The Ultimate 6-Day Family Friendly South Dakota Itinerary
If you are looking for the perfect Midwest family-friendly destination that’s full of adventure, nature and history, this is the trip for you. The Black Hills of South Dakota is the perfect destination for families, offering a blend of outdoor adventure, rich history, and so much fun. From exploring the iconic Mount Rushmore to spotting wildlife in Custer State Park, this is a trip that the whole family will enjoy. Whether your family loves hiking, scenic drives, or hands-on learning, this itinerary will guide you through the best kid-friendly experiences in the Black Hills. Get ready for a trip filled with breathtaking landscapes, exciting discoveries, and so many memories!
Getting there & Where to stay
We road tripped to Rapid City from Wichita, which was just shy of an 11 hour drive. We used it as a perfect opportunity to explore Western Nebraska on the way, which you can read more about here. If you are flying, you’ll want to fly into Rapid City Regional Airport (RAP) and rent a car.
We choose to stay in Rapid City for our entire trip, and take day trips to the nearby areas we wanted to explore. I found it to be a great home base, pretty centrally located between the areas we wanted to explore, and it had lots of restaurants and dessert options. We rented this awesome house for our stay, but there is also a brand new Hyatt Place in Rapid City, which would sleep larger families and include breakfast.
Day 1: Rapid City
We spent our first day checking off some of the sights around Rapid City. Our first stop was Bear Country USA, which is a really fun drive-thru zoo. We saw soo many bears elk, deer and wolves, and even got bumped into by a grizzly! After you complete the drive-thru portion, make sure to get out and walk around the rest of the park to see even more animals up close. Plus, the gift shop here is really great and has lots of fun finds.
Next, we headed to Reptile Gardens. This place is kind of a botanical garden meets reptile zoo, and was definitely a hit with my kids. We packed a lunch and ate at one of the picnic tables here, but they do have concession stands and vending machines available. I would plan to spend 2 hours or so at this stop.
We spent the afternoon exploring Storybook Island, a free (and awesome) park in Rapid City that should not be missed. Imagine all your favorite childhood fairytale or storybook characters in one giant, interactive park. There’s a carousel, train rides, and a fun gift shop.
We headed to Main Street Square for dinner. There are several restaurants around this area to choose from. In the summer, they have concerts and activities going on here, and it turns into an ice skating rink in the winter. Bring your kiddos swim suits so they can cool down in the fountains.
After dinner, we took a self guided walking tour of the presidential statues downtown. You can find them on every block, and they have QR codes you can scan to learn about each one. We didn’t find them all, but walked several blocks and found quite a few. It’s a fun way to learn about some Presidential history with your kiddos, and a great way to explore the downtown area of Rapid City.
Day 2: Train Rides & Waterpark Fun
We headed to Hill City this morning to take a ride on the 1880’s train. We took the first train of the day to Keystone. The ride is so magical, and truly a beautiful way to experience the Black Hills, and we saw tons of wildlife along the way. They offer concessions on the train (cash only) so make sure to bring a few dollars for popcorn. Each leg takes about 45 minutes, and you can choose to ride back immediately, or get off the train and explore.
When we got off the train in Keystone, we walked over to Tramway Adventures (about ½ mile), where we rode the chairlift up the hill, and took the alpine slide back down. My kids loved this so much (and so did the adults!), and we totally would have rode it again if there wasn’t an impending thunderstorm.
We grabbed lunch at the cute coffee shop right across the street, and explored some of the shops along main street Keystone before catching the afternoon train back to Hill City.
After we got back to Rapid City, the kids needed to burn some energy, so we headed to WaTiki Indoor Waterpark, which was a great spot for them to be silly and have some fun. There are lots of slides, sprinklers, dump buckets and a lazy river that they loved floating on.
For dinner, we grabbed Happy Meals and headed over to the Dinosaur Park. There are picnic tables and benches along the way, perfect for a lunch or dinner stop. Then we wandered around and the kids climbed and played on the dinosaurs while we watched the sun setting over the city.
Day 3: Spearfish Canyon
We started Day 3 by heading northwest into Spearfish, about 45 minutes outside of Rapid City. We spent the morning at the D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery, which is such a cool place to explore. Buy a bag (or 2) of fish food from the gift shop and feed the hungry trout, then explore the historic buildings and grounds. It’s free to enter, and definitely a cool place to explore. We all learned a ton about the history of the Black Hills here.
