Kid-Friendly South Dakota Family Vacation Road Trip Itinerary

A South Dakota road trip is the quintessential American vacation. You’ve got national parks, beautiful scenery, and the feeling of the open road.

Compared to some other epic national parks trips or Great American Road Trip itineraries, the Black Hills and Badlands of South Dakota tend to fly under the radar.

Since we moved to the Midwest in 2020, though, a South Dakota family vacation quickly moved to the top of my bucket list. It was within driving distance of our home, it was a great place to take our babies and toddlers, and it was a budget-friendly option.

Since it checked all of the boxes, we decided to head west from our home in Wisconsin to soak in the natural setting, wildlife, and historical sites of the Black Hills of South Dakota.

As a family travel blogger and mom of 4 (read my story here!), I love researching and putting together family-friendly itineraries for destinations to get the most of your time there, while still keeping in mind that kids need breaks!

Here is our family’s 4-day itinerary (plus two bookend travel days) through South Dakota. I’ve also included optional day trips and add-ons in case you have more time in the area. I would love to go back and experience even more of this stunning region of the country.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click on a link and make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

When is the best time to visit South Dakota?

Personally, I think early summer is the best time to go! We got warm weather and plenty of sunshine, but it wasn't too hot yet (except in the Badlands). If you want moderate weather and fewer crowds, spring and fall are likely your best bet!

South Dakota Road Trip Itinerary Overview

In this part of the guide, I’ve included what we did on our road trip through South Dakota. Of course, we drove from Wisconsin, but if you’re flying into South Dakota, I would highly recommend flying into Rapid City. Here are my tips for finding cheap flights for family travel!

I’ve also included a YouTube video of our 5 Day South Dakota Road Trip with Kids so you can see a tour of the Airbnb we rented in Rapid City and some visuals from all of our adventures.

Below I’ll summarize what was on our itinerary each day, and then I’ll provide all kinds of options to choose from in the next section so you can put together your own ultimate road trip through the Black Hills and Badlands of South Dakota!

Day 1 - Travel Day and Sioux Falls

We drove from Wisconsin to South Dakota, which is almost a 12-hour drive from where we live. We ended up breaking up the trip by visiting family along the way.

If you’re driving from east to west, I would recommend adding a stop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Run some energy out at Falls Park or see the Sculpture Walk.

You can either stay here overnight, which means you’ll have to get up early for a day in the Badlands, or simply use Sioux Falls as a stop along the way.

My personal recommendation would be to get as close to Badlands National Park as possible and stay overnight there. The midday hours in the park are almost unbearable hot most days, and it really drained the energy out of our kids and made them no fun to hike with.

If you can get some easy hikes or trails in before the sun is too high, you’ll enjoy your day in the park much more!

Day 2 - Badlands National Park

Get up early and head into the park as soon as it opens. Enjoy the sun rising over Big Badlands Overlook with a cup of coffee and kids that are still too sleepy to whine.

The nice thing about Badlands National Park is that you can spend a lot of your time in the car enjoying a scenic drive. Badlands Loop Road winds through the entire park, and the changing scenery is absolutely mesmerizing!

Get out at the different overlooks to see the park from different vantage points, and you might even catch some bighorn sheep or mountain goats like we did!

We liked the Window Trail, the Door Trail, and the Fossil Trail, all three of which were super easy and short to do with kids. I loved that each of these trails was less than a half mile and easily accessible from the parking lot. We had a baby and 3 young kids with us on a super hot day, so we simply could not be outside hiking for too long!

Once you’ve had enough of the Badlands, head to the famous Wall Drug. It’s the perfect place to stop and refuel with food, coffee, and water and a fun place to pick out souvenirs! This will be one of your last real stops before your final destination in Rapid City where you’ll base yourself for the week.

If you have some time in the evening, head to Dinosaur Park in Rapid City right before sunset. It’s high above the city and the views are beautiful. Plus the kids will LOVE the larger-than-life dinosaurs!

Day 3 - Custer State Park

You are definitely going to want to set aside an entire day for Custer State Park, which is just as impressive as many of the national parks I’ve been to.

