Badlands & Black Hills: South Dakota Road Trip

129

Steal this attraction-packed, 4-day South Dakota road trip itinerary including national parks, historic sites, an old west town and wooly mammoths skeletons to boot!

Best time to visit South Dakota

The best time to visit South Dakota is late spring through early fall. Most of South Dakota’s sightseeing is outdoors and winters are cold and snowy with roads closures.

The transitional seasons are the most ideal visiting times as the open prairies and treeless badlands, can be uncomfortably hot in July and August. Late May-June and early-September are your best bet!

Getting to South Dakota

There is no Amtrak service in South Dakota. The closest airport to the sights on this itinerary is Rapid City Regional Airport (RAP). Direct flights to RAP are available from the following cities. All other flights will require a connection.

There is also an option to fly into the State capital, Pierre. Pierre Regional Airport (PIR) receives its only direct flights from Denver. Therefore, all other flights into Pierre will connect through Denver.

If you are driving in from the neighbouring States of North Dakota, Montana or northern Wyoming, head straight for the town of Deadwood, South Dakota to start this itinerary.

Those driving in from southern Wyoming, Minnesota, Iowa or Nebraska might reshuffle this itinerary to begin on a different day, with a destination closer to their starting point. Take a look at the map at the end of this post to see what makes most sense for you.

South Dakota road trip itinerary

Day 1 – Rapid City to Deadwood

This itinerary begins in Rapid City purely because it is the airport location. Once you pick up your rental vehicle, head straight into the Black Hills to the Wild West town of Deadwood. 

This mining town may not sound familiar to you, or maybe you’ve watched the HBO series by the same name. Either way, you probably know something of its history without even realizing it. Prior to the discovery of gold, the Black Hills were the domain of the Sioux Nation who brokered a treaty with colonial settlers to preserve their sacred mountains.

However, when gold was found in the Black Hills in 1874, the treaty was promptly broken and the rush began. Deadwood was a gulch of dead trees with a creek glittering with placer gold. It was soon transformed into the stuff of Wild West legend.

One such story is that of Wild Bill Hickok. The gold seeker was playing poker one night in Saloon #10 when angry Jack McCall shot him point blank. The hand of aces and eights Wild Bill was said to have been holding at the moment he was murdered is, to this day, known as the Dead Man’s Hand.

Wild Bill was buried in the Moriah Cemetery on a hillside overlooking the town. Calamity Jane, another name you probably recognise, is buried right next to him. It’s said that Jane was smitten with Bill, but the feeling wasn’t mutual. Well, he’s stuck with her now!

Spend the afternoon exploring Deadwood’s main street, seeking out the historical markers and plaques. Watch the nightly reenactment of a shootout in Main Street and visit Moriah Cemetery for famous graves and an overlook of Deadwood Gulch.

Driving distance: Rapid City to Deadwood 85-km (53-mi), roughly 1-hr

Day 2 – Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway, Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount Rushmore

After breakfast, head directly for Crazy Horse Memorial. The yet to be completed sculpture, carved into the Black Hills, will eventually be larger than its neighbour, Mount Rushmore.

Crazy Horse was a member of the local Oglala Lakota. As colonial settlers encroached on his people’s land, the young warrior defended their territory. He led a successful battle against Custer’s Seventh U.S. Cavalry, which set off a chain of events leading to his death.

In 1933 Crazy Horse’s cousin, Chief Standing Bear, and the Lakota leaders formed the Crazy Horse Memorial Association. The organization set out to honour Crazy Horse with a memorial in the Black Hills, a sacred site for the Lakota. They selected sculpture Korczak Ziolkowski to create the monument. Ziolkowski and his wife, Ruth, both worked on the project until their deaths in 1982 and 2014 respectively. The project is now in the hands of their children and grandchildren.

Spend an hour exploring the Memorial and Indian Museum of North America. See admission fees and hours here. You can also take a 25-minute round trip, bus tour to the bottom of the mountain for a $5 per person.

