Love this dog park, it's one of the off-leash parks in Rapid City. The fully paved (black tar)…read morewalking course is a mile long, perfect distance to do a round with your pup. It's close to many area hotels and residential homes. This dog park is part of the Robbinsdale Park which also has a BMX area, baseball park, a children's playground further down in the 3rd parking lot and they're also building a bicycle park, not sure what that will consist of but it's off of the E Fairmont Blvd side of the park. This park is not fenced in so be sure you can recall your dog. The area closest to the main road on the south-east area is very close to the E Fairmont Blvd road; you can cut across the grassy area if you want to avoid the road area. The other area of the dog park is a good distance from a parking lot and residential homes - more than enough space for your dog to walk and play. There are 4 poop trash stations but not all have pick up bags so always bring your own. Beware there are a lot of people who let there dog drop and go and they don't pick up after their dog in the grassy area. I saw one car open the dog and let their dog out but they stayed in their car while the dog did it's business and then the dog wanted to play with other dogs and was whimpering following people - pretty sad, if you're gonna have a dog, walk your dog! Anyway, we'll be checking out the other parks, esp the off-leash parks - there's a lot of parks in this city.

A lot of dog poop that people do not pick up. No area for small dogs to romp around off leash…read more People don't really watch their animals and just let them roam. Does have a great creek for dogs to cool off in. It is kinda click based with many people knowing each other so they socialize and then do not watch their dogs.

My dogs love going here!! They start crying as soon as we get close! We go very regularly! They…read morelove swimming in the creek. We have never had any issues towards the land or the park! When I first started going here I had issues with other dog parents not watching their dog and letting them go unattended. (male dogs getting on my females back and the male owner not getting him off.) Has never stopped us from going just watch your doggies

I had an amazing opportunity on our previous trip to take the whole family to see this awesome park…read morelocated just a few miles away from Mount Rushmore. one of the things that really excited my family and I was the wildlife road that you could take got to see some amazing animals freely grazing right on the sides of roads. It was a great experience I was told that if you want to see even more come earlier and you will thoroughly enjoy how much our life is out and about we went about 1 o'clock and still having to enjoy the time seeing lots of wildlife This wildlife road definitely can take you about two hours to drive on so be prepared for that if you take the wildlife road After that, we continued on to see the eye of the needle and many other amazing places they had inside the park. After driving around, we stopped by the lake. They have some beautiful deck seating for you if you decide to either go in get some food and eat on the deck area outside or take it to go either way it is a great atmosphere inside the gift shop plenty of smiling faces and Nice People working in this area. Oh, I definitely think that it was a world park and every person we encountered whether it was a park range or a worker they were very nice and courteous easy to talk to and we definitely just enjoyed our time there

This park is awesome, while driving the loop road we got to see amazing wildlife!…read moreThe park is awesome inspiring.

I definitely recommend putting this on something you go and visit in your lifetime. It is a very…read moreamazing monument from the time you walk up through the main gate you can start to see the monument and it's just amazing at the work that was put into it they have lined the pathway with the flags from all 50 states and it just kinda gives you this amazing walk up experience and that if you haven't seen you early enjoy. My family and I spent about an hour and a half there which is a great amount of time you can walk up get some great photos plenty of park Rangers around to talk to get directions and tell you a little bit more about the park They do offer videos certain times of the day that are very informative. They have a full-blown theater at the foot of the mountain, which is really amazing when people can perform and things like that which I had no idea that was there until later. And then they have this amazing easy to travel trail. You can do about 50% of it with the stroller and get close up to the monument and take a great photo but then there comes an area where it says I have almost 450 steps so we stopped right there and turned back, but it does do a loop around the whole area with spectacular views. I definitely think that this is a great place to go and visit really peaceful place well-maintained. They do have restaurants and gift shops there so if you're ever in South Dakota, go and give this place a visit

It's always fun to visit Mount Rushmore!…read more This time around I got to listen to a great presentation given by one of the staff. It was about the battle in Baltimore Maryland in 1814. He talked about the Poem "The Star Spangled Banner" that originated from the site of that battle and how it later became the national anthem. It was a very interesting and educational program that I appreciated experiencing. That paired with the usual amenities of the site really made for a fun part of the day! There is some confusing messaging about how to pay for parking that I think should be smoothed out, but I appreciate that the staff work to create a good experience even when there are uncertainties.