Start at the Visitor Center to get a map and to learn about wildlife safety (especially when it comes to bison), then head out on the Wildlife Loop Road scenic drive. Keep your eyes peeled for bison, prairie dogs, the begging burros, pronghorn, mule deer, and more!

Drive along Needles Highway where you can drive through the Needles Eye Tunnel and enjoy views of granite spires and rock formations towering over the trees.

Finally, one of the best things to do in Custer State Park is to visit Sylvan Lake where you can hike, boat, fish, swim, have a picnic or climb some giant boulders with your kids. We also enjoyed the Sylvan Lake Shore Trail, a 1.1-mile easy-moderate trail with some rock scrambling and a few natural stairs.

Take Iron Mountain Road on your drive back to Rapid City so you can see Mt. Rushmore Memorial as you come through the one-lane tunnels.

Day 4 - Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorial

Mt. Rushmore is an essential stop on your Black Hills vacation. Of all the national monuments in the United States, this is one of the most well-known. Did you know it’s FREE to visit Mount Rushmore National Memorial? Just be aware that you have to pay $10 for parking.

Mount Rushmore is located near Keystone, South Dakota. I think this would be a great location to use as a home base for your South Dakota road trip! Though we chose Rapid City and loved it, there were a few times I thought it would be nice to be closer to each of our destinations.

We loved getting our kids involved in the Junior Ranger program, strolling down the Avenue of Flags, posing for pictures on the Grand View Terrace, and watching the 14-minute video in the theaters. We also enjoyed browsing the gift shop!

One thing we didn't get around to doing was walking the President's Trail which gets you closer to the memorial.

I would try to get there early to beat the crowds, and half a day there should be plenty! After lunch, head to Crazy Horse Memorial. I highly recommend taking the bus tour where you can learn more about the construction of the memorial and the Native Americans behind the project. Then make sure to check out the museum afterward!

You should have plenty of time left over in the evening to go out to dinner in Rapid City or just relax for a night in your hotel or vacation rental.

Day 5 - Hot Springs, SD, Mammoth Site, and Wind Cave National Park

You’re going to have to get up bright and early on this day of the trip! Make sure you arrive at Wind Cave National Park before the Visitor Center opens. I believe we arrived shortly after 7 a.m. to wait in line to reserve our cave tour.

I waited in line with my coffee while my husband stayed in the car with the kids and let them sleep or watch a movie on their Kindle. We grabbed an afternoon tour, so we headed down to Hot Springs, SD to do the Mammoth Dig Site until it was time for our tour.

If you arrive in line early enough, you can snag one of the first tours of the day and then do Hot Springs for the second half.

In Hot Springs we had to wait a bit until our scheduled Junior Paleontology program time slot, so we wandered around the town and visited the colorful mural before going to the Mammoth Site.

Mammoth Site is a live paleontological site in Hot Springs, South Dakota with the largest concentration of mammoths in the world! You can check out the active dig site, meander through the museum, and participate in the Jr. Paleontologist Program, which is an hour-long activity where kids are taught excavation techniques, then get to use real tools to dig in dirt beds with replica fossils buried in them.

Once that was done, we drove back up to Wind Cave for our scheduled cave tour. Be aware you cannot use a baby carrier during the tour, or bring backpacks of any kind. We had to carry our 1-year-old through the entire cave with tons of stairs. Nevertheless, it was still incredible. We learned so much and are glad we did it.

If you can time your drive home for the early evening hours, you might be lucky enough to spot several herds of bison enjoying their dinner as we did.

Day 6 - Plan an Additional Day Trip or Head Home

Day 6 was our travel day, but there are plenty of other add-on options for day trips near Rapid City if you want to make your South Dakota road trip vacation a week-long adventure!

You could visit the Northern Black Hills which consists of Sturgis, Spearfish, and Deadwood (home of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok). Just be mindful of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally dates you want to avoid crowds and loud motorcycles! (I have a few who are very sensitive to loud noises).

Another option would be to drive an hour away to Devils Tower National Monument just over the border in Wyoming.

Where to Base Yourself for a Black Hills and Badlands Vacation

As I mentioned, we based ourselves in Rapid City, South Dakota. It’s a bit of a drive to get to any of the state parks, national parks, and attractions listed above, but we did enjoy having a quiet place to come back to at the end of a long day of exploring.

