When Dom and I mapped out our road trip from central Illinois to Salt Lake City, we planned a small detour so we could spend a day and a half near Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.  We ended up visiting and dining at quite a few places near Mount Rushmore and in Rapid City, SD. Today I’m sharing our experience, recommendations, tips, and what we would do differently on a future trip.

Where to Stay

Since the main reason we were in the area was to see Mount Rushmore, we booked two nights at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Keystone, SD – one of the closest hotels to the monument.  What we didn’t realize until we arrived was that Keystone pretty much completely shuts down during the tourism off-season from around October to March. We were there at the beginning of March and it was pretty much a ghost town; even Dairy Queen was closed. Keystone may be a better place to stay during the summer when everything is open, but based on what we saw there still wasn’t a ton there; I’ve also heard it can be very touristy, which makes sense with how close it is to the monument.

The Holiday Inn itself was nice and comfortable; it was a little dated, but that’s to be expected in a town like Keystone where tourism has drawn in travelers for decades. Mount Rushmore was less than 10 minutes away, which was great for beating the crowds to the monument.  

When we visit again, we will probably stay in Rapid City instead because it had a cute and walkable downtown, but more on that later.

Mount Rushmore

Hours: Be sure to visit the Mount Rushmore page of the National Park Services website for updated hours.  Note that the hours the memorial is open are different than the hours for the Visitor Center, gift shop, and café.

Cost: Parking at Mount Rushmore is $10 / vehicle and there’s no alternative to driving.  It was easy to pay – you get a ticket when you arrive and then pay at the machines (which accept credit card) in the parking structure once you’re ready to leave.

Renovations: Right now, Mount Rushmore is going through some extensive renovations that are scheduled to wrap up in summer 2021.  The half-mile Presidential Trail was closed; it usually lets visitors get closer to the base of the monument.  The Avenue of Flags – the walkway to the Grand View Terrace that is lined with the different U.S. state and territory flags – has a lot of construction fencing on it, making it less than ideal for photos. From what we did see, it looks like it will be really nice once it’s all finished, so if you’re thinking of planning a trip I would hold off until the renovations are finished to get the full experience.

Time to visit: We pulled into to the Mount Rushmore parking structure around 7:30am and it turned out to be a really good time to get to the monument.  A few people were walking back to their cars while we walked up the Grand View Terrace, but once we were there we were completely alone for about 20 minutes which was really cool.  This gave us a chance to take some uninterrupted pictures without worrying about other people, which was nice both because, well, people, and because of COVID.  

Something I hadn’t thought about until we were there was the impact of the sun’s position in the sky on photos – throughout the day, shadows move across the presidents’ faces. We were there in early March and the shadows weren’t an issue in my photos from around 7:45a but when we took a more photos around 10a, some shadows had started to show on Teddy and Jefferson, and by noon those shadows were pretty prominent.  I found this article that explains when to expect the shadows based on the time of year.

Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center: In one of the visitor center theaters, there is a short video that gave a summary of the monument’s history and creation. I would recommend watching the video before looking through the displays to get some context for all of the exhibits. It took a while to walk through and read about all of the exhibits – we probably read around 75% of the them and we were there for around 3.5 hours. We also spent a few minutes looking through the Visitor Center bookstore, but the main gift shop is near the beginning of the Avenue of Flags.

While I imagine the monument itself is interesting to see for all ages, the Visitor Center felt primarily set up for reading about the history of the monument, so it may not keep the attention of younger kids for very long.  Based on the website, I think there typically are more activities for kids to do during the summer and of course, if the renovations weren’t going on they would probably enjoy walking on the Presidential Trail.

George Washington’s Profile: This isn’t something I would say is necessary to do, but if you head west on 244 when you leave the Mount Rushmore parking structure, there’s a small parking lot about half a mile down the road where you can stop and take pictures of the profile of George Washington. We stopped to grab a few photos since we were going that way anyway; it was interesting to look at part of the monument from a different view, but again, it’s not really a must-see.

