Top Things to do in South Dakota
Top Hotels in South Dakota
- 1. Best Western Plus Rapid City Rushmore
- 2. Bavarian Inn, Black Hills
- 3. K Bar S Lodge
- 4. Hampton Inn & Suites Southwest/Sioux Falls
- 5. La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Sioux Falls
- 6. Deadwood Gulch Resort, Trademark Collection by Wyndham
- 7. Best Western Golden Spike Inn & Suites
- 8. Comfort Suites Conference Center Rapid City
- 9. La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Rapid City
- 10. Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, Rapid City, SD
Top 6 Natural History Museums in South Dakota, United States
South Dakota has good golf courses, skiing, snowmobiling, horseback riding, hiking, and biking among rolling prairies, pine forests, and granite mountain peaks like Mount Rushmore. Glacial lakes and Missouri River reservoir lakes provide great fishing, boating, canoeing, water skiing, and windsurfing. The whole family will enjoy this prairie land where grain growing begat roadside attractions like the Corn Palace in Mitchell. Everything made from corn, even the popcorn, tastes better here. Where buffalo roam, roadside diners serve up buffalo and luscious homemade fruit pies. Shop for good deals on cowboy boots on the same Black Hills and Badland Main Streets where cowboys and cowgirls outfit themselves. Be near the eroded buttes, spires, and prairie grasslands of Badlands National Park in Lead, Deadwood, Rapid City, Spearfish, Sturgis, Hill City, Custer, and other nearby towns. The whole family will enjoy watching for big game like bison, bighorn sheep, antelope, eagles, and hawks. Drive the one-hour Hwy 240 loop road, with a side-trip to Robert's Prairie Dog Town. Learn about the Oglala Sioux Tribe at the White River Visitor Center, which is near Wounded Knee. Tour the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site's Cold War nuclear silos, just outside the Park's boundaries. About 90 minutes west of Badlands National Park is Mount Rushmore. Lead, Deadwood, Rapid City, Spearfish, Sturgis, Hill City, Whitetail Springs, and Custer are also very near Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Custer State Park, Wind Cave National Park, and Jewel Cave National Monument. View Mount Rushmore from the aerial tramway in Keystone, which also houses the Borglum Historical Center celebrating the artist behind the sculpting of Rushmore. Take the kids to the Dinosaur Park in Rapid City. Attend Custer State Park’s Annual Buffalo Roundup and Arts Festival. Bedazzle the whole family with sparkling calcite crystals in 151-mile long Jewel Cave. Bison, pronghorn, and elk graze the grasslands of Wind Cave National Park. Central South Dakota has the state capitol, Pierre, in addition to numerous lakes along the Missouri River. Go fishing and boating in the rivers and lakes. Take the kids to the South Dakota Discovery Center and Aquarium in Pierre to see the state’s native fish. Drop by the Dacotah Prairie Museum along the James River in Aberdeen in the northeast to learn prairie history and natural history. Swing by Sioux Falls to see the USS South Dakota Battleship Memorial and special exhibits at the Old Courthouse Museum. Choose from among 10 golf courses in Sioux Falls.
Restaurants in South Dakota
1. Klein Museum
2. World Fossil Finder Museum
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 5 reviews
The World Fossil Finder Museum is not your typical fossil museum but a museum with several world wide first fossil discoveries. We are a family friendly museum that wants to inspire and educate children and adults of all ages to enjoy learning about the natural wonders of the world.
Reviewed By Mommiex4plus1 - Jacksonville, United States
We visited the museum after a full day of fossil hunting with Riley and Tim from the museum. They guided us through fossil hunting and actually showed us how to prepare a tortoise shell fossil to bring home to restore. My husband found an oreodont skull and our friend and I found portions of oreodont jaws with teeth, various pieces of bones and as much fossil tortoise shell as we wanted to pick up. We scrambled up and down hills and searched through washes and got a taste of what it is like to search and work on a paleontological site. It was a full active day and we all learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the fossils we got to take home. This was a very unique opportunity and I highly recommend for anyone interested in fossil hunting and preparation. You contact the museum to set up the experience. Tim and Riley were superb!
3. Native American Educational and Cultural Center
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 270 reviews
A cultural center with Native American art, photographs and exhibits.
Reviewed By tosh_247 - Detroit, United States
Hours of fun for the whole family....from real life demonstrations to actual teepees and artifacts from the American Indians and their culture. A must-see!
4. Mammoth Site of Hot Springs
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1,668 reviews
America's International Treasure. This National Natural Landmark is an internationally renowned indoor working paleontological site/museum. More than 60 mammoths have been unearthed, as well as over 85 other species of associated Ice Age fauna. Hands-on activities for children, an educational experience for the entire family. One of the top fossil interpretive sites in North America. Open year-round. Located in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Reviewed By MNnola - Canby, United States
This museum came about by accident when a developer discovered a mammoth bone with his bulldozer! Thank goodness he recognized the treasure he had unearthed! This is the only accredited museum in the state and still a dig in progress with scientists on site. There is a guided tour that starts with a movie and then moves into an amazing space filled with bones. Our guide was very informative and encouraged questions. There was lots of time for photos and after the guided tour, visitors could roam stay to look more closely at the incredible bones and partial skeletons of the animals that perished in a sinkhole in the distant past. This was a very interesting and informative tour of a place I hope to visit again!
5. The Museum @ Black Hills Institute
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 262 reviews
Reviewed By J1951HMjimm - Seattle, United States
There are a lot of great dinosaur fossils on display, not all are genuine fossils but rather copies of other fossils, but they do state on each if it is real or a copy (otherwise hard to tell) A great range of big and small, 3 that you can touch. it's all crammed into an old basketball court though so very hard to get good pictures. But still well worth it. Gift shop has a huge variety including kids toys, nice decorative stones, and drawers full of fossils for sale.
6. Great Plains Zoo & Delbridge Museum of Natural History
Overall Ratings
4.0 based on 400 reviews
Open 361 days a year, the Great Plains Zoo & Delbridge Museum of Natural History is home to more than 1,000 animals from 137 species including 24 endangered species. The 45-acre park offers up-close views to animals often not found in larger Zoos including Tigers, Rhinos, Bears, Primates, Giraffe, and an award-winning Snow Monkey exhibit. The Zoo also includes the Delbridge Museum of Natural History, a rare collection of 150 mounted animals including 38 “vanishing species.”
Reviewed By D353ONjulief
Nice place to visit and was also clean. The brown bears were the best part. Downfall, went the day before Easter and they were charging more to get it due to the Easter bunny being there, you had to pay the extra even tho we were not there to see the bunny.