We ate a picnic lunch at the park right next to the fish hatchery, then headed into the Black Hills for an afternoon of hiking and waterfalls. We started at the Community caves trail, a 0.6 mile out and back hike rated hard. It’s a tougher hike that is basically straight uphill, but the payoff at the end is totally worth it. We spent quite a while sitting in the cool cave, taking in the views of the Black Hills.
After our hike, we drove on the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway, stopping at several waterfalls along the way. Read more about how to see 4 epic waterfalls in one afternoon here.
We headed back to Rapid City for the night, and grabbed dinner on the way.
Day 4: Badlands National Park
The next day, we headed southeast to the Badlands National park. It takes a little under an hour to get there, and we used our America the Beautiful Pass to get into the park. If you don’t have an America the Beautiful pass, entrance to the park will cost $30 per carload.
We hiked some family friendly trails, including the Notch, Window and Door trail in the morning. We had lunch outside the Ben Reifel Visitor’s center, then browsed the museum and the kids worked on their Junior Ranger booklets and earned their badge.
We drove the Badlands Loop, and stopped at the Fossil Exhibit trail to search for fossils, then we headed down Rim Road to see the bison and prairie dog town. Read more about our day in Badlands National Park here.
After leaving the Badlands, we stopped by the Wall Drug Store in Wall, South Dakota. We did a little shopping here and grabbed dinner. Be aware, food prices here are steep considering it’s just burgers and fries, but it’s an iconic stop, and was worth it for us. Head to the back of Wall Drug for some cool photo ops after you’re done inside.
Day 5: Custer State Park
We started this day early because I wanted to get into Custer State Park first thing in the morning for the best chance at seeing wildlife. We arrived to the park around 8 a.m. and drove the 18 mile wildlife loop, which took us about 2.5 hours to complete. We saw tons of bison, mule deer, burros, prairie dogs, and pronghorns, and it was totally worth arriving early. Getting stopped by the herd of bison crossing the road was by far one of the highlights of our trip.
Next, we drove along Needles Highway to Sylvan Lake. We hiked the 1.1 mile Lake Shore Trail, which takes you in a loop around the whole lake. It’s a really cool trail that takes you along some amazing rock formations and gives you a beautiful view of the lake. We also rented kayaks from the store right next to the lake. It’s first come first served, and we did have to wait a little bit for 2 double kayaks to become available, but not too long. We did a 1-hour rental, which was plenty of time to paddle out and get up close to some of the cool rock formations. There is a swimming area, but the water was very cold during our visit in late May, so we just let the kids play in the sand for awhile.
I really wanted to do the Cathedral Spires hike after we left Sylvan Lake, but our kids were worn out, so we headed back to Rapid City via Iron Mountain Road. If you have extra time and energy on this day, definitely check out this hike because it looks awesome.
Day 6: Mt. Rushmore & Jewel Cave
On our last full day in South Dakota, we headed to Mt. Rushmore first thing that morning. We arrived shortly after 8 a.m. and the crowds were thin. We hiked the Presidential Trail, our kids earned their Junior Ranger badges, and we ate some of Thomas Jefferson’s famous vanilla ice cream. You can read more about What to do at Mt. Rushmore with kids here.
We had the intention of stopping by Crazy Horse Memorial, but spent longer at Mt. Rushmore than I thought we would, so we just did a drive by view of it.
We had cave tour reservations at Jewel Cave National Monument early that afternoon, so we headed there next. During our visit to South Dakota in spring of 2024, Wind Cave National Park was not doing tours due to elevator repairs, so we did a cave tour of Jewel Cave instead. Wind Cave National Park is not far, so we did make a stop here after our tour of Jewel Cave and checked out the Visitor’s Center for the kids to earn their Junior Ranger badges. I highly recommend doing a tour of at least one of these insanely cool caves.
Note: Definitely make a reservation beforehand for your cave tour, because they do sell out, especially during peak travel season. Reservations can be made here.
Day 7: Mammoth Site & Heading Home
This was our departure day, and since our drive back home was straight south from Rapid City, we stopped at Mammoth Site in Hot Springs on the way out of town. It’s located an hour south of Rapid City. This is the largest mammoth fossil dig site in the world, and is so full of history and information. It’s an active dig site, so you can actually watch them excavating the fossils, and chat with the paleontologists on staff. Definitely one of our favorite places to visit on this trip, and I highly recommend a stop here if you can!
Then, we headed south back to Kansas to end our full yet incredible week exploring the Black Hills of South Dakota. If you are thinking about planning a family trip to explore South Dakota, I cannot recommend it enough! We had such an amazing week full of adventure, and made so many memories as a family.
