5 Best Sights in Hill City, Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills

Prairie Berry is South Dakota's premier winery and an attraction unto itself. The company has built up a sophisticated and spacious campus in Hill City where visitors can taste and buy wines (in addition to beer at the affiliated Miner Brewing Company). You can also have a meal and enjoy a view of South Dakota's highest mountain, Black Elk Peak, from the outdoor patio. Many of the wines include native South Dakota ingredients, such as the popular Red Ass Rhubarb, while the Anna Pesä-branded wines offer more sophisticated flavors.

Nationally known watercolor artist Jon Crane's paintings of nostalgic rural scenes and realistic Black Hills landscapes are displayed and sold here, along with the work of other local artists, sculptors, potters, and craftspeople.

The plains of western South Dakota are one of the world's prime fossil areas, and the local geologists and fossil hunters at the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research display some of their top finds here. That includes a 65% complete T. rex skeleton nicknamed "Stan" that was unearthed in the northwestern corner of the state. Numerous other fossils, minerals, meteorites, and other treasures can also be seen in this downtown Hill City facility.

Just 7 miles from Hill City, this picturesque, 375-acre lake surrounded by mountains in the Black Hills National Forest is ringed by a campground, two beaches, picnic areas, fishing piers, and hiking trails.

American expansion into Dakota Territory occurred not as much by covered wagons as by the extension of railroads, and by the arrangement of towns around depots. Here, visitors can learn that story and also buy a ticket for a leisurely, narrated sightseeing ride on the old-fashioned 1880 Train from Hill City to Keystone and back.