Our visit to Reptile Gardens was absolutely unforgettable! From the moment we walked in, we were…read moreblown away by how well-kept, interactive, and family-friendly everything was. Traveling with our 5-year-old, this was easily one of the highlights of our trip. He was completely fascinated by the huge variety of reptiles--especially the giant tortoises and snakes--and the live shows were both entertaining and educational. The staff did an amazing job keeping kids engaged while teaching them fun facts along the way. The grounds are beautiful and easy to navigate, making it a relaxing experience for parents too. You can tell how much care goes into the animals and the overall experience. If you're in the Rapid City area, this is a must-do--perfect mix of fun, learning, and memorable moments for the whole family!

This place is cool! If you don't like reptiles you will…read moreprobably not enjoy it, but hopefully you would not come to a place called Reptile Gardens if you don't like them. There is a big dome here where you can walk among some free-roaming reptiles; but don't worry, most of the creatures here are in enclosures. Displays are mostly well labeled and in an amusing way. Obviously the people here love reptiles and have fun talking about them. There is a crocodile show that was informative and amusing. I think there are snake shows too. My favorite exhibit is the tortoise area. They are ancient! One is 120 years old and is still - um - frisky. You can touch them! Food was not great. Not many choices. I got a hot dog since it was cheaper than the other items and it was good. I got it "dressed" and the relish and onions definitely elevated it. Great selection of gift shop items. What's really awesome about this place is that - once you have paid admission and are inside - there are some "season pass" signs. If you take your picture with them it will act as a Season Pass for the rest of the year! We don't live in the area so didn't do it; but if we did we would have really taken advantage of that! We came here after going to Bear Country USA and this was by far my favorite of the two. Though I do REALLY love reptiles.

There's a whole hidden world under the prairie. The Garden of Eden Tour took us deep underground…read morethrough narrow passageways and into rooms full of rare boxwork formations and delicate honeycomb patterns that make this cave so special. Down there, everything feels slower. It's quiet, cool, and feels almost untouched. Then you step back outside and it's a complete contrast. Open skies, rolling hills, and bison grazing in the distance like something straight out of a movie. Two totally different worlds in one park.

It's getting really depressing to be on a National Parks road trip through the US during a…read moregovernment shutdown. Wind Cave National park was really nice and convenient and had a few interesting things to see. Unfortunately the visitors center and all the restrooms were closed even though there was a park ranger sitting in his running truck in the parking lot trying to avoid the visitors that walked up to him. I can't blame the park for the shutdown and I did really like the ease of navigating the simple beauty here. We caught a glimpsenof a buffalo and saw some prairie dogs (I love prairie dogs!) but I doubt I will ever be back to see it when it is fully operational.

Visiting the White River Valley Overlook inside Badlands National Park was one of the highlights of…read moreour trip. This is one of those places that completely catches you off guard in the best way. You pull over expecting a quick viewpoint, and then suddenly you're looking out over this massive, open valley that just seems to go on forever. The contrast between the rugged Badlands formations and the wide, rolling landscape below is incredible. It honestly feels like two completely different environments meeting in one place. The colors, the textures, and the sheer scale of it all make it feel almost unreal when you're standing there. What makes this stop even better is how easy it is to access. There's no long hike required--just park, walk a short distance, and you're right there taking in one of the best views in the park. It's perfect for all ages and a great place to pause and really appreciate the scenery. If you're visiting the Badlands, this overlook is absolutely worth the stop. It's peaceful, stunning, and unforgettable. Check out our videos on our socials @reessroots