Hit the road again towards Sylvan Lake, this is the first of several stops to make while you wind along the scenic Needles Highway and Iron Mountain Roads (aka Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway). Sylvan Lake is as picturesque as it gets! It’s a great place to enjoy a picnic lunch and stretch your legs on the short, 1.8-km (1.1-mile) Shore Trail.

Continue on the Needles Highway making brief stops at the designated pullouts and overlooks such as Needles Eye Tunnel, Needles Highway Scenic Overlook, Cathedral Spires Pullout and Needles Scenic View. When you reach the intersection, turn left into S Playhouse Road (follow the signs for Black Hills Playhouse) which provides a shortcut through to Iron Mountain Road.

Follow Iron Mountain Road northwest, back towards Mount Rushmore. Along the way you’ll pass through tunnels, lovely National Forest, and experience the unique pigtail bridges. Heads up! As you pass through Doane Robinson Tunnel, you’ll be looking right at Mount Rushmore.

Our next stop is a visit to Mount Rushmore National Memorial. In case you don’t already know, the Memorial is a massive sculpture featuring the faces of four U.S. presidents – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Learn about the history of the memorial and process of sculpting such a monumental work at the Visitor’s Center. Admission is $10 per vehicle and there is plenty of parking.

At the end of the day, make your way to your accommodation in Wall. I recommend stopping in Keystone for dinner, as there isn’t much selection in Wall, maybe nothing at all if you pull into town late. If you arrive before 8pm, pay a short visit to the Midwest-famous Wall Drug store. It’s one of those roadside attractions that’s so bad, its almost good. Almost. Go for the jackalopes if nothing else.

Driving distance: 275-km (170-mi), roughly 4-hr 15-min

Day 3 – Minuteman Missile National Historic Site and Badlands National Park

On day three of your South Dakota road trip, get an early start. You’re headed for Badlands National Park, but there’s a few stops to take in the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site along the way.

In a nutshell, the Minuteman Missile Site was constructed during the Cold War, when about 1000 nuclear missiles were placed over the Great Plains. The Minuteman Missile National Historic Site preserves some remnants of the nuclear program including a missile silo (disarmed, of course) and a control facility. Here are the three stops to make:

1. First, take the I-90 E from Wall and take the first exit to 239^th St/Dillon Pass Rd and follow the signs to the Delta-09 Minuteman Missile Silo. This is just a 10-minute stop to look inside a missile silo. When the program was active this would have contained an intercontinental ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead attached. Now it has a disarmed, training missile inside with a glass ceiling for viewing.
2. Second, continue on the I-90 E and take exit 127. Follow Cs 23A north a short distance to Delta-01 Launch Control Facility. This non-descript yellow ranch house is the topside support for the underground launch control. If you want to tour the facility, you need to book well in advance. The control room is petite and can only fit a small tour group, therefore tickets often sell out.
3. Third, return to I-90 E and exit at SD-240 E/County Road S 8. This is the same exit as the one you would take for Badlands National Park. You’ll see the Visitor’s Center on the north side of the I-90. Here you can get some more context for what you have just seen with exhibits, films and a book store.

Next, head south into Badlands National Park. Your first stop is Big Badlands Overlook. Continue another 5-minutes drive and you will come across a large parking lot on the lefthand side. This is where you will find several trailheads.

I recommend hiking the Door, Window and Notch Trails. These vary from short and easy (Door Trail has an accessible boardwalk) through to moderate (Notch Trial has a steep ladder-like section).

A further 6-minute drive and you will reach the Ben Reifel Visitor Center. Take a little time to explore the exhibits here, use the bathrooms and make sure you have plenty of water. There is also a picnic area and the Cedar Pass Lodge next door has a restaurant.

Continue on the SD-240 W through the Park. If you’re up for a short but strenuous hike, Saddle Pass offers terrific views of the surrounding landscape on both sides of the Badlands wall.

Drive westward on the SD-240 stopping at the many overlooks along the way. Your final stop inside the Park will be Roberts Prairie Dog Town. Make sure you are wearing plenty of bug spray because the mosquitos here are something else. Observe the prairie dog colony as they dart in and out of their burrows.

