One Week in Rapid City: A Full Travel Recap

If you’re planning a South Dakota road trip, Rapid City is the perfect home base to explore some of the state’s most famous attractions. We spent one week in Rapid City as part of our three weeks in South Dakota, starting with Badlands National Park, then here in Rapid City, before wrapping up in Hot Springs. Since we travel full-time in our RV, our weeks are never just “vacation,” we’re always balancing work, daily life, and exploring. In this post, we’re sharing our full Rapid City itinerary, plus tips for making the most of your visit. Whether you’re looking for the best things to do in Rapid City itself or planning day trips to places like Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park, or the Black Hills, this guide will give you a realistic look at how to fit it all in.

Where to Stay in Rapid City, South Dakota

We spent our week at Three Flags RV Park just outside of Rapid City. It’s not our favorite type of campground, we prefer more natural campgrounds to the parking lot style, but the rates were reasonable and it was very well-kept. It made a good home base for exploring the area, and wasn’t too loud considering we were near a major city.

If you’re just passing through Rapid City and need a quick overnight stop, Harvest Hosts is a great option. Instead of a regular parking lot or crowded campground, you can stay at unique spots like local wineries, farms, and attractions. We love using it for stopovers- it’s budget-friendly, safe, and gives you the chance to support small businesses along the way.

If you’re not traveling by RV, Rapid City has plenty of hotel options that make a great base for exploring the Black Hills. Here are some of the best hotels in Rapid City for different budgets and travel styles:

• Hotel Alex Johnson Rapid City, Curio Collection by Hilton
• Sweetgrass Inn B&B
• ClubHouse Hotel & Suites – Rapid City
• Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Rapid City
• Foothills Inn
• Cambria Hotel Rapid City
• Baymont by Wyndham Rapid City

Day 1: Pirate’s Cove Adventure Golf

Monday was our transition day between the Badlands and Rapid City, but Tuesday was our first full day in Rapid City. We had a regular day of work and not a ton of time in the evening, so we kept it low-key and just played mini golf in town. We went to Pirate’s Cove Adventure Golf, which as the name suggests, is pirate-themed. It was a lot of fun, and besides the themed decorations, each hole had facts about a real-life pirate- so we got to learn something too!

Day 2: College Visit and South Dakota Air and Space Museum

Back when Josh worked for our local parks he hosted several interns from a nearby private college. It just so happens that that college also has a field campus in the black hills near Rapid City. And it also just so happens that the professor he usually worked with runs the field campus in the summer. So we got to go out and get a tour. I used to work in higher education, so I’m always excited to visit colleges, but this one was especially cool. The campus was built in the 1940s and is set up like a vintage summer camp, and they still use a lot of the original buildings. We got to go into one of the faculty cabins from the ‘40s and it felt like taking a step back in time. We’re big supporters of historic preservation, so seeing these buildings still being used was really special.

After our field campus visit, we decided to visit the South Dakota Air and Space Museum. Visiting air and space museums has accidentally become one of our things since going full-time on the road. This one was definitely more air than space, but still fun. It’s part of the Ellsworth Air Force Base and most of the planes are outside on the grounds, but they also have indoor gallery space with mostly artifacts on exhibit. The bottom right photo is a replica of the Minuteman Missile launch facility that we visited during our Badlands National Park Itinerary: A Full Week of Adventure.

Day 3: Lost Cabin Beer Co., Dinosaur Park, Firehouse Brewing, and Art Alley

Thursday was a packed day in Rapid City. First up we met with a local volunteer from Josh’s work at Lost Cabin Beer Co. We really liked our beers and it’s always fun meeting local volunteers. We probably spent a couple hours there talking until Eva had to leave for another appointment.

Then Josh and I went over to Dinosaur Park. The park has been around since the 1930s, and although there was been restoration throughout the year, the original dinosaurs still remain. I absolutely loved this stop and that it’s still the original dinosaurs. It has so much vintage charm, plus there’s great views of town too!

After Dinosaur Park, we headed downtown to visit Firehouse Brewing. We had seen at least a dozen billboards, each with its own actual firetruck, while driving out. Also it’s the oldest operating brewery in the state and it’s in a 1920s firehouse, so we knew we had to go. Eva warned us that the food wasn’t good, and we’re definitely glad for that. We did like our beers, but the app we got to share was really disappointing even with low expectations. The building itself is great, though, and if you’re just going for drinks we think it’s worth checking out.

After Firehouse, we did a quick visit to Art Alley, which is only a block away. This is an alley full of both graffiti and sanctioned street art. Technically, artists are supposed to go through the art council to get a free permit to paint here, but there’s clearly a mix of both.