"You spend your life waiting For a moment that just don't…read morecome Well don't waste your time waiting Badlands, you gotta live it everyday" (Bruce Springsteen) The last National Park visit of our trip may have been my favorite. The sheer sight of these massive rock formations, cliffs, buttes, pinnacles and spires truly made me feel as if I was a space traveler that had crash landed on the ancient world of a distant planet. Words cannot adequately describe the majesty of what I saw. Badlands also has the largest protected mixed grass prairie in America and is home to bison, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs, and black-footed ferrets. The park is also famous for its abundance of fossils. I read that ancient horses and rhinos once roamed here. We were able to walk out into the rock formations and overlooked the vast multi-colored stone canyons and valleys, marvel at the soaring cliffs and gorges, and just revel in this fantastic natural beauty. Talk about a religious experience, it was simply gorgeous and breathtaking. Badlands Facts Badlands National Park is our 39th National Park and was established on November 10, 1978. Badlands is a mid-sized park with 244,000 acres Badlands draws around 1 million visitors per year.

We tried to see Mount Rushmore in the morning but it was rainy and foggy and you couldn't see a…read morething so we decided to give Bear Country a try. It was well worth the $ and time. So fun, we saw so many neat animals but the star of the whole place was the baby bears playing. They were so fun to watch. We laughed and laughed at their antics. We kept hearing kids telling their parents it's the best place they'd been to and how much they loved it. There's a place to stop and clean off your windshield at the entrance since it's a drive thru park. That took about 45 min then they have a walk around area similar to a zoo. There's a small snack bar with reasonably priced snacks. A huge gift shop and bathrooms. One thing to note is they do not allow any pets into the walk around area including service animals which I was very surprised at.

We enjoyed this. We did see a LOT of bears. Eating, playing, fighting (wow!)…read more It was nice to drive through. There were not a ton of cars driving through at the same time as we were, I might have not liked it so much if there had been. You keep your windows up, obviously, so hopefully your car A/C is good. What was kind of bothering me is that this is REALLY a lot of bears, and also a LOT of baby bears. It seemed...not right. Also, there was food out for them. It involved meat, sweet potatoes, carrots, grapes, etc...but there was also a lot of sliced bread. I don't know exactly what wild bears eat but I don't think it involves baked goods. So that made me feel not great about it.

We stopped here to view America's largest Berlin Wall exhibit and of course see the many beautiful…read moresculptures we had heard about. It is a lovely park with lots of greenspace and beautiful foliage but there were many unhoused persons and some seemed to be living/sleeping next to the statues so we weren't able to spend to much time enjoying some of them or get to close and we didn't want to bother anyone. The ones we did see up close were magnificent! We enjoyed walking through the park on the paved trails and perhaps it was just because we were from outside the area but we had difficulty finding anywhere close to park so we also had a nice walk to and from the park as well. The highlight for my husband was getting to spin the 9,000 lb piece of granite. The engineering makes it possible but it's still pretty tough to get that 4 ton stone moving. This park is worth a stop just for that.

This park is a memorial to those that died in the Rapid Creek floods of 1972. An amphitheater,…read moreplayground, lake & war monuments are displayed here as well. There are sections of the Berlin Wall because this was the front line for the Cold War. Missile & launch control facilities are peppered through the grasslands & are run by the National Park Service.

While it is not a place that will take a while afternoon, it is well worth the stop. Lots of…read morebeautifully visual habitat displays. It's very relaxing to just sit and watch the fish in the tank. There are tons of learning opportunities for kids! There are some hands on learning items are available in each habitat setting. And each habitat display has so much depth! There are so many small details that help make up the whole thing! There is also a nook of books for reading. I wish we had something like this where I am from! We didn't get to explore more.of the grounds, as a pretty heavy storm was coming gin and we left just as it hit. We will definitely stop by again next time we visit!

Highly educational. Great for homeschooling and learning about the outdoors . I give it 5 stars.read more