Rapid City and South Dakota 3 Day Itinerary

 

South Dakota

We flew into Rapid City on a Wed night.

Thursday – Mount Rushmore National Memorial ($10 to park).  Make sure you walk The Presidential Trail.  I recommend doing it clockwise.  Check out the tunnel views back at the memorial.  We drove to Custer State Park ($10 for a day pass).  We saw lots of animals on the drive.      We did a little detour to Wind Cave National Park and did Rankin Ridge hike.  The caves were closed to tours at the time.  The Needle’s Eye Tunnel & Needles Highway are beautiful.  We hiked around Sylvan Lake.  We went back to the Memorial to see it lite up at night.  In the summer they do a program, but we were there in October.

Friday – Spearfish Falls.  Roughlock Falls.  Devil’s Bathtub.  Bridal Veil Falls.  Belle Fourche & the geographic center of the US.  In Rapid City they have statues of presidents through Obama.  It was fun to walk around & see them.

Saturday – Badlands – Window & Door Trail, Saddleback Pass, and Overlooks.  It was cold & snowy when we were there so we didn’t do the longer hikes.  Wall Drug is a fun stop on the way back to Rapid City

Mount Rushmore SD

 We started our trip driving through the Black Hills to get to Mount Rushmore.

It costs $10 to park at Mount Rushmore but the parking pass is good for 1 year.

We did the Presidential Trail 1/2 mile loop.

After we left the park we drove the Iron Mountain Rd which had cool tunnels.

View from Norbeck Overlook on Hwy 16 A

We went back in the evening to see the monument illuminated, but it was a little disappointing.  They do more of a program in the summer but not in October.

Custer State Park SD

 We had a fun time exploring Custer State Park after we left Mount Rushmore.  I'd definitely recommend it.   We had sun & snow on the drive.  It's $20 but our rental car had a pass that expired the day we were there so we didn't have to pay, which was a fun surprise.

 We had a picnic at the visitor center.  We watched an interesting movie at the Visitor Center.  Then we drove the Wildlife Loop.  We saw a variety of animals.

Friendly Burros 

Snow

Variety of tunnels

We did a 1 mile easy loop around Sylvan Lake.

Needle Eye Tunnel

Needles Hwy

Wind Cave National Park SD

From Custer State Park it was only 15 minutes south to another national park off our list.

We did a short hike to Rankin Ridge.  It was only 1 mile round trip loop.

We saw our first prairie dogs of the trip.  They were fun to watch

Spearfish Canyon Waterfalls & Hikes SD

We started the morning with the hike to Spearfish Falls.  We parked near the Latchstring Restaurant on 14A.  It was listed as 1.5 mile round trip.  It didn't seem that long.

Some ice on the plants near the falls.

Then we drove just a little further & parked behind the Lodge and hiked through the canyon to Roughlock Falls.  You can drive up to the falls & see them, but it's only about 2 miles round trip to hike from behind the Lodge.  It's a fairly easy hike and very scenic.

We weren't planning on this hike to Devil's Bathtub but decided to try.  It was a little more than I was bargaining for.  We had to cross the creek a number of times & there wasn't a good trail.  Part way through my husband found a walking stick for me & I felt must better crossing the creek.  Since I had just fallen last week & got my camera wet I was a little more nervous.

We saw these guys by the road.

Bridal Veil Falls - near Devil's Bathtub right off of Hwy 14A.