We rented an Airbnb that fit our family of 6, and rented a pack & play and a stroller from BabyQuip during our stay! Our trunk was already packed, so we decided to save some space and just rent the extra gear we would need for our young toddler.

South Dakota Road Trip Planner

I'll give a brief description of each of these western South Dakota sites so you can determine the best places to add to your family's road trip itinerary.

Badlands National Park

A stunning and other-worldly national park where you can see cool rock formations, fossil beds, and various wildlife. Get started at the Ben Reifel Visitor Center where you can pick up a map and learn a bit more about the park. There are scenic drives like Badlands Loop Road and Sage Creek Rim Road, and easy hikes like the Door Trail, the Window Trail, Notch Trail, and the Fossil Trail.

Badlands National Park is an open hike park, so you're welcome to do some off-the-beaten-path exploring too! Prepare for some amazing views at this breathtaking park. We saved this park for a quick stop on our way back to Wisconsin, and I totally regret it because the kids were tired and we all just wanted to get home. That's why I recommend making it the first stop of your South Dakota itinerary, so you can spend extra time taking in the views.

Wall Drug

As you're driving along I-90, prepare to see dozens of billboards for Wall Drug Store located in Wall, South Dakota.

Visitors can get free ice water, 5-cent coffee, souvenirs, candy, Western wear, and more! Make sure to head out back to get a picture on a giant jackalope, or pan for treasure at the mines.

There's a restaurant where they serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, or you can grab some ice cream at the Soda Fountain Ice Cream Shop if you need to cool off after visiting the blazing hot badlands.

Custer State Park

This state park is as sprawling and majestic as many of the national parks I've seen! The 18-mile wildlife loop road and surrounding area is sprawling prairies, while the Needles Highway and Sylvan Lake Area have incredible rock formations and spires.

Make sure to plan enough time at this park so you can check all of the fun activities off your list:

drive the Wildlife Loop
feed the Begging Burros
see the prairie dogs
drive Needles highway
go through Needles Eye Tunnel
see Sylvan Lake and take a hike around it

You can also book a stay at Sylvan Lake Lodge, or simply grab a bite to eat there.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial

This is a bucket list destination for most kids! See George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt enshrined on a mountainside, and learn the history of how this majestic memorial was carved.

Kids will have a great time completing the Junior Ranger Program, which consists of watching a 14-minute video and wandering around the museum reading the different displays.

We all learned so much here, and my only regret is not arriving earlier in the morning to avoid the crowds.

Wind Cave National Park

As I mentioned above, the cave tours at Wind Cave are definitely the highlight of visiting this national park, so be sure to arrive early enough at the visitors center to reserve your guided tour, as reservations cannot be made online.

There are several other things to do in the park like drive around and look for wildlife, but I think the cave tour is what makes it worthwhile! It only took a few hours to add this to our itinerary, and the kids thought it was the coolest thing. We learned about the box work patterns on the cave walls, and were shocked to learn how extensive the cave network was!

Natural Entrance Cave Tour -

$12 for adults 17 & older

$6 for children ages 6-16

children 5 & under are free

$6 for holders of the Senior (Golden Age)/Access Passports.

Jewel Cave National Monument

We thought one cave tour would be enough when visiting young kids, so we opted for Wind Cave. You can also take a cave tour at Jewel Cave, which is located in Custer, SD.

Hot Springs, SD

This town is just an hour's drive from Rapid City, and just south of Wind Cave National Park. The biggest reason we added Hot Springs to our list was so that we could take the kids to Mammoth Site. They really enjoyed the Jr. Paleontology Program and came back home super interested in paleontology.

There is also a water park in Hot Springs called Evans Plunge Mineral Springs which would be a really fun and kid-friendly activity to add to your vacation!

Deadwood, SD

Historic Deadwood is a Wild West Town with plenty of family-friendly fun things to do! Pan for gold at Broken Boot Gold Mine, catch a reenactment of Wild Bill's death at No. 10 Saloon, or ride the 1880 train around the Black Hills.

If you have a family member interested in the Wild West, you simply MUST add this stop to your itinerary!

