Mount Rushmore & Black Hills Bus Tour from Rapid City

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/12

Duration9h

GroupUp to 160

LanguagesEN

Mobile ticketAccepted

Four scenic drives, three tunnels, and the presidents carved into stone

You board an air-conditioned coach at 8am, visit Mount Rushmore in morning light, drive two scenic highways through granite tunnels, eat lunch at a historic lodge, and spend time at Crazy Horse Memorial. Entry to all three sites is included, as is the bus, the driver's knowledge of the route, and a restroom on board. You're back in Rapid City by late afternoon.

Step-by-step itinerary

Mount Rushmore and Black Hills tour

Check in at Fort Hays Headquarters
Bus departs to Mount Rushmore
Explore Mount Rushmore National Memorial
Drive along Iron Mountain Road
Lunch at Game Lodge in Custer State Park
Drive Needles Highway and pass Needles Eye Tunnel
Rest stop and coffee at Sylvan Lake
Visit Crazy Horse Memorial

The Experience

You're checking in at Fort Hays Chuckwagon by 8am, getting your printed ticket and assigned bus number, then rolling out at 9am toward Mount Rushmore. The timing matters — Gutzon Borglum carved those four faces to catch the morning sun from the east, and that's when they're meant to be seen. You get just over an hour to walk the grounds at your own pace, no guide talking over the view, just you and the mountain.

After Mount Rushmore, the bus takes the 17-mile Iron Mountain Road, a narrow ribbon of asphalt with three one-lane tunnels that frame the monument perfectly as you drive through. Then lunch at the Game Lodge inside Custer State Park — the same lodge where President Calvin Coolidge spent his summers — and the buffalo stew is genuinely the thing people mention when they talk about this tour. You're eating in a piece of history, which sounds like marketing until you're actually there. The Needles Highway comes next, a 14-mile drive through granite spires so tight that the bus squeezes through the Needles Eye Tunnel with inches to spare on each side. Passengers always gather at the windows for that one.

A coffee break at Sylvan Lake — one of the real crown jewels of the park, the kind of stop that exists because the company has been running this route since 1973 and knows where the light hits right — and then an hour at Crazy Horse Memorial, the mountain carving still in progress. You wander on your own, no rushed narration, just the scale of what's being carved into the stone every day. The whole day is about six hours of driving and stopping, which is why everything fits without feeling crammed. The bus tour of Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills works because it's been refined over fifty years by people who live here.

What’s included

Your day includes hotel pickup (check-in at Fort Hays Chuckwagon), a full-day air-conditioned coach with a restroom on board, entry to Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Custer State Park, and Crazy Horse Memorial, lunch at the Game Lodge, and stops at Iron Mountain Road, Needles Highway, and Sylvan Lake. You explore each site at your own pace; the driver handles the route and the timing.

Good to know

Easy physical levelStroller friendlyPets welcomeInfants must sit on laps

Operated by Mount Rushmore Tours

Is this one for you?A good fit if you want to see the main Black Hills landmarks in one day without renting a car or navigating the narrow mountain roads yourself. The drive is part of the experience — Iron Mountain Road and Needles Highway are the reason you're on a bus instead of behind the wheel.