South Dakota/North Dakota/Montana/Wyoming in an RV?

[stumbalina23]

Hi. We've been out of road tripping for awhile. Kids are now 9 and 6 and we are thinking about heading west a bit in an RV, starting in Minneapolis. We've never done an RV trip before. I'm curious if anyone has tips, or suggestions for an itinerary. We are probably talking about 7-9 days. My general thought is to go west on 90 and hit blackhills/mt. rushmore, but i'm not sure if there are other must sees, if we should go into montana/wyoming before coming back through north dakota, and what we should see there. The kids definitely like to do short hikes, so the state/national parks i think would be good?

Any thoughts appreciated.

Jen

[Yeehaw]

Hi Jen, called you Hen-lol- Will wait for the other replies on this forum!
Yeehaw

[PNW Judy]

Welcome back to the world of road-tripping and the Roadtrip America forums!

I'm planning my own trip to South Dakota and I am amazed at all the things there are to do there. Just some things off the top of my head, all within a couple of hours from Mr. Rushmore: Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer State Park, Badlands, Black Hills, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, and Deadwood has Boot Hill Cemetary where Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried, and where they lived out their last years. The entire town is on the national historic register so there is a lot to check out there.

Reptile World...google it cuz it's much cooler than the name implies

Wounded Knee Museum in Wall...and the actual Wounded Knee sight on the Pine Ridge reservation

Wall Drug...an amazing story of how to succeed in, what was then, the middle of nowhere and a fun funky tourist stop.

The Corn Place in Mitchell.

Plus tons of secondary attractions that have sprung up there. Many intrigue me and it will be hard to pick-and-choose from them: Reptile World, Presidential Wax museum (all presidents from George W to George W B), several chuckwagon dinner suppers with cowboy shows, several different caves that sound like they have amazing figurations, Chapel on the Hill (a replica stave church from Norway...these are amazing!), The Mammoth dig site is a cool place where you can see an archeological dig in progress with an amazing amount of mammoth remains.

If any of you are fans of the Laura Ingalls Wilder "Little House" books, you might enjoy swinging past one of their homes in the DeSmet area.

I think you could easily spend a week there and never be bored. You will enjoy this roadtrip report about South Dakota and it should give you some idea of what to expect. Here's a list of things to do in South Dakota.

So you can plan the longer trip through the other states but I don't think you need to. I think most, if not all, of these attractions will appeal to your children as well.

Is there any other specific help you need to plan this trip?