Scenic Drives

Slow down and enjoy the scenery on your South Dakota vacation! There are several scenic drives to take:

Peter Norbeck National Scenic Byway is in Custer State Park and contains Needles Highway and Iron Mountain Road
Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway is 20 miles long and runs through a narrow canyon with a creek and waterfalls.
Black Hills Parkway passes through both Custer and Deadwood

Spearfish, SD

Spearfish is for outdoor lovers! If your family can't get enough of the great outdoors, this would be a great option for you. Bear Butte is a geological formation just a short drive from Spearfish, Spearfish Creek is a great place to go fishing, and Bridal Veil falls is a beautiful sight!

Day trip to Devil’s Tower

Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming is an hour and forty-five-minute drive from your home base in Rapid City, so this would likely take an entire day of your itinerary. However, the sheer magnitude of this rock formation bursting out of the flat prairie land is truly a sight to see.

If we had added one more day to our trip, this is likely the one thing I would have opted to add to our itinerary.

Rapid City, SD

While we used Rapid City as our home base, I would say we didn't spend nearly enough time exploring the city! There is so much to do with kids that we didn't get around to.

We did get to visit Dinosaur Park on our first night in the city, as it was right up the road from our Airbnb. Life-sized dinosaur cement statues are perched high on a hill. We realized that aside from the parking lot and gift shop, we would not be able to bring our stroller with us. Bring a baby carrier if need be! it's free to visit, and you don't need to spend too much time here.
Reptile Gardens has snakes, gators, and giant tortoises! You can feed the gators, pose for photos with gentle giant tortoises, or see a bald eagle up close! This is the world's largest reptile zoo, and super kid-friendly!
Storybook Island is a free play area that inspires imagination!
Bear Country USA is a drive-through wildlife park where you can see black bears, mountain lions, elk, and more!
South Dakota Air and Space Museum is free to visit!
Look for statues of the presidents on the street corners!

Sioux Falls

There are a few fun things to do here with kids if you want to make a stop here on your way out to the Black Hills:

Falls Park
Sculpture Walk in Downtown Sioux Falls
Great Plains Zoo
Good Earth State Park
Butterfly House and Marine Cove

Sturgis

Aside from the Motorcycle Rally the city is famous for, there are plenty of kid-friendly things to do:

Visit Old Fort Meade Museum
Have lunch at a saloon
Tour the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum

Corn Palace

Plan a stop at this quirky roadside attraction to help break up your road trip! Found in Mitchell, SD you can find corn murals, a corn maze, and a fun gift shop.

National Parks you can Include on Your South Dakota Road Trip

Badlands National Park
Jewel Cave National Monument
Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail
Minuteman Missile National Historic Site
Missouri National Recreation River
Mount Rushmore National Memorial
Wind Cave National Park

I hope this helps you put together the Ultimate Black Hills and Badlands South Dakota Family Vacation with Kids!

There is truly so much to do in throughout South Dakota in general, but the western part of the state is so breathtaking! I never knew the Midwest has such incredible scenery, and I grew up in Wisconsin!

I think what makes this family vacation so kid-friendly is that there are so many opportunities to get outdoors, and there are lots of easy trails that young families can easily manage.

There are opportunities to see wildlife, which in my experience kids are always excited about.

There is cool scenery everywhere you look. There are historical sites and monuments all over the place! Whether or not kids are interested in history going into the trip, they’re sure to discover a new interest in the presidents, Native Americans, and the Wild West afterward.

My kids immediately wanted to go to the library to pick out books on paleontology after the Mammoth Site! The kid’s program was so well done, so hands-on, and so informative that they were suddenly considering paleontology as a career!

And for your little ones, you can’t go wrong with giant statues of dinosaurs, parks, and playgrounds in Rapid City.

Truly, almost every interest your family has is covered on a South Dakota family road trip.

Yes it’s a lot of driving, which is why I recommend checking out my blog posts on road tripping with kids - especially my list of 50 Road Trip Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers! Stock up on audiobooks (digitally or pick up some PlayAway books from your library), download movies to tablets (we like the Amazon Kids Fire Tablet), bring plenty of snacks, and you should really enjoy the time together in the car!

But I enjoyed the time together in the car. I think it was nice to decompress after a day of exploring.