 miles.
As we left the parking lot for the Door, Window, and Notch trail, we saw our first bison!
Last, we visited a few overlooks and watched the sunset before continuing to our hotel in Kadoka, SD. We stayed at Grandpa Joe’s Place, which was unexpectedly clean given the price.
Day 2: Badlands Deep Dive
We heated up breakfast, packed up, checked out, and returned to Badlands for Day 2. Though the Ben Reifel Visitor Center was crowded, it was well stocked with all kinds of cool stickers and merch.
We traveled back the short ways to the parking lot for the Door, Window, and Notch Trail, as it is also shared by the Castle Trail. The Castle Trail is 10 miles out and back, and this trail is in our opinion the best way to immerse yourself in the Badlands and grasslands of the area.
Due to the mud, we returned early and only completed 7 miles. This trail took us 3 hours involving a lot of stops for photos. Check out our post on Badlands National Park for more info and pics on the Castle Trail!
For the rest of our day in Badlands, we drove Sage Creek Rim Road and stopped at all the overlooks for breathtaking views and photo opportunities. We looked really hard for Black Footed Ferrets at Robert’s Prairie Dog Town but turned up unsuccessful.
We continued our drive out of the park and over to the Black Hills area, which was over an hour away. After stopping at the Powder House for an amazing dinner with walleye and elk, we retired to the Everspring Hotel.
Day 3: Wind Cave, Crazy Horse, and Mount Rushmore
This was the first day we spent in the Black Hills instead of around Badlands, and it was very neat to see how dark the trees were in the landscape.
Wind Cave National Park
To make the most of your limited time on an action-packed Black Hills trip, you are going to have to plan. We had tickets ahead of time for the first Natural Entrance Tour of the day at Wind Cave National Park, so we boogied on over. The tour was awesome and we really enjoyed seeing the boxwork.
What they don’t always tell you is that the surface of Wind Cave is just as cool as the cave part of the park. Hiking the Cold Brook Canyon Trail, we got up close and personal with bison in the rain. We even saw one with a funny hair. This trail took us just over an hour for 3 miles, with around 190 feet of elevation gain.
The ranger at the Visitor Center told us her favorite hike was the Rankin Ridge Interpretive Trail, so we did that next. I have to say this was a miss in the May fog, and we could not see any views. It was good to break a sweat on the 250 feet of elevation gain over 1.2 miles, and at least there was a sign to tell us what the view might look like on a clear day.
We stopped at the Sage Creek Grille in Custer and enjoyed some more delicious elk meat.
Crazy Horse Memorial
While not an NPS site, Crazy Horse deserves a visit if you are in the area. We got half off entry due to the fog, and we could not see one bit of the mountain. Luckily, they still had the Native American Tacos and Fry Bread with Wojape, so we were happy. The on-site museum was extensive and had thousands of artifacts.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial
We drove the short distance to Mount Rushmore, and it was neat to see it poking out over our drive. We were honestly overwhelmed by the bookstore, it felt like Barnes and Noble.
Walking down the avenue of flags was inspiring, and it led right to the ice cream shop. The ice cream shop was out of Thomas Jefferson’s original recipe, so we had to settle for a lamer flavor. It was neat to sit and look at the carving while eating the ice cream.
The fog lifted, and we embarked on the Presidential Trail, which frames out each president with rocks and trees. I enjoyed seeing the pile of rocks from when they carved the sculpture. This trail was a lot of fun and took us around 25 minutes.
Day 4: Jewel Cave, Custer State Park, and The Black Hills National Forest
Day 4 of our trip was jam-packed and required another early start. We arose and ate at the hotel before setting out.
Jewel Cave National Monument
If you thought Wind Cave was cool, you are going to love Jewel Cave National Monument. We showed up for the first scenic tour of the day, which started with a ride on a massive elevator. At the landing, I was blown away at the size of this cave, as well as the formations.
The tour was amazing, and the ranger who led it was great. The calcite crystals were cool and showed how Jewel Cave got its name, but my favorite formation was the cave bacon.
Custer State Park
Back on the surface, we drove over to Custer State Park, which should really be a National Park. You could easily spend your whole trip here, but we only had a half-day.
Starting in the Visitor Center, a giant map showed where the park bison were. This was neat and they update it daily. We unfortunately did not have time on our trip to go see that section of the 71,000-acre park.