Hiking Near Mount Rushmore

After visiting Mount Rushmore and seeing George Washington’s profile, we continued west on 244 so we could do a hike in the Black Elk Wilderness.  We did trail #14, the Horsethief Trail – the trailhead was only 8 minutes away from Mount Rushmore. Parking was free but it took us a minute to find the actual trailhead, so keep an eye out for signs that point to the “Wilderness trailhead” once you park; the entrance is next to a large sign with a map of the Wilderness.  

There were a few spots along the trail that were pretty icy (again, this was in early March) so it would have been nice to have microspikes to get through those parts a little more easily, but overall it wasn’t too bad.  We only saw about five other people for the whole two hours or so we were there. Overall it was really peaceful.

Hiking near Mount Rushmore could easily take up an entire day. There are many trailheads near the monument and many of the trails intersect (we came to one intersection and if we’d gone farther, we would have hit another), so it looks like you can go virtually as far as you want to before turning around, depending on which trails you take.

Crazy Horse Memorial

Crazy Horse memorial is about a half-hour drive from Mount Rushmore and 100% worth visiting for a different history lesson.

Cost: Pricing for admission varies by season and number of people per car – we paid $24 for the two of us.  The higher prices at Crazy Horse (compared to Mount Rushmore) made sense once we learned the story of the memorial – it’s an ongoing project that relies solely on private funding, primarily from admission to the memorial and donations.  It’s unknown when it will be completed partially because of the reliance on private funding, but also because it is such a massive project so there are a lot of uncertainties; when completed, it will be the largest sculpture in the world.

Welcome Center: Unless you’re already very familiar with Crazy Horse, it is critical to watch the 10-15 minute video playing in the Welcome Center before walking around to look at the memorial and the museum.  The video gave crucial background information on Crazy Horse that I don’t think we would have learned very easily otherwise.  It was a really interesting story and gave us the details we needed to really appreciate what we were looking at throughout the rest of the memorial.

Museums and displays: The museums at Crazy Horse had two major purposes: covering the history of the memorial and showing Native American history.  We were there for about an hour and 15 minutes, but we could have spent much longer there looking around; I would say that 2.5 hours probably would have been a better amount of time to look through everything.  Overall, there was significantly less to read in the museums at Crazy Horse than at the visitor center at Mount Rushmore because it felt like Crazy Horse was more about showcasing historical artifacts, while Mount Rushmore was more of a very detailed history lesson on the creation of the monument, the monument’s four presidents, and the United States.

Viewing the monument: One thing that we didn’t know until we arrived is that while you can buy a $4 bus ticket to get closer to the base of Crazy Horse, you can’t walk to the monument unless it’s one of the few specified weekends in the year called Volksmarch when they aren’t doing construction and the monument itself is open to visitors.  The monument is actually really far away from the museum and Welcome Center, but it was still close enough to see the detail. Other than getting the bus ticket, the best place to see the monument is from the Viewing Veranda, which is outside between the museum and the Laughing Water Restaurant.

Food and Drinks Near Mount Rushmore

Prairie Berry Winery – Hilly City, SD: We scheduled a wine tasting at Prairie Berry Winery for after visiting Mount Rushmore, hiking, and seeing Crazy Horse. It was a really good experience – the wine list has detailed descriptions, we each chose five to try, and then at the end we ordered a glass of our favorites and sat in their dining area. I had two glasses of the Gold Digger and bought a bottle for later – it was an amazing, sweet, pear wine.

Prairie Berry is less than 20 minutes from both Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse, so it’s a really good option if you’re staying in Keystone, like we were. It usually has a kitchen to order food from but it was being renovated while we were there, so they temporarily hired The Green Chili Shack Food Truck. We split some loaded nachos and they really hit the spot; the food truck’s website seems updated frequently with where they’ll be.

If wine isn’t your thing, Black Hills Miner Brewing Co. is right next door and seems to be owned by the same people. We didn’t stop by, but they had some cute plastic igloos that you could reserve to sit and eat / drink in which looked fun for groups. I think they also had some yard games nearby.

