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The Group Travel Leader Going on Faith Select Traveler

Still Striking Gold in Rapid City

A Wealth of Parks

Outside the city, the most distinctive attractions are the area’s natural and historical sites. With four national parks and monuments and a large state park within an hour’s drive, visitors with any time to spare will likely want take in at least some of them.

The undisputed headliner is the world-famous Mount Rushmore, which displays the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln carved into a granite mountainside. Thrilling sightseers since before the days of Cary Grant in “North by Northwest,” the Mount Rushmore National Memorial attracts about 3 million visitors yearly.

Nearby, the huge Crazy Horse Memorial impresses in its own right. Standing as the largest sculpture-in-progress anywhere, it is 563 feet tall and 641 feet long. Begun in 1948, the decades-long project honors the memory of the famous leader and, by extension, the history and culture of Native Americans. During the summer, a visit can culminate with a nightly “Legends in Light” laser-light multimedia program.

Also not to be missed is the Badlands National Park, which features more than 240,000 acres of natural beauty with painted canyons, spectacular rock outcroppings and the largest protected mixed-grass prairie in the country. Populated by bison, bighorn sheep and other animals, the park offers visitors a chance to see the West as it once was.

Devil’s Tower National Monument, located nearby in the Sundance, Wyoming, area, offers an up-close look at the famous geological rock formation that rises 1,000 feet into the air above the surrounding valley. Visitors have access to ranger-led programs, a visitor center with displays, a bookstore and several trails, including a 1.4-mile paved stretch circling the Tower.

Custer State Park, which covers 71,000 acres, also teems with wildlife including antelopes, elk, coyotes, prairie dogs and a large free-roaming buffalo herd. The park includes the French Creek location where gold was discovered and the game lodge that served as Calvin Coolidge’s summer White House. Each summer, the Black Hills Playhouse offers professional theater performances; the Buffalo Roundup and Arts Festival is held in the fall. Visitors can enjoy chuck-wagon suppers, Jeep rides through the buffalo herds, horseback riding and guided fly-fishing. Other activities include canoeing, kayaking and rock climbing.

 

Other Venues

There is no shortage of hotels with meeting-hosting capability. The Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn offers 14,000 square feet of flexible meeting space. A major attraction is the attractive Dakota Ballroom, with banquet seating for up to 500. There are 205 guest rooms and 11 meeting rooms.

The Best Western Ramkota Hotel offers 36,000 square feet of meeting space, 15 meeting rooms and 267 guest rooms. Shoppers will like its location adjacent to the Rushmore Mall.

The Grand Gateway Hotel is another medium-size facility with 9,500-plus square feet of meeting space, six meeting rooms and 132 guest rooms.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Alex Johnson Hotel is an area landmark. Situated within walking distance of the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, it has six meeting rooms, 143 guest rooms and 5,700 square feet of meeting space.

For smaller groups, the Cambria Suites hotel has three meeting rooms with 1,500 square feet of total space and 111 sleeping rooms for guests.

Another smaller venue, the Comfort Suites, has three meeting rooms, 92 guest rooms and 2,800 square feet of meeting space. The hotel is just minutes away from downtown Rapid City.

The Adoba Hotel Rapid City offers six meeting rooms, 176 guest rooms and 3,500 square feet of meeting space. The nine-floor hotel boasts great views overlooking the city.

The Ramada offers 209 guest rooms. They are complemented by five meeting rooms with 2,800 square feet of space.

 

Rapid City, South Dakota

Location

West-central South Dakota, at the eastern edge of the Black Hills area

Access

Interstate 90 and several U.S. and state highways; Rapid City Regional Airport

Major meeting spaces

Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, Central States Fairgrounds

Hotel Rooms

4,300

Offsite Venues

Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn, Grand Gateway Hotel, Alex Johnson Hotel

Contact Info

Rapid City Convention and Visitors Bureau

www.visitrapidcity.com