South Dakota Travel - Weekend in the Black Hills

A weekend in the Black Hills of South Dakota is a historic and nature filled visit. Admire carvings into the faces of giant mountains. Spot wildlife from every road you turn down. Add South Dakota next on your list for a vacation. Learn more with South Dakota Travel – Weekend in Black Hills.

Located in the north of the United States, South Dakota might not seem like your first choice as a vacation destination. I don’t blame you, I wouldn’t have ever thought that either. It wasn’t until my mom HAD to see Mount Rushmore that South Dakota even became on my radar.

After doing a bit of research, incorporating it into our vacation, I had come up with a couple of other places to visit in South Dakota as a part of our itinerary. Below I’ll take you through my family’s 2-day Black Hills, South Dakota adventure.

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Weekend in Black Hills, South Dakota

First up, Mount Rushmore!

As mentioned before, Mount Rushmore was the sole purpose of visiting the Black Hills. It’s something I’ve always wanted to see, wasn’t at the top of my bucket list, but I was interested. From seeing pictures of the national monument, I wouldn’t say I was expecting much… it’s just rocks, right? But, I was pleasantly surprised to say the least.

We arrived at the national monument first thing in the morning (first thing in the morning for us is like 9 AM). The entrance to Mount Rushmore is free, but there is a $10 parking fee, which I’m not even sure if there is any other option, so you basically have to pay the $10 to enter anyway. The thing is the parking ticket is good for a whole year, so you could also re-enter at any time, even if you decide to return to the Black Hills 11 months and 30 days later.

You’re able to see the views of Mount Rushmore before you enter, but honestly being there is so amazing! You enter through an arch, walk down the Avenue of Flags and arrive at the look out with the amphitheater below. There are a couple of walking trails. One trail leads to the base of the mountain, but we decided it wasn’t worth it for us and just admired the views from above.

Walk down the stairs to the amphitheater to visit the museum of how Mount Rushmore all began. It’s a lot more interesting than you think… for example, like 90% of the faces were carved using solely dynomite. Crazy!

Before you leave, stop at TJ’s Ice Cream shop for a treat. Thomas Jefferson is credited with the first ice cream recipe in the United States.

Black Hills National Forest

After you leave Mount Rushmore, your next step is Black Hills National Forest. One word… BEAUTIFUL! You’ll be taking the Iron Mountain Road (17 miles) scenic drive. This drive connects Mount Rushmore to Custer State Park while taking you through the National Forest.

Make sure to stop at the overlooks! You’ll see views of Mount Rushmore in the distance, amazing landscapes, drive across multiple pigtail bridges, and pass through a couple of tunnels. My favorite tunnel, Scovel Johnson, outlines Mount Rushmore in the distance. Super cool!

Before you enter the next stop there are a couple of campgrounds and stores along the way. This is where we grabbed some lunch although our goal was to pack some lunch for the road, this worked too.

Custer State Park

Next stop is Custer State Park ($20 entrance)! Doing research beforehand I was really looking forward to Custer. It’s definitely family friendly and adventure friendly. After driving Iron Mountain Road and entering into the park, your next scenic drive is to the left, the Wildlife Loop Road (18 miles). This drive gives you great opportunities to see wildlife including bison, deer, prairie dogs, and more.

We drove the Wildlife Loop midday and unfortunately had really bad luck. We only saw each animal here and there, no bison herds. But, you might have better luck! It’s recommended to visit morning or late afternoon, so you could consider rearranging your itinerary.

The next drive is Needles Highway (14 miles). Somehow we made a wrong turn and ended up at the top of Needles Highway when my intent was to drive from the bottom, but it all worked out! We started at the top of Needles Highway and the first stop is Sylvan Lake! If you do some research and you see a beautiful picture of a lake, it’s Sylvan Lake and it’s a must-see. There is a 1 mile walking trail around the lake. There are also plenty of opportunities for kids to climb some rocks as well, but also a beautiful walk even if you are on the more adventurous side. Depending on the season there is fishing, kayaking, and more along the lake.

There are other spots along Needles Highway as well including beautiful pull off spots offering incredible views! Named after it of course is Needles Eye itself. Needles Eye is a rock formation and a very very narrow tunnel to drive through, but I promise you’ll make it!

Then there is the Cathedral Spires. Probably my favorite stop just because the picture I took there is amazing! But, it’s so beautiful to see and was the original inspiration of someone having the idea to carve faces into the rocks. Unfortunately for them, these rock types weren’t good for that… Cathedral Spires is a hiking trail that is 1.2 miles one way. My family walked down it a bit, but turned back. We didn’t intend on walking the whole thing (thanks Mom), but were trying to see if we could get a little better view. We walked a little, but the best view for us was from the turnout.

