Rapid City

Hotel

• A little tourist town. We stayed at an Airbnb so the kids could play all day and night.

Activities: Traveling with a bigger group and 4 kids we kept it simple and touristy

• Mount Rushmore - Definitely the highlight and a cool thing to see you know you’ll probably only see once.

• Blackhills Caverns - Underground cave tour

• City of Presidents Walking Tour - we didn’t do the entire walking tour but it was fun to find Presidents as we walked to breakfast.

Black Hills National Park

Hotel

• Under Canvas Mount Rushmore - we stayed in a regular tent with 2 beds and a shared communal bathroom

Activities

• Hikes

• Deadwood - day trip to walk around downtown, the history is neat and we walked around the cemetery. Not too much to do with kids but if you like gambling and biker bars this is your town.

Custer State Park

Hotel

• Custer State Park Resort @ Blue Bell Lodge - every accommodation in the park (and driving out to the downtown area) seemed to be 20-30 minutes apart. It’s important to keep this in mind because it’s dangerous driving at night without street lights and wildlife constantly crossing the road. We were here in 2021 so keep in mind it was closely post-COVID so there wasn’t a lot of staff; the resorts and dinner reservations booked up quickly.

Activities

• Buffalo Jeep Tour - a tour around the park driving off the beaten path with a guide.

• Crazy Horse Memorial - A highlight of the trip! So much Native American history about the Lakota tribe and also seeing the continuation of constructing Crazy Horse.

• Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park - we went here for a day trip to hike and let the kids swim with our friends while we were staying in Rapid City.