South Dakota Packages/Deals & Travel Agents Near Me

Aberdeen, SD

Categories: Aberdeen SD

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Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park, given its name by the Lakota, is located in southwestern South Dakota, and is comprised of 244,000 acres of protected prairie lands that draws visitors from around the world. Badlands National Park is known for containing one ...

Categories: Badlands National Park

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Black Hills

The legendary Black Hills are an oasis of pine-covered mountains on the Great Plains, located in South Dakota. The Black Hills and Badlands are central to the Lakota Nation culture. The Black Hills are home to hundreds of historic attractions includi...

Categories: Black Hills

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Buffalo Gap National Grassland

If you want to see what the Great Plains looked like before the coming of farms and fences, spend some time in this park. Buffalo Gap National Grassland encompasses a large area in southwestern South Dakota (it surrounds Wall and Badlands National Pa...

Categories: Buffalo Gap National Grassland

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Canton

Categories: Canton

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Custer State Park

Custer State Park in the Black Hills encompasses 71,000 acres of spectacular terrain and an abundance of wildlife. Within the park, you’ll discover a world of adventure! Favorite outdoor activities include hiking 7,242-foot Harney Peak, mountai...

Categories: Custer State Park

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Deadwood

Located in the heart of the Black Hills of South Dakota, Deadwood is a historically significant city to the gold rush of 1876. Deadwood originally was settled on Lakota land in the 1870s, and once gold was discovered, the town became known for wild s...

Categories: Deadwood

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Fort Sisseton State Park

Fort Sisseton State Park is 184 mi/296 km north of Sioux Falls. The army established Fort Sisseton in northeastern South Dakota in 1864 to protect Dakota Territory settlers. In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration began to restore 14 of its b...

Categories: Fort Sisseton State Park

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Hot Springs, SD

In the 1890s, mineral springs and health spas made the city of Hot Springs, located 57 mi/91 km south of Rapid City, the first tourist mecca in the Black Hills. Today, the hot springs are still flowing: The town boasts Evans Plunge, a large, indoor s...

Categories: Hot Springs SD

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Huron

Categories: Huron

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Jewel Cave National Monument

Another Black Hills-area attraction, 60 mi/100 km southwest of Rapid City, Jewel Cave National Monument features a cavern studded with sparkling calcite crystal formations. Jewel Cave is among the longest caves in the world, with more than 140 mi/225...

Categories: Jewel Cave National Monument

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Kennebec

Kennebec is a friendly town near Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Enjoy the endless panoramic views of the Great Plains and Sioux terrain when visiting this rural town.

Categories: Kennebec

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Keystone, SD

Mount Rushmore memorializes the birth, growth, preservation and development of the United States of America. Between 1927 and 1941, Gutzon Borglum and 400 workers sculpted the 60-foot busts of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore ...

Categories: Keystone SD

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Mitchell

If you're driving west from Sioux Falls on Interstate 90, be sure to stop in Mitchell (70 mi/112 km away) to see the turreted Corn Palace. Take some time to look at its decorative patterns and pictures made up of grasses, corn and other grains that a...

Categories: Mitchell

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Mt. Rushmore

Located in the southwestern part of the state, 35 mi/56 km southwest of Rapid City, Mount Rushmore is one of the most famous landmarks in the U.S. and the draw that started the Black Hills tourism boom. The likenesses of four U.S. presidents—George W...

Categories: Mt. Rushmore

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Native American Reservations, SD

A large area in the north-central part of the state, Standing Rock adjoins the Cheyenne River Reservation and is bordered on the east by the Missouri River. The burial site of Sitting Bull lies just west of the town of Mobridge. He was killed in 1890...

Categories: Native American Reservations SD

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Oacoma

Categories: Oacoma

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Pierre, SD

If you're driving on Interstate 90 from Rapid City to Sioux Falls, you might want to take a short side trip to Pierre, the state capital, mainly to see the Capitol itself. Restored to their original luster are marble staircases, Victorian leaded glas...

Categories: Pierre SD

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Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

Homeland of the Oglala Lakota Sioux, Pine Ridge lies in the southwestern part of South Dakota 66 mi/106 km southeast of Rapid City. It borders the Buffalo Gap National Grassland and surrounds part of Badlands National Park. You can visit the place wh...

Categories: Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

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Rapid City

Rapid City is your bridge to some of the most intriguing and beautiful attractions in America: The inspirational Mt. Rushmore National Memorial, the visionary Crazy Horse Memorial, and the tranquil Black Hills National Forest with its abundant wildli...

Categories: Rapid City

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Sioux Falls

Also known as "Stone Shatter City" Sioux Falls was first inhabited by the Sioux Native Americans. Blocks away from the downtown district lies the Big Sioux River, a local attraction and popular land mark. Settled by pioneers after the Civil...

