AARP’s City Guide to Rapid City, South Dakota

​The Journey Museum & Learning Center: North of Rapid Creek in downtown, the Journey Museum & Learning Center explores the history, cultures and geology of the Black Hills region, where dinosaurs, Native American tribes and gold rush settlers have all left their marks. Immersive exhibits examine paleontology, including a working fossil lab with dinosaur bones; Native American culture, including a tipi visitors can walk in; archaeology, with an arrowhead-filled dig pit; frontier history via a boardwalk and general store; and the science and lore of the cosmos beyond in the Star Room.

​Chapel in the Hills: About 5 miles southwest of downtown, Chapel in the Hills replicates Borgund Stavkirke, a 12th-century Norwegian wooden church. Like the original, the 1969 version contains wooden dowels rather than nails, with beams and staves, or wooden pillars, to support the structure. Though the chapel continues to offer services, it is very much a tourist site, including an antique-filled museum, a “stabbur” or grass-roofed storehouse built in Norway and serving as a gift shop, and a forest trail for quiet prayer and meditation.

​Wall Drug: You can’t visit the area without making a pilgrimage to Wall Drug, the drugstore on Interstate 90, 55 miles east of Rapid City, that built a following, beginning in 1936, by establishing a string of billboards along nearby highways promising early motorists “free ice water.” Today, more than 2 million visitors annually heed the call, arriving for water (still free) and so much more in a sprawling complex that now includes a restaurant (homemade doughnuts are a must with a 5-cent cup of coffee), shops (this is the place to pick up cowboy boots or a mounted “jackalope”) and Wall Drug Backyard, an amusement area with splash fountains, an arcade and mines where children can hunt for treasures.

​Black Hills: About 40 miles west of Rapid City, the Black Hills got their name from the Indigenous Lakota people, who called them Paha Sapa, or “hills that are black” as the dark pine-covered mountains appear, rising from the surrounding prairies. In the heart of the forest, the 109-mile-long George S. Mickelson Trail offers cycling and hiking access along a former rail route making for good access for those with limited mobility or in a wheelchair — including more than 100 restored railroad bridges and four tunnels. Visitors can rent bikes or take a shuttle to the trail from several area companies including Black Hills Tour Company in Rapid City. In summer, trail managers periodically offer four-hour trolley tours of the trail for people holding handicapped parking permits (call 605-584-3896 for a schedule and reservations).

Where to Eat in Rapid City 

After exploring the region, dining — highlighted by a reverence for South Dakota-grown and -raised food — is a chief reason to return.

Chef and owner Benjamin Klinkel of Tally’s Silver Spoon calls the all-day restaurant a “finer diner,” combining the familiarity and affordability of a diner with lighter, more modern dishes and an emphasis on locally raised ingredients, from lettuce to bison. Menus mix standards (blueberry pancakes) and originals (duck confit and foie gras with an egg and gooseberries). You can get a buffalo burger at dinner or go more daring with bison or elk tenderloin. Lots of veggie and gluten-free options ensure something for every diet. For a strictly steakhouse experience, check out the chef’s nearby Delmonico Grill.

Firehouse Brewing Co. in downtown Rapid City is South Dakota’s original brewpub.

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​Grab a microbrew, an order of barbecued ribs and an architectural eyeful at South Dakota’s original brewpub, Firehouse Brewing Co., housed in a handsome brick-and-sandstone fire station built in 1915. Brews run the gamut from easy-drinking lagers to sturdy stouts and nonalcoholic root beer. Beyond barbecue, the family-friendly restaurant serves shareable nachos and wings, as well as salads, beer cheese soup, fish and chips, and gumbo. If you’re out and about in the Black Hills, check out Firehouse’s new seasonal location, Smokejumper Station, in Hill City.

​The Bashful Bison Market, a deli and specialty grocer, champions local ingredients in creative sandwiches. In keeping with the name, many feature the marquee meat, including bison pastrami with cheddar, as well as locally raised beef sandwiches, pulled pork sourced from nearby ranches, pizza made with organic ancient grain crusts, and Indian tacos, a take on Native American fry bread topped with bison and peppers. Breakfast highlights include biscuits and gravy made with pasture-raised-pork sausage.

​For a glass of wine and global bites, stop into bb’s Natural downtown, a wine bar from partners Brooke Sweeten and Justin Warner, a former winner of Food Network Star. Guests can pair red, white, rosé and even orange natural wines — free of pesticides and additives — with lighter dishes like truffle-butter popcorn and “goth” hummus (made with black tahini) and more substantial ones like steak tartare. For a wine bar, the prices are reasonable. The pair also run the neighboring Bokujo Ramen, which uses local meats and veggies in its Japanese soups.

While you’re out exploring the mountains, stop at the town of Custer for, arguably, the region’s best burger at Black Hills Burger & Bun Co. From grinding the meat — beef and buffalo — to baking the bun, cooks do it all at this family-owned favorite (there is a black bean burger for non-meat eaters). Twenty-four-ounce shakes are the way to go for dessert.

​AARP top picks 

Drive the buttes

A young bison bull roams Badlands National Park.

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Take a drive back in time at Badlands National Park, a 244,000-acre preserve of striated rocks dating back 75 million years and eroded over the eons by the forces of wind and water to expose bands of red, orange, yellow and purple. The Native Lakota called the rugged, arid region “mako sica” or “bad lands.” In addition to geology, the site is teeming in fossils — especially the 50-foot-long marine lizard known as a mosasaur — and wildlife, including bighorn sheep, pronghorn and prairie dogs. The roughly 40-mile Badlands Loop road takes it all in with lots of turnouts for photography.

​Ways to save: Badlands Ranger Programs, offered primarily in summer, are free and include activities such as geology walks (on Door Trail, which is ADA accessible), fossil talks (also on an accessible trail), stargazing using telescopes and evening talks on nature in the park.