Custer state park/Needle highway and Sylvan lake. All in the Rapid City area. Beautiful Park.
Thanks! The wife and little one are fixated on seeing Mount Rushmore. It's my job to plan the entire trip and fill out the itinerary. LOL! Flying into DEN and driving to Rapid City, so we will be mobile.
www.dangerous-business.com
Needles Highway was a completely unexpected highlight of our trip through ND & SD and definitely worth the drive.
Rushmore is really cool. There's a nice walking path below the mountain.
Great info by the Screw's. I'm sure I will follow-up with some questions later today. We won't worry about Billings since there is so much in the greater Rapid City area. This will only be a week-long trip. Just gotta decide if we should take the long drive to see Little Big Horn (4-hours from Rapid City).@RUScrew85 & I did a 12 night road trip in 2019 starting in Sioux Falls, SD & ending in Fargo ND traveling thru SD, WY, Montana & ND. We followed the blog post below (& actually met 2 guys doing the same trip). We changed up day 1 & went to Deadwood ( I thought it was underwhelming & a tourist trap) & spent the last day in Fargo at NDSU with AJ Blazek who was there coaching. Otherwise we followed all of the recommendations & hotels.
Driving Between Wind Cave & Devils Tower we detoured to see the geographic center of the US in Belle Fourche, SD & spent time at the museum there talking to the docent. He recommended we not get back on the main road (think NJTP) to Devils Tower & instead put us on this 2 lane road that was way more picturesque & took us thru towns with a population of 25.
We used Billings as a down day, although walking around downtown we were underwhelmed.
12 hotels/cities in 12 days was a lot & really only gave us a taste of some of the sites, but it is such an amazing part of the country & so glad we did it.
@T2Kplus20 Happy to discuss.
The Perfect 12-Day Northern USA Road Trip Itinerary for Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas
Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota make for a great road trip. Check out this detailed 12-day northern USA road trip itinerary!
Spent 28 days going from Rapid city to Yellowstone and all the way back encompassing 2800 miles RT. Keep in mind Billings is 4+ 5 hours away .From home base of Rapid city Badlands is 1 hour East…Devils Tower 1 hour west… Rushmore just south maybe 1/2 hour away. Cody and East entrance to Yellowstone 420 miles west as the crow flies…Jackson Hole Wy. Is 2 1/2 hours south from southern Park entrance . Devils Tower is unique and is 3 miles around at its base. If you have back or knee issues the walk can be bumpy. It will offer someone unfamiliar with the west to see we sometimes take for granted the beauty of our own country. Many travelers still refer to it as “God’s Country” and it is.
Great info, thanks! And the following year we are getting back to Oahu. :)
Not sure if you know but Sturgis, SD hosts a huge biker rally every first week of August.
Next WDW is March 2025 (already booked), then SD in June 2025, Oahu in March 2026. Our daughter will be entering 7th grade next fall, so 6 years to pack in as many family trips as possible! Salt Lake City & Jackson Hole, Japan, London/Paris are on the agenda. :)
Just checked - Spearfish Passion Play ended in 2004, but Trial of Jack McCall and a lot of related events still on that would appeal to kids, shootouts, et Al.
I wasn’t expecting Mt. Rushmore to be as impressive as it is, even better seeing it at night lit up.. Little town of Keystone at the base of Rushmore is pretty cool, at least it was many years ago when I was there.
We flew into Denver but took a connecting flight into Rapid City. Took 45 minutes vs driving is 4 1/2 hours Denver to Rapid City. Not expensive and then rented our vehicle at the very smaller but easy peasy to navigate airport. All rental car companies and only 15 minute drive into Rapid City. Keep this in mind if you are there only for 8 days ….those 4 hour drives add up and take away from actual time able to sight see. Just my opinion ….Route 90 you can do 80-85…. But going to certain areas will add up .
Yeah I hate the rallies. Too crowded for me. I ride to get away from it all. Give me rolling countryside and a dive bar every hundred miles.
We are good with driving, don't like connecting or small planes. :)
We won't be going that far into WY for this trip, but we are planning a Jackson Hole trip in the near future. This will give us access to Grand Teton, southern part of Yellowstone, and within 4 hours of Cody (which sounds pretty cool).
Stayed 5 nights at the Grand Teton Lodge great ski area and a truly wonderful area to explore. Saw our first Moose there and downtown Jackson Hole is a short 15 minutes away. Wife is really looking forward to going back but would fly into either Idaho or Bozeman Mt. If the Man above is ok with us hanging around until 2026-2027 we’ll see… Cody is unique… do not forget the Rodeo there.😜
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Did a Grand Teton and Yellowstone trip summer of 2015. That’s when we also did Badlands. Lot of driving! Stayed in Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton and spent 5 days hiking and doing a day long fly fishing trip on the Snake River. Stayed 6 nights at Canyon Village in Yellowstone and we were able to hit all the main park areas and up into Montana and get in a decent amount of hiking. Driving to S. Dakota drove the Cloud Peak Scenic Byway and stayed overnight in Buffalo, WY which is the real town that Longmire was based on. Then did Devils Tower, Mt. Rushmore, Wind Cave NP, and Custer State Park and stayed in Custer, SD. Last was Cedar Pass Lodge at Badlands NP via the Pine Ridge reservation. All told was about 18 days. Flew into Jackson Hole and out of Rapid City.
Very surprising take on the visual feeling upon seeing Mt. Rushmore. Most by far are impressed … but walking towards it you realize this was done by one guy basically. To each his own.
Gutzon Borglum had a whole team of people working on Mt. Rushmore. If you want to talk about a monument done by “one guy” and little funding then go up the road to Crazy Horse Monument. More fitting since Mt. Rushmore was created on native land stolen from the Lakota because there was gold in the Black Hills. And compared to the rest of the natural beauty in the area Mt. Rushmore was a let down and bit of tourist trap. But to each his own as you say.
