Black Hills and Mt Rushmore
 

We are a couple with a 2 year old daughter. We are planning a roadtrip trip to the Black Hills from Minneapolis this labor day. Need help in critiquing and providing advice around our itinerary planned as follows

Day 1: Depart Minneapolis, stay at Sioux Falls, SD
Day 2: Drive to Badlands, stay inside the park at Cedar pass lodge (Visit Corn Palace, Mitchell enroute)
Day 3: Visit Reptile Gardens then drive to and stay at Keystone, SD (via Hwy 44). Drive Needles Hwy in the afternoon and visit Mt Rushmore in the night.
Day 4: Visit Mt Rushmore in the morning, then drive to and stay at Hot Springs via Custer State Park (Iron Mountain Road, Wildlife Loop)
Day 5: Visit Mammoth Site. Drive to and stay at Custer. Visit Jewel Caves
Day 6: Drive to and stay at Deadwood, SD. Visit Crazy Horse enroute.
Day 7: Drive back towards Minneapolis. Visit Wall Drugs and stay at Chamberlain for the night.
Day 8: Reach Minneapolis

Anything we are missing and should add? Any portion that's rushed? Would it be possible to fit in Devils Tower....is it worth it? Anything else thats offbeat but interesting and worth exploring in the area.

Forget Deadwood and visit Devils tower.Paul

No critquing for you because the trip sounds good to me - Plus I find that I sketch out a guideline and we end up making changes to it anyway which is the way a vacation should be:)

The Mt Rushmore area is beautiful and don't forget to stop at the Crazy Horse Monument - the new visitor center is unbelievable. Devils Tower is definitely worth seeing if you can fit it in. The only thing I don't like about going to Mt Rushmore/Badlands is the drive from Mpls out there!!:)

Thanks much. I'm considering amending this itinerary slightly as follows. On Day 4, instead of staying at Hot Springs, visiting Mammoth Site and looping back up to spend two nights at Custer. On Day 6, visit Devil Towers and then return to spend the evening at Deadwood.

PamT - we have held back visiting Black Hills for exactly that reason, the long drive and that too with a toddler. However, given we will be moving from the area this winter, we definitely want to visit.

I'm wondering why you are staying in different places each night? That's a lot of moving from hotel to hotel for a small area. When we did a similar trip we stayed in one place and did day trips to all the places you mentioned. Just a thought...have fun whatever you decide. It's a beautiful area!

TAW, the reason we are moving around somewhat is we have been told those parts are hilly. My wife gets very sick travel on winding roads and I want to minimize backtracking every evening to return to the hotel. We will still end up doing some of that but spreading out the hotels helps somewhat.

what a disappointment Deadwood is-lovely old buildings but now just filled with casinos and T shirt stores!!!The day we were there they had a parade which was fun.
We stayed in Rapid City and did our trips form there each day.
if you go to Mt Rushmore do the walk around the base but you will need a backpack as there are lots of steps for a stroller.The Needle area is fab but very winding.
The Black hills area is beautiful -enjoy.
I thought Wall drug was awful-so kitsch but loved the Wounded Knee museum in Wall-worth seeing

Have your wife ask her doctor about TransDerm Scop to prevent motion sickness. It works very well. It was developed for NASA for the astronauts. You stick a little patch behind your ear after a shower and you are good to go for 3 days.

Devils Towers is a must as you will be so close! If you can take a peek at night from the highway, its even cooler. Maybe that's the Close Encounters fan in me.
Deadwood is fun for a few hours.
We stayed in a cute little cabin at Custer State Park while exploring Crazy Horse/Rushmore area. We enjoyed it a bunch!

It's great to see spend quite long time in black hills. I would suggest few places to your schedule which I liked when I where in black hills last month. Jewel cave and wind cave are 2nd and 4th large caves in the world respectively. Cosmos mystery area is must watch. Have a drive in spearfish canyon scenic byway where you can see rough lock falls and bridal veil falls. Also rest area in chamberlain give nice views of missouri river.