Helpful info on Mount Rushmore trip needed :)

[mamajoan]

Hi.. considering taking a quick trip to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse.
maybe Deadwood too..
So DISers... please share any info/opinions on hotels with comfortable beds, restauraunts or points of interest that you enjoy.

Thank you so much.. .yes, I triptik'd and googled... but DISer opinions and info? .. .. I have always found it most helpful!!

 

[KiKi Mouse]

ask away.
We went two summers in a row.
We stayed at a KOA campground. I did hear that the hotels in Keystone are nice and inexpensive.
This year we did two chuckwagon dinners, Circle B and one at Bluebell stables in Custer State Park. The Bluebell one took you out in a chuckwagon and we had a sing-song. LOVED it!
Custer State Park is beautiful. Bring carrots to feed the donkeys.

 

[mnrose]

Just did a trip to Black Hills. Loved it. Surprisingly, our favorite thing wasn't Mt. Rushmore (it was ok) or Crazy Horse (not worth the money, IMO, to go in. You see it pretty much the same from the road. LOL!) Our favs were Wind Cave National Park, and Custer State Park. Both beautiful!

Anyway, if you are an all adult (or older teen) group, we stayed at a great place, Hisega Lodge. Close to Rapid City, and pretty close to both southern and northern hills. Tripadvisor has great reviews, and reasonably priced. Awesome breakfast.

 

[mamajoan]

Thank you!!

My husband and I are going on this adventure by ourselves. YAY! Our kids are all adults... well ....all are 20 and above

I have always wanted to see both monuments. I was thinking about one of the cave tours for my DH... as I can not do the walking... even tho I would love to do so.

My idea of camping is Motel 6 ... altho I do enjoy nature and the outdoors.

 

[etoiles]

One of the things that DH still talks about from our trip to SD is eating at the fry taco buffet at Crazy Horse. To me it was worth the money to go see it and enjoy the monument. He loved eating there as well and it was reasonable!

We stayed in the Badlands park motel which is a great price and you can't beat the view. It is a little far away though so one or two nights there and more nights closer to Rapid City.

 

[DenMig]

We vacationed in the Black Hills this summer. Also camped at the KOA. Any family with kids this is the place to be, Soooo much to do. Since you are traveling without kids, probably not the place for you. (they rent cabins). Anyways, we did Crazy Horse at night for the laser show closing ceremony. It started at 9 or so, so we got there about 7:30 to explore a bit. If we went during the day I may not have liked it, but the laser show was pretty cool.

 

[4nana]

DH and I recently returned and absolutely love it! We stay at the 'K Bar S Lodge' in Keystone. Highly recommended - it was quietly nestled up the hill from busy Keystone w/partial view of Mt Rushmore, incl in price was a nice hot breakfast each morn of made waffles w/whip crm/strawberries, sausage bisicuts, eggs, plus cereals, fruits, bagles, etc. They have a beautiful dining room with lovely scenery. http://www.kbarslodge.com/

We did a day bus trip through Ft Hays Mt Rushmore Tours http://www.mountrushmoretours.com/?110050000000 that did not disappoint us . Total time was about 9 hrs, beginning with a cowboy pancake breakfast, all day tour, and ended with a Chuckwagon dinner and country music show at the Dances with Wolves movie set. The food was not 5* but very filling. All day tour was very reasonable at $75pp – we had a wonderful time, our bus driver was a hoot and the tour alone was worth it! There is a charge for lunch at the Game State Lodge stop. The day tour covered much more than we could have thought of doing ourselves – including scenic Iron Mountain Road is quite the exciting drive incl a few tunnels and hair pin curves, beautiful Sylvan Lake, Mt Rushmore, Chief Crazy Horse, Custer State Park and the Black Hills.

Other fun adventures we did were the Badlands, Bear Country USA, the Steam train, Bell Fourche Nat Geo Center of the Nation, we also went back for the evening ceremony at Mt Rushmore which was very nice. The caves sounded fun, but DH has knee problems so we decided against. Lots of good restaurants in the area, altho one that came highly recommended we felt wasn't up to par. We had a steak dinner at the ‘Powder House Lodge’ but must have been on a bad day, very disappointing as steaks were burnt and tough. 

Good luck, you won’t be disappointed, it’s beautiful country ! If you do a Dis search you may come up with a lot more ideas.

 

[tink_lover]

Another vote for the KBar - we stayed there last summer and it was fabulous. Really good breakfast that is included. The balcony of our room overlooked the monument. Also agree that the nighttime laser show at Crazy Horse is spectacular.

 

[KiKi Mouse]

Bear Country USA is fun for all ages.
The Badlands loop with lunch at Wall drug is a good day trip.
The 1880s train goes from Hill city to Keystone and it is a nice drive.
Lunch at Custer State Lodge is good.

 

[Swank]

This post reminded me when I was in 3rd grade my parents took a 2 week long trip out West (we live in NJ) and we took a day to do Mount Rushmore. It was so foggy we couldn't see a thing. We ended taking pictures by a big picture of mount Rushmore.

 

[mamajoan]

Most awesome info! I really get a lot out of reading Dis'ers opinions and info. I trust you guys more than any other website posters as you have never steered me wrong!
4Nana.. Wow! $75 for a a full day tour ...cool!
swank.. your post cracked me up. LOL

 

[sdjen]

Hello from South Dakota! I actually live in Rapid City and would love to help you in any way i can .

You are lucky in some respects with coming after the official "tourist season" is over -ends this weekend. That will help with the pricing on most hotels. Most of the tourist attractions are open until at least the end of September but the big ones - Crazy Horse and Mt Rushmore are open year round.


If you could give me an idea of what you like to do or what types of hotels you like, i could maybe give you some more ideas. We dont have any 4 star hotels here but there are a couple of decent 3 (maybe 3 1/2) star ones in my opinion.

Happy planning!

ps When are you coming?

 

[Simba's Mom]

Hi.. considering taking a quick trip to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse.
maybe Deadwood too..
So DISers... please share any info/opinions on hotels with comfortable beds, restauraunts or points of interest that you enjoy.

Thank you so much.. .yes, I triptik'd and googled... but DISer opinions and info? .. .. I have always found it most helpful!!

We went to Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park, Wind Cave, and the Badlands in June. We stayed 3 nights in Custer State Park and loved it. The one night we stayed in Rapid City, we stayed at the La Quinta, which has an indoor waterpark that you can get to without going outdoors. Although we're not waterpark people, people we saw looked like they enjoyed it. On the day we went to Mount Rushmore, we ate in the main cafeteria-I had some excellent soup. It seemed kind of chilly for ice cream to me, but other people who went to the ice cream place were impressed with how much they got for the money. If you get a chance, go over to Wall Drug. Funny road-side attraction where we ate lunch 2 days.