Badlands and the Black Hills with kids

Route description

From Sioux Falls, I-90 runs west across the prairie to Mitchell, where the Corn Palace is covered in murals made of thousands of ears of colored corn and redesigned every year. The drive across central South Dakota is long and straight, crossing the Missouri River at Chamberlain, so plan regular stops with children.

Leave the interstate at the Interior exit for the Badlands Loop Road (SD-240), which winds past striped spires and prairie where bison graze. Cedar Pass Campground faces the Badlands wall and has some of the darkest skies in the region for stargazing. The loop rejoins I-90 at Wall, where Wall Drug still hands out free ice water and has an animatronic T. rex among its block-long maze of shops.

Rapid City is the gateway to the Black Hills, and Mount Rushmore National Memorial lies about half an hour southwest near Keystone. The Presidential Trail takes you closer to the four granite faces carved between 1927 and 1941. The Wildlife Loop Road in nearby Custer State Park is the place for bison jams, where herds stop traffic.

Head northwest on I-90 past Spearfish and into Wyoming, then north to Devils Tower National Monument, an 867-foot column of rock that is sacred to many Plains tribes. A 1.3-mile trail loops around its base and is easy enough for most children. Summer is the busiest season, especially during the Sturgis motorcycle rally in early August, when campgrounds and motels across the region fill up.