Rapid City & Black Hills EduTour (3 days)

Centrally located to the wonders of the Black Hills, including Mount Rushmore National Memorial and Crazy Horse Memorial, Rapid City provides unique historic attractions and one-of-a-kind views, all very affordable with an abundance of accommodations.

Day 1:

Journey Museum

Start your day at The Journey Museum, where you will learn about the legacy of our land and its people. Enjoy exhibits from the Museum of Geology, the Black Hills Geological Institute and the South Datkota State Archaeological Research Center. View collections from the Sioux Inidan Museum and discover the Lakota name “Paha Sapa” or Black Hills. Guided tour available with reservation. Optional stop: Museum of Geology at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

Continue your journey at Reptile Gardens or Bear Country USA.  Reptile Gardens offers evolved animals, including giant tortoise’s that are over 100 years old, a Komodo Dragon, crocodiles, alligators, birds of pray and more! Educational programs highlighting snakes, crocodiles, and birds and are offerred at various times throughout the day by experts. Your next stop is Bear Country USA.  Step on guides are available to learn the history of this wildlife park, the animals who call Bear Country USA home and little tidbits, like the Lakota word for elk, wapiti, means “white rump”.

Enjoy lunch in Xanterra Parks & Resorts Carver’s Café at Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Education abounds at Mt. Rushmore.  Join the Rushmore Ranger Program to learn and appreciate national parks, specifically Mount Rushmore National Memorial or join a Ranger Walk on the Presidential Trail to learn about the history of Mt. Rushmore and the surrounding area.  Visit the Sculptor’s Studio to find out about sculptor Gutzon Borglum, the workers and carving process used on Mt. Rushmore.

The calcite crystal formations found at Jewel Cave National Monument will wow your group as you venture into this 152 mile long cave, the second longest cave in the world. The Scenic Tour will show you the “jewels” of Jewel Cave.  Known as dogtooth spar and nail head spar, depending on their shape, these calcite crystals line the walls on the Scenic Tour route.  You will also get to see boxwork, cave popcorn, flowstone, stalactites, stalagmites, draperies, and a long piece of cave bacon.

After touring Jewel Cave, continue to the second granite carving in the Black Hills, the only on-going mountain carving in the world, Crazy Horse Memorial. Take a bus ride to the bottom of Crazy Horse Memorial for a awe inspiring view.  Watch a 10-minute educational film about Crazy Horse.  Visit the Museum and Cultural Center where you will learn about Native American history and culture.  At the Cultural Center get a hands-on experience playing Lakota games, learn about tipis and camp life, social organization, as well as what activities and games Lakota children played.  Learn about contemporary issues on how to integrate culture into curriculum, the history of boarding schools, and preservation of native language. Conclude your experience at Crazy Horse with “Legends in Light,” a multimedia laser-light show. Set to a stirring musical score, the outdoor program shows off dramatic animated images created by laser beams, giant slide projectors and banks of colored floodlights. The program can be seen and heard throughout the Memorial’s visitor complex. Enjoy a buffet dinner in the Laughing Water Restaurant.

Overnight in Rapid City.

Day 2:

Custer State Park

Today, visit Custer State Park, home to one of the world’s largest publicly owned buffalo herds.  Grab your binoculars and get ready for a guided tour around the Wildlife Loop Road Scenic Byway. Located in the southern portion of the park, the roadway is often a location for spotting bison, pronghorn antelope, elk, white-tail deer, mule deer, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs, and coyotes. The loop road is also famous for a wide array of colorful wildflowers and prairie grasses. To add some adventure to your tour, add the Buffalo Jeep Safari to your Custer State Park experience.

Additional options availbale within the park include a tour of Needles Highway Tour.  The Black Hills highlight some of the most beautiful geological scenery in North America.  Dating back around 2 billion years in age, the granite rocks along Needles Highway tower around park visitors.  Take a casual drive through time and discover how geology has played a vital role in the natural and cultural history of western South Dakota.  Climb Harney Peak – the highest point east of the Rocky Mountains on the contiental U.S. The view is outstanding. Or get your feet wet with an exciting hands-on gold panning demonstration by a park interpreter. Participants learn about the history of the Black Hills gold rush of the 1870s, while trying their luck at finding some “yellow ore” in a nearby creek.

Lunch is available at one of the many Park lodge restaurants or can be catered in at Mammoth Site in Hot Springs.

After experiencing Custer State Park’s wonders, head south to the Mammoth Site of Hot Springs.  Take a 30 minute guided tour to learn about the Mammoth Site while looking into the actual working site.  Study the teeth of mammoths to discover their age and specific traits with the available osteology curriculum.  The Mammoth Site also offers programs to simulate paleontologists as they participate in a dig for fossil replicas.

Returning to Rapid City, tour the unique Sioux Pottery factory. Each piece of pottery is hand-crafted by Sioux artists and decorated with designs and symbols important to their culture. Sioux Pottery is made from the red clay of the Black Hills – which is sacred to the Lakota People.  Or spend the remainder of the afternoon at a Black Hills Gold jewelry factory. Black Hills Gold is exclusive to the area and free informative tours about the special jewelry-making process, ‘lost- wax casting’ unique to Black Hills Gold are available at Mt. Rushmore Gold & Diamond Factory or Landstrom’s – Original Black Hills Gold Creations.

For the evening enjoy a Cowboy Chuckwagon dinner and music show at Ft. Hays Chuckwagon, Flying T or Circle B Chuckwagon. Alternate evening entertainment includes Putz N Glo (black light mini golf) or Pirates Cove Mini Golf.

Overnight in Rapid City.

Day 3:

Enjoy Badlands National Park, located east of Rapid City prior to arrival or upon departure of Rapid City. 244,000 acres of a stunning example of geological variety: jagged cliffs, deep canyons and sharp buttes, formed by relentless forces of nature. The resources of Badlands National Park are ideal for exploring topics in many content areas such as earth science, life science, and social studies. An additional history lesson while in the Badlands area is to tour the Delta 09 (for groups of 18 or more) missile silo a part of the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site where the Cold War lives on! At Minuteman Missile it is possible to learn how the threat of nuclear war came to haunt the world.

Oglalalakota College

Enjoy lunch at either Wall Drug, the world’s largest drug store or in the Badlands at Cedar Pass Lodge Restaurant. For the ultimate cultural experience visit the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Make a stop at either the Oglala Lakota College Historical Center in Kyle or the Red Cloud Indian School north of Pine Ridge.  Guided tours are available on the history and realities of the school along with a visit to the Heritage Museum that has presentations of traditional and contemporary Native American arts. If time permits, take a moment to reflect upon the Wounded Knee Massacre Site and apply the history from your morning visit at Wounded Knee: The Museum.

After visiting the Pine Ridge reservation, return to Rapid City for dinner and your final overnight.

Enjoy an evening walk around downtown and visit the The City of Presidents, where you will view life size bronze replicas of our Nation’s Presidents on display on the street corners of downtown Rapid City.