The Gaslight – Rockerville, SD: The Gaslight is between Keystone and Rapid City so again, it’s a good option if you are looking for somewhere to eat near Keystone. Rockerville had a story that was suspiciously similar to Radiator Springs from Pixar’s Cars – other than The Gaslight, it’s a ghost town because of the highway that was built around it.

Everything we had was good – Dom had a black bean burger and baked potato; I had a spinach artichoke pasta with a side salad – but the side salad I had was surprisingly my favorite thing; I think it was because of how good the ranch was. Our service was also excellent – our waitress was on top of everything and the food came out really quickly. It was cute inside – I would go back if we ever stayed in Keystone again but it’s not somewhere I’d say you have to eat; it’s just a good option for somewhere nearby.

Downtown Rapid City

Rapid City is a bigger town about 35 minutes from Mount Rushmore; we stopped there on our way to Keystone from Sioux City, Iowa and walked around their cute downtown area before getting dinner there.

See the City of Presidents: 43 of the downtown street corners each have a statue of a US president (currently from Washington to Obama). The statues are very nice and it seemed like the funds to make each statue are donated. It was really unique and fascinating, and especially fitting since Mount Rushmore is nearby.

Press Start: This is a combination of a lot of great things: brick oven pizzas, burgers, drinks, and – most importantly – two levels of arcade games. The main floor was more modern games that let you win tickets like at a Dave & Buster’s, but the basement was full of vintage arcade games. We did a quick walk-through and then left because it didn’t feel like a great place to be during a pandemic, but when we’re back someday, we’d probably go for dinner and the vintage games.

Firehouse Wine Cellars: Dom and I each had a glass of wine here before we grabbed dinner; it had a really cute front patio where we sat and people-watched for a while. I had their best-selling wine, Mythical Beast, and really liked it. Overall it was a great place to sit and relax, and I think a lot of people stopped by for a glass of wine while they were waiting for a table at the restaurant next door.

Sabatino’s Italian Ristorante: To preface, I could go on and on about Sabatino’s, but I’ll try to stick to the main points. Overall, it’s a really cute, delicious, up-scale Italian restaurant with some incredible food.

The bread service was excellent – there were two kinds (a white and maybe a tomato basil?) with an olive spread. We also ordered the bruschetta as an appetizer because it’s one of the few appetizers Dom loves to order, and we agreed it’s the best we’ve had anywhere. All of the flavors in it complimented each other so well.

They had a few vegetarian options (and you can order most things without meat) – Dom went with a pesto pasta and I had a cheese ravioli in a white wine sauce. Dom liked his and I was incredibly impressed with mine; I was worried it would be too heavy to have the cheese ravioli and a white sauce, but it was perfect.

We decided to splurge and get dessert, and Dom is still obsessed with the Café Affogato he had – a scoop of vanilla gelato with a double espresso shot poured over it. I ordered the crème brûlée which was good but nothing too special, and it also wasn’t a personal size like Dom’s Affogato – it would have been better to split with someone.

Armadillo’s Ice Cream: We saw Armadillo’s had amazing reviews so we stopped here after our day at the memorials and dinner at The Gaslight. I had a cookie dough sundae but the cookie dough didn’t have a great flavor, but Dom had a really good java shake. We probably would try somewhere else for dessert the next time we’re in town, but we also generally prefer baked desserts over ice cream anyway. The prices were what I would have expected for the sizes at $5 each and if you’re an ice cream fan, the reviews point to this being the place to go. I noticed their website says they’re seasonally open from March 1 to October 31, so that’s something to keep in mind if you’re going to be visiting during the winter.

While we had a really great time at Mount Rushmore, we probably won’t go back for a while since it’s not really a repeat destination type of place. However, we recently found out you can fly via Allegiant Air into Rapid City from the Peoria, Illinois airport (and a lot of other airports around the US), so we may be back there to go to Badlands National Park (about an hour away). Overall, we had a great day and a half near Mount Rushmore and Rapid City, and it’s somewhere that would make my list for top weekend trips.