Day 4: Flume Trail and Chapel in the Hills

Josh took off work early Friday so that we had more time to adventure out. I picked out our first black hills hike and didn’t tell him much about it because I wanted the best part to be a surprise. We hiked part of the Flume Trail, which follows the actual flume bed from the former Rockerville gold mine. We hiked the ~2 mile loop from the Spring Creek Trailhead. The surprise for Josh was walking through the mine tunnel. It’s a really cool trail, and even before you get to the actual flume, the creek is super pretty. I did have some issues on a few parts though with my fear of heights, so if you’re also scared of heights be warned.

We went back home for dinner and to cool down after hiking and then went back out for a couple small things. First, we visited Chapel in the Hills, an exact replica of the 1150 Borgund stave church in Norway. We checked out the small museum and the church itself, but missed the open window for the gift shop. The grounds are really peaceful and the church is amazing to see in person. Then we did a quick stop at Bass Pro Shops so that Josh could look at new camp chairs.

Day 5: Deadwood, South Dakota

During weekdays we usually only do one activity (or sometimes none) because of work and chores, but weekends we try to pack a lot in- and this weekend was no exception. Saturday we spent the day exploring Deadwood and Sunday we spent in Spearfish.

Our first stop on Saturday was just a little outside Deadwood, in Lead, where we visited the Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center. The Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) is located at the former Homestake gold mine. This was the largest and deepest gold mine in North America and was mined for 125 years. Now SURF is the deepest underground science lab in the US. They study all sorts of things here- dark matter, underground organisms, neutrinos, nuclear astrophysics, geology, and low background assaying.

Then we headed into Deadwood proper. We tried to park in the garage, but got turned away because of their weight limit… even though we aren’t actually over the weight limit and bigger trucks than ours were parked there, but the attendant was going off of the type of truck in general. So if you’re an RVer with a pickup, we’d recommend just parking in a surface lot. We ended up parking at the Welcome Center, which is free, and only a couple blocks walk to downtown proper.

We didn’t have solid plans for the morning, I figured we’d just wander and go to whatever looked interesting. The first thing we came upon and decided to do was to take a tour of the Deadwood Brothel Museum. This was a really good tour and we really appreciated how respectful and history-focused it was. Each bedroom was set up to represent a different era of the brothel, with period appropriate furnishings, and then in each room our guide told us stories from that era.

Next, we had lunch at Mustang Sally’s. We wanted something that wasn’t just a bar or casino, but we didn’t have high expectations. We knew it would be basic bar food, and it was, but cooked well so we were happy.

The next place we found was West River Whiskey Co. Josh has become a big whiskey fan, so he did a tasting and got a bottle. I usually do the tastings with him, but it was a $20 tasting with 8 things to try and that’s more than I wanted.

His tasting ended in time to find a good spot on the already filling up sidewalk, because soon it was time for the Days of ‘76 parade! This was a fun parade full of horses and horse-drawn wagons of all kinds. There were some decent gaps, which did slow it down, but it was still fun.

Our last Deadwood stop was Mount Moriah Cemetery. This cemetery is famous for the burials of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. There are a lot of other graves that looked interesting too, but it was all hill and I was already tired from the heat, so we just did a quick skim.

Day 6: Spearfish, South Dakota

Sunday we took another day trip, this time to Spearfish. We started off with driving through Spearfish Canyon, and it is definitely one of the prettiest drives we’ve done!

We did a quick pull off at Bridal Veil Falls. They aren’t the best falls in the canyon, but they are the most accessible. The best part, though, was while we were walking back to the truck there was a mountain goat spotting! We joined the crowd on the side of the road watching it, and then it graced us with a close-up view as it crossed the road. The wildlife in South Dakota was definitely one of my favorite parts of our time there.

We continued our drive and our next stops were in Spearfish Canyon Nature Area, the state park part of the canyon. First up was Spearfish Falls, which had way less people than Bridal Veils since you have to walk a ways down the trail to get to it. This was our favorite waterfall in the canyon. Next, we went to Roughlock Falls. You don’t get very close to the falls themselves, but the scenery here is still really pretty.

After leaving the canyon we went to get lunch in town. We ended up choosing Spearfish Brewing and really enjoyed it. I got a flatbread that was really good and Josh got a burger and flight of beers.

Our final Spearfish activity was the DC Booth Fish Hatchery. The hatchery was started in 1896 and is one of the oldest operating hatcheries in the US. We always love visiting fish hatcheries, but this one was especially fun because they have historic buildings too. Unfortunately the museum was closed, which was a big bummer. But we did take a tour of the historic superintendent’s house, checked out the fish car, the Yellowstone boat, the raceways, and the Fisheries Hall of Fame.

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If you missed it, check out our first week in South Dakota here: Badlands National Park Itinerary: A Full Week of Adventure

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