We drove for a long time in the park over to the Sylvan Lake Lodge, where a nice worker gave us a print-out map of the Custer State Park Trails for the Sylvan Lake, Needles, and Black Elk Wilderness Areas. Judging by the map, you could work up the courage to hike all the way over to Mount Rushmore. We moved our car over a little closer to the lake and trailhead.
Black Elk Peak
We did a loop starting with Trail #9, which took us to Black Elk Peak. This 7242-foot mountain is the highest east of the Rocky Mountains and has a lot of cool wildlife. The hike takes you out of Custer State Park and into the Black Elk Wilderness of Black Hills National Forest.
The hike to Black Elk Peak gained a lot of elevation and took us above the clouds. There were at least 100 chipmunks running around on the trail.
At the top, we ate a snack and watched a martin running around while we hung out in a fire watch tower built in the 1930s by the CCC. We were able to find the survey marker and even saw a mountain goat on our scramble!
On our hike down, we climbed Little Devil’s Tower, which involved rock scrambling. The view was cool, so it was worth it. Further down on the way back, we also saw the Cathedral Spires. This is an easier hike if you are not up for 5 hours and 1800 feet of elevation gain over 9 miles to ascend Black Elk Peak.
Back at Sylvan Lake, we climbed rocks until we found the spot from National Treasure 2 where Nicholas Cage got his hand stuck in the rock. This was a lot of fun, and Sylvan Lake was beautiful. I could see kayaking, paddleboarding, or fishing here in the future.
It started to get dark, so we headed back to Hill City and ate at the fantastic Alpine Inn, where we had steak and wedge salad. We earned it after our day of hiking.
Day 5: World’s Largest Smokey Bear, Sundance Square, Devils Tower, and the D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery
Our trip was coming to the end, but we had one last day to make the most of. We got up early and checked out of the hotel before hauling butt to Wyoming.
World’s Largest Smoky Bear
The World’s Largest Smoky Bear lives in Hill City, and we went to go see him while we ordered coffee at a local shop. He was everything that he was advertised to be. I believe he was made by Dahl, the same guy who made the big jackalope.
Sundance Square
We took the backroads (dirt) through the west side of the Black Hills National Forest. We did not have a lot of cell reception, but this area was beautiful. When we emerged on the other side of the forest, we got back on the pavement and headed to Sundance, Wyoming.
There is a statue here of the Sundance Kid, commemorating his time at the local jail. We had fun here, but if you are short on time you might want to skip it.
Devils Tower National Monument
Devils Tower is the first national monument, so of course we had to stop here on our Black Hills trip. The best word I can think of to describe Devils Tower is “alienesque”. This is an out-of-place, gigantic rock in the middle of nowhere.
We stopped at the Devils Tower Trading Post to get some merch and take some cool pictures of the monument.
After we got through the line of cars to enter Devils Tower, we passed prairie dogs and got our stamp in the small visitor center. We hiked the Red Beds Trail, which took us an hour and 10 minutes to go 3.1 miles, over 449 feet of elevation gain. This trail was nice as it circumnavigated the tower, allowing you to see every angle, and it also took you over to see the red beds.
We ate a small picnic before hauling butt back to South Dakota.
D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery
Our final stop was the D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery, which is the only place in the country where you can see a federal fisheries railway car. This alone was worth the stop, and the guide showed us how they transported everything from trout to lobsters across the country.
Fish food was available for purchase, so we bought some and fed the giant fat trout before making our way to the airport. We barely made our flight after returning the rental car. The flight home was nice and my wife and I looked at pictures and recounted our memories.
What We Would Do Differently
While we hit the most important highlights for us in 5 days, on our next trip we will visit Spearfish Canyon, Deadwood, Sturgis, and Hot Springs. We will come in late summer when the fog is cleared, and the weather is starting to cool down.
Our trip involved a lot of hustling to make it to the sights, and it would be nice to take some more time off and enjoy a longer trip. It would be very easy to fill 7-10 days in this region. If our trip was longer, we could see Bear Butte State Park and the Dinosaur exhibit at the Black Hills Institute Museum.
Like most trips, this one deserves to be as long as possible. For a first trip to the Black Hills, I would repeat our same itinerary for a 5 day trip. For a 7-day trip, I would add a half-day each in Spearfish Canyon, Deadwood, Sturgis, and Hot Springs. For a 10-day trip, I would add an additional 2 days in Custer State Park, as well as a hike in Bear Butte State Park, and a half day or day of fly fishing.
More Information
For more information and our experiences at the parks we visited, check out the posts below:
Minuteman Missile National Historic Site
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