Ending the day...

Finally, the day is over. If you have time there are still many other places to visit like Wind Cave National Park, the Crazy Horse Monument, or the Jewel Cave National Monument. We headed back up Iron Mountain Road to our hotel in Keystone and had dinner in town. After dinner we returned to Mount Rushmore for the night lighting ceremony that started at 9 PM.

For the Mount Rushmore night lighting ceremony it was drizzling a bit, but we made the best of it. We used our parking pass from earlier, drove to the last parking lot, parked, stayed in the car, and viewed it from there. It felt like a movie theater. We could hear what was going on but obviously couldn’t make out the words. I believe they honor veterans in the crowd, and then play the National Anthem. After all of that then the mountain is lit. It was amazing to see and I’m glad I dragged my family back out to go see it!

Road Trip Texas!

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Badlands National Park

Your second day in Black Hills, South Dakota is spent all day at Badlands National Park! I loveee visiting national parks and I also fell in love with Badlands. We tried to leave our hotel in Keystone as early as possible, but you know, vacations and family. We left around 9:30 AM, the drive was about an hour, but of course we had to stop in Wall, South Dakota due to their well placed billboards and signs. This is where the exit was so I would recommend stopping getting lunch, snacks, bathroom breaks, but fair warning it is 100% there for tourist reasons.

After our visit at Wall, we headed South towards the Pinnacles Entrance. Best. Entrance. Ever! This is where we saw the most bison of our entire trip and we didn’t even enter the park yet. Right before the entrance gates were so many bison and so close to the road, it was amazing and definitely made up for the lack of bison we didn’t see in Custer State Park.

As always the entrance fee to national parks are $35 for a single vehicle, but we opted for the $80 annual pass since South Dakota wasn’t the only stop on our itinerary.

Once you enter through the Pinnacles Entrance, there’s the option to go left (Badlands Loop Road – 30 miles) or right (Sage Creek Rim Road – 25 miles). Through my own personal research we decided to skip Sage Creek and only do the Badlands Loop. Through my notes and not personal experience I noted Sage Creek was a well maintained rock road mainly for wildlife and prairie land, but it’s not necessary to drive the entire thing. So, Badlands Loop it was!

Badlands Loop Drive

Your first stop after taking the left is, of course, the Pinnacles Overlook. Badlands is mainly overlooks, but there are plenty of hiking options as well. In order after the Pinnacles Overlook the main overlooks that are must sees will be Yellow Mounds, Homestead Basin, Conata Basin, Panorama Point, and lastly the Big Badlands Overlook. But don’t worry, there’s more, but those are worthy of pointing out.

Some of the hiking trails worth noting are The Notch Trail (1.5 miles RT), Castle Trail (10 miles RT), Fossil Exhibit Trail (.25 mile), Door Trail (.75 mile). The one “trail” we did was the Saddle Pass Trail and we didn’t actually hike it. But there is a parking lot that we stopped in and were able to climb some rocks and see views that made it worth it.

Throughout the park keep your eyes peeled for bison (in the beginning), prairie dogs, big horned sheep, and snakes (eepp! I saw one, it wasn’t a rattlesnake though, but it is often mistaken for them).

Your last stop is the Big Badlands Overlook before exiting the park at the Northeast Entrance. It’s recommended to view the sunset from Big Badlands! Unfortunately, it was super cloudy for us so we left early and headed to our next location… Devils Tower, Wyoming (coming soon!)

How to get here?

My family flew into Denver International Airport (DEN) for multiple reasons. South Dakota wasn’t our only destination, Denver is very popular so it was a cheaper option, and we were 100% going to rent a car (which I would recommend regardless of the airport you choose).

It was a 6 hour drive from Denver, Colorado to Keystone, South Dakota and while super boring, it wasn’t a bad drive. At night it was a little sketchy at points. It felt like the middle of nowhere (I’m sure it was) and most roads were 2 lanes, 1 lane each way with the occasional passing lane.

The other airport option would be to Rapid City, South Dakota (RAP) and that would be a lot closer, but regardless I recommend having a rental car.

South Dakota exceeded my expectations by far! From Mount Rushmore, Black Hills National Forest, Custer State Park, and Badlands National Park… what a trip! Are any of these places on your bucket list or did you also think South Dakota didn’t have much to see like me? Leave it in the comments below!