Black Hills road trip: Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park and the Badlands

A short loop from Rapid City to Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park and Badlands National Park.

Stops
5
Nights
4
Driving
197 mi
Open this trip in the planner

Free, no account needed. Change any stop or night once it’s open.

Banded tan and orange badlands ridges above a grass prairie under a deep blue sky.

The route by road

Point at a leg of the route, or tap it, for its drive time.
12345

The stops, in order

  1. Rapid City, South Dakota

    1 night

    The nearest airport to the Black Hills.

  2. 24 min · 21 mi from Rapid City

    Keystone, South Dakota

    1 night

    Next to Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

  3. 32 min · 26 mi from Keystone

    Custer, South Dakota

    1 night

    Custer State Park's Wildlife Loop Road and the Needles Highway.

  4. 1 h 29 min · 95 mi from Custer

    Wall, South Dakota

    1 night

    At the edge of Badlands National Park.

  5. 47 min · 56 mi from Wall

    Rapid City, South Dakota

    A stop on the way

    Back where you started.

Day by day

5 days with the nights above. Drive times are for a car without traffic; a day over six hours is flagged.

  1. Day 1: In Rapid City

    No driving

  2. Day 2: Rapid City to Keystone

    Night in Keystone

    24 min · 21 mi

  3. Day 3: Keystone to Custer

    Night in Custer

    32 min · 26 mi

  4. Day 4: Custer to Wall

    Night in Wall

    1 h 29 min · 95 mi

  5. Day 5: Wall to Rapid City

    47 min · 56 mi
Open this trip in the planner

More road trips like this

All 23 road trips

Photo: Badlands National Park, South Dakota. “Badlands National Park, South Dakota 2014 10” by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. “Grand Teton from the Snake River Overlook” by Frank Kovalchek, CC BY 2.0. “Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountains National Park 20110824 1” by DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0. “Going-to-the-Sun Road-27527-2” by Ken Thomas, Public domain.