There’s two ways you can proceed from here to your overnight accommodation in Hot Springs. If you have plenty of daylight and gas, I recommend continuing on Sage Creek Road through to the town of Scenic. This lesser visited part of Badlands National Park is a really beautiful drive.

From Scenic you can drive to Hot Springs via Rapid City on paved, well-trodden roads. If you have the appropriate vehicle (and tyres), this is the more interesting route:

From Scenic, head south on Bombing Rand Road and continue south onto BIA Hwy 27/Big Foot Trail. As you navigate this road, you will pass in and out of sections of Badlands National Park and Buffalo Gap National Grassland. Even though there are no pullouts and very little shoulder on the road to make stops, the scenery is outstanding!

Look out for the intersection with BIA 2, where the White River Ranger Station is just north of Rockyford. You don’t want to miss that turn. Take the BIA 2 and Riverside Road across to Buffalo Gap. Some of this is paved road, some is not. DO NOT try to take the dirt road in an inappropriate vehicle, especially if it is raining or has rained recently. We had to turn back part way in, as an afternoon thunderstorm turned the road into huge muddy ruts.

From Buffalo Gap it’s an easy drive into Hot Springs.

Driving distance:

Route 1 (paved roads via Rapid City): 290-km (180-mi), roughly 3-hrs 40-mins.

Route 2 (scenic with dirt roads via Rockyford): 258-km (160-mi), roughly 4-hrs.

Day 4 – Mammoth Site and Wind Cave National Park

Before leaving Hot Springs this morning, tour the Hot Springs Mammoth Site. This phenomenal, active paleontological dig centres on a mass grave of mammoths. So far, the remains of over 60 Columbian and wooly mammoths have been found in a small area due to a watering hole that once existed there. You’ll need about an hour to watch the film and take the self-guided tour around the site—more if you want to explore all the exhibits.

The last stop on your South Dakota road trip will be Wind Cave National Park. Book in advance for a mid-morning tour of the fascinating Cave and its unique features. For those with more time, you might also explore some of the aboveground trails in the Park.

Return to Rapid City Regional Airport for your departure via one of the following two routes:

• Those needing to get back to the airport in the shortest amount of time should take the 7-11 Rd toward Buffalo gap and continue northward on the SD-79 Heartland Expressway to Rapid City.
• If you have more time, detour via SD-87 N to Blue Bell Lodge and through Custer State Park. The dining room at Blue Bell Lodge is one of the most talked about places to eat in western South Dakota. I suggest you stop there for lunch on your way to Rapid City. This route is roughly the same distance as travelling via Buffalo Gap, but will take longer because of the winding but more scenic State Park roads.

Driving distance:

Route 1 (fastest): 120-km (75-mi) takes about 1-hr 30-mins

Route 2 (scenic): 120-km (75-mi) takes about 2-hrs

South Dakota itinerary map

Get a copy of this map by clicking on the top right corner. This will open the South Dakota itinerary map in Google Maps enabling you to save and customize for your own adventure.

Places to eat, drink and be merry

Here are some places we ate, drank and enjoyed along our South Dakota road trip. There are more, including ones that were recommended but that we didn’t eat at, marked on the above map. Note, that it is best to pack a lunch, snacks and water for your time in Badlands National Park. There is only one supermarket in Wall and it doesn’t offer pre-prepared foods that you can grab and go. Therefore, it’s better to stock up in Rapid City or another, larger town along the way.

Also, if you are getting into a small town like Wall or Hot Springs after 8pm, you won’t find much open. Should you be exploring until late, get some dinner along the way and don’t wait until your destination or you might go hungry.

Jacobs Brewhouse & Grocer, Deadwood

Powder House Lodge Restaurant, Keystone

Wandering Bison Coffee, Hot Springs

South Dakota road trip playlist

Looking for the perfect playlist for your South Dakota road trip? I curate themed playlists for our travels and share them on Spotify. You can find my Midwest Music playlist including tracks about South Dakota and by South Dakota artists here:

Use this guide to tailor yourself a South Dakota road trip adventure, and please leave any feedback or questions in the comments below. Get more US summer road trip ideas here!

Peace, love and inspiring travel,

Madam ZoZo