Categories: Sioux Falls

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Spearfish Canyon

Experience nature, the old west, and one of the most beautiful canyons in the world. Hike, bike, enjoy the majestic nature of the Black Hills of South Dakota in Spearfish Canyon.

Categories: Spearfish Canyon

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Tatanka

Categories: Tatanka

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Vermillion

Home to the University of South Dakota, this town in the far southeast corner of the state, 62 mi/99 km south of Sioux Falls, gets its name from the deep-red clay found along the Vermillion River. Though they lie about 95 mi/152 km away, Lake Andes N...

Categories: Vermillion

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Wall

This small town is famous for Wall Drug Store, an unusual establishment founded in 1931 that is replete with western wear, a cowboy orchestra, museums, an art gallery, buffalo burgers and homemade pie—and free ice water for thirsty travelers. It's no...

Categories: Wall

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Wind Cave National Park

Bordered to the north by Custer State Park and to the west by Black Hills National Forest, Wind Cave National Park in southwest South Dakota includes more than 144 mi/232 km of passageways. The winds referred to in the name come from the cave's "brea...

Categories: Wind Cave National Park

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South Dakota

South Dakota is full of places that can take you away from the here and now. Watch a herd of buffalo trundle across the prairie, and you feel as if you've returned to a time before railroads and farmers overran the plains. Pay a visit to Mitchell in late summer, and you'll wonder if you've stumbled upon some ancient harvest ritual—an entire palace is decorated in corn and grass.

Of course, the classic South Dakota attractions remain: the Black Hills, Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial and Wind Cave National Park. You can make an entire vacation of these alone—their proximity allows you to see the best of the state in a short amount of time.

Geography

South Dakota is made up of high plains and rolling hills, but the Black Hills (in the southwest corner) are characterized by mountains, rivers and lakes, which conceal the state's various caves and mine shafts. At the Missouri River, the cornfields of the east give way abruptly to the buttes, badlands and cattle country of the west.

History

Members of the Sioux Nation were living in South Dakota when white explorers entered the area in the 1700s. They lived a primarily nomadic lifestyle in their search for bison. Explorers Lewis and Clark passed through the area in 1804 and 1806, and their expedition opened the region to settlers from the eastern U.S.

The Sioux mounted their first resistance to white settlers in the early 1800s—but the settlers kept coming. Significant battle victories by the Sioux in the 1860s forced some concessions by the U.S. government. But when gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874, the treaty was nullified, and the war was renewed. Sioux warriors helped decimate Gen. Custer's army at Little Big Horn in 1876, but this would prove their last major victory. By the end of the 1870s, the white settlement of South Dakota was assured. In 1890, a series of misunderstandings resulted in the massacre at Wounded Knee—the event that marked the end of armed resistance by Native Americans in the 19th century.

South Dakota became a state along with North Dakota in 1889. Farming and ranching became the basis of their economies, though both fared poorly during the droughts and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Since that time, South Dakota has added manufacturing, financial services and tourism to help diversify its business sector.

Snapshot

South Dakota's main attractions are outdoor activities, Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, mountain scenery, varied wildlife (bison, elk, pronghorn antelope and mountain goats), the Black Hills and gambling.

Travelers who love hiking, fishing, biking, hunting, beautiful scenery and spectacular national monuments will have a great time in South Dakota. Those seeking varied nightlife, diverse shopping or big-city amenities won't easily find them.

Potpourri

In what is considered the largest annual gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts in the world, up to 500,000 hog aficionados swarm into the small South Dakota community of Sturgis each August. In the past, extreme rowdiness was sometimes part of the event, but the presence of more RUBs—rich urban bikers—has toned the atmosphere down.

The Black Hills are so named because of the dark color of the pine and spruce trees that cover the region. The Native American phrase for the area, paha sapa, means "hills that are black."

Although there are plenty of elk in the Black Hills, the area is no longer home to bears.

Famous South Dakotans include television personalities Tom Brokaw, Mary Hart, David Soul and Cheryl Ladd, and Native Americans Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.

A special computer system monitors Mount Rushmore for cracks and moisture—caretakers fear that water could seep into the fissures and freeze, causing the rock to split.

Gold is an important part of South Dakota's history—the first strike happened in Custer. In 1876, at the height of the gold rush, an experienced miner could process 50 pans of gold a day.

For more than 50 years, Spearfish was the site of the annual Black Hills Passion Play, in which a cast of professional actors, locals, horses, donkeys, camels and sheep re-create the last days of the life of Christ. The 2008 season was its final year.

The HBO series Deadwood is based on historical accounts of the time when Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Seth Bullock and other characters from a rowdier age cooled their heels in the town. Thankfully, those who visit Deadwood today will find a much friendlier crowd.

South Dakota landscapes are often used by movie-makers. The films Dances with Wolves and National Treasure: Book of Secrets were filmed on location in South Dakota.

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