• The Black Hills - As the audio guides play commentary based on your GPS location, you can create your own itinerary along the tour route(s) to match your interests and schedule.

Or you can use our trip planners for our suggestions on half, full, or multi-day itineraries.

Some of the many highlights are listed below:

• Mount Rushmore National Memorial - The most famous and recognizable memorial celebrating the nationhood of the USA must be the 4 presidential faces that look out from Mount Rushmore. Though you will have seen it many times depicted on TV, movies, and photos, there is no equivalent to seeing it with your own eyes and feeling the scale and depth of the sculpture.
• Custer State Park - Take a leisurely drive through an enormous area of natural habitat of rolling prairie hills with open grasslands and some pine forest.

Though the drive is officially only 18 miles long, expect to spend at least 1 hour, but if you enjoy spotting wildlife, it’s easy to spend 3 or more hours watching. Also, explore some of the side roads that branch off the main route.

• Devils Tower National Monument - Devils Tower was always a place of intrigue and fascination since it became the nation’s first National Monument. For a multitude of generations before that, and continuing to this day, Native Americans celebrate the site for its spiritual importance. The Tower was thrust into pop culture in the 1970s sci-fi classic as the geographical star of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
• Badlands National Park - Western South Dakota delivers a wide variety of spectacular landscapes ranging from the prairies grassland and rock formations of the Badlands National Park, through to the mountains, canyons, and forests of the Black Hills for you to explore.
• Crazy Horse Memorial - In 1948, Sioux Chief Henry Standing Bear approached a Polish sculptor about creating another larger-than-life sculpture on Thunderhead Mountain - this time celebrating Sioux and other Northern Plains native groups through a depiction of Crazy Horse.
• Keystone - Once a mining boom town, Keystone today is the nearest community to Mount Rushmore. It is filled with hotels, restaurants, cafes, and stores to find your perfect Mount Rushmore souvenir.
• Rapid City - The hub of the three best scenic drives in this part of South Dakota is Rapid City and it is the ideal place to base your accommodations, and to do some exploring in this lively town.
• Sylvan Lake - Located along route 87, Sylvan Lake is described as the Jewel of Custer State Park.

If time allows, it’s very worthwhile to allocate 45 minutes or so to enjoy the relatively easy 1.1-mile trail around the lake. The combination of grassy shores, still lake water, and granite formations rising from the water are truly scenic.

For more dedicated and prepared hikers, this is also the starting point for the Black Elk Peak trail, a 7-mile loop that rises 1100 feet to South Dakota’s highest point.

• Iron Mountain Road - The final 45-minute approach of the recommended direction to Mount Rushmore follows the amazing Iron Mountain Road. We’ll encounter tunnels, pigtail bridges, superb lookouts, and 314 curves. It is a scenic delight!

The most magical moment of the drive is the view through the Scovel Tunnel where 4 presidential faces greet you at the other end, like a postcard.

• Bridal Veil Falls - This 60-foot, narrow, wispy spray of water sits right beside the road in Spearfish Canyon. It’s easy to capture that perfect photo right from the viewing platform.
• Deadwood - One of the most famous wild-west towns in the entire country - Deadwood became legendary for its gold rush boom and the multitude of characters who we recognize to this day.
• Roughlock Falls State Nature Area - From the tiny ex-sawmill town of Savoy on the Spearfish Canyon Road, Roughlock Falls is an easy and popular spot to visit with an attractive waterfall easily accessed by boardwalk. Extend your visit with a 1-mile stream-side walking trail to the falls from the Spearfish Lodge.
• Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway - Spearfish Canyon is a superb 19-mile stretch of road with stunning waterfalls and 1000-foot high limestone walls.

This scenic drive connects the town of Spearfish with Savoy and Cheyenne Crossing, following the Spearfish Creek all the way.

• Badlands Wall - At different times during the drive through the Badlands, we will pass through the Upper and Lower Prairie. The barrier that separates these 2 levels is known as the Wall.

• Door Trail - The 3/4 mile Door Trail is the most popular as you follow a boardwalk until reaching a notch in the rock - the Door. Through the Door, hikers can venture into the amazing rock formations, characteristic of the Badlands. The shorter option is known as the Window Trail, just 1/4 mile long.

• Fossil Exhibit Trail - This easy 0.25-mile boardwalk is dedicated to the stories of fossils that have been found throughout the park.

During its history, what is now the park has experienced perfect conditions leading to animal, plant, and insect life forms to be quickly buried in silt of mud. When these events are timed just right, bones, teeth, and shells especially are preserved to provide us a window to past times.

Fossil finds are active to this day.

• Minuteman Missile National Historic Site - For a complete change of theme in the Badlands, there is an opportunity to experience an important location from the Cold War arms race era. The Minuteman Missile Visitor Center serves as a museum and an opportunity to visit now decommissioned nuclear missile silos and control centers.
• Yellow Mounds Overlook - One of the best vistas in Badlands National Park, the view from this overlook reveals classic buttes and erosion.

The unique coloring in bands across these mounds, ranges from yellow and beige through to pink. The formation originated as black, ocean mud which has weathered through exposure to air into this highly photographic yellow display.

• Wind Cave National Park - These 2 cave systems are incredible and if you have time in your itinerary, should not be missed.

Both locations require driving on side trips off the Black Hills Loop tour route. If you follow the loop, the commentary will include descriptions of where to turn off for these places, and details of how to visit. Simply return to the tour route when you are done.

• Toll-free support via phone, chat, and email
• Offline access with pre-download feature
• Convenient trip planning with in-app, web, and PDF options
• Autoplay of stories, tips, and directions based on location
• Over 535 points of interest with GyPSy Guide Audio Tour
• Make a one-time purchase for unlimited access
• Follow flexible routes with suggested itineraries or customize your own

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