resemble ancient pyramid-like mounds with pale, red-tinted rock layers streaked along jagged edges. I drive the park’s 36-mile loop passing grassy patches with squeaking prairie dogs, and wandering bison, and then to several overlooks with views of the Little Missouri River and surrounding buttes. The South Unit has two visitor centers, the larger one housing rifles and other items owned by Roosevelt in a small museum. One of his Badlands homes, the restored Maltese Cross Cabin, was moved to this location from his former ranch and has both original and period furniture. A short drive east on I-94, the Painted Canyon Visitor Center has access to hiking trails and views with some of the park’s most colorful buttes. The National Park’s North Unit lies about 70 miles north along route US 85 and has a 14-mile road (28-miles roundtrip) with overlooks and hiking trails also along the Little Missouri River. A third part of the park, the Elkhorn Ranch Unit between the North and South Units, is the site of Roosevelt’s second ranch where only stone foundations remain of his cabin there. Unpaved roads lead to this site, making it difficult to reach. Back in South Dakota, Mount Rushmore is only a 30-minute drive from Rapid City with its year-round patriotic theme, “City of Presidents,” because of the life-sized bronze statues of every U.S. president at downtown street corners. John Adams, for example, stands at an entrance of Main Street Square, a grassy plaza with cooling sprinklers for kids in the summertime. Fifth President James Monroe straddles a cane while tipping his top hat. Thomas Jefferson stands at a desk with quill in handwriting the Declaration of Independence. A seated Abraham Lincoln nestles his son Tad and John F. Kennedy walks with son John Jr. The project started 26 years ago by a local businessman after seeing people swarming around a temporary statue of Lincoln. “He noticed that people were taking pictures with it and thought how wonderful it would be if we had all the presidents so people could take pictures with all the statues and how it would generate downtown business,” explains Laurie Sutterer, the Visitor Services Manager with Visit Rapid City. The downtown Visitor Center provides the AI-powered City of Presidents Audio Tour featuring the presidents’ narrations in first person.
is the replica brontosaurus anchoring Dinosaur Park atop a hill, easily seen from the streets below and beyond. Walkways circle up the hill leading to six other seemingly full-size figurines including a stegosaurus with its boney back plates, the horned triceratops, and an imposing T-Rex. From the top, views stretch along hilly landscapes and dense forests and to Badlands National Park. One of the first original tourist attractions in the Black Hills, the park was a Great Depression-era project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) dedicated in 1936 to complement the tourist draw to Mount Rushmore. “Dinosaurs are quite popular around here because a lot of bones have been found,” says Sutterer. The city’s Journey Museum displays such fossils and has a dig tent for visitors. In 1990, the park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A short drive from downtown along winding neighborhood streets leads to the Chapel in the Hills, an exact replica of the Borgund Stavkirke located in Laerdal, Norway. Opened in 1969, the multi-roofed wooden structure is a typical Scandinavian-style stave church with simple benches inside. It’s a tribute to the area’s Norwegian heritage and, as part of
A seated Abraham Lincoln statue nestles his son Tad in Rapid City.
Perhaps the most noticeable icon of the cityscape
THE DAKOTAS CELEBRATE JULY 4
COAST TO COAST MAGAZINE SUMMER 2026 | 15
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