Mount Rushmore National Memorial
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is located in Keystone, South Dakota. The Memorial is nestled in the stunning Black Hills, which is worth a visit on its own, but more on that later. If you drive Iron Mountain Road (16A), you’ll get a sneak peak (and maybe an incredible picture if you’re able) of the 4 Presidents through one of the tunnels on your way to the park entrance. You can also take Hwy 385 north to highway 244 to arrive from the south.
We arrived shortly after the parking area opened, which we highly recommend! The park gets very busy by lunchtime and parking fills up quickly, especially during the summer months. There is no entrance fee for visiting the Memorial, however you will have to pay a parking fee.
First Views of Mount Rushmore
As you walk up the stairs, you’ll receive your first view of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. Walk through the Avenue of Flags on your way to the Grand View Terrace. A fun activity with the kids was to go through the states to find our home state flag and take a selfie! The Grand View Terrace area is paved and wheelchair and stroller accessible, with elevators available for the Visitor Center and the Amphitheater. If you are looking for a quick visit to the Memorial or do not wish to take the additional trails, you can start and end your visit right here. The Grand View Terrace offers great photo ops of Mount Rushmore.
The Presidential Trail and Sculptor’s Studio
We walked down to the Sculptor’s Studio to view the scale model of Mount Rushmore and listen to the informative Ranger presentation on Guzton Borglum. We continued the Presidential Trail from there all the way to the base of the mountain. Kudos to my hubby who carried our toddler in the backpack carrier up the 400+ stairs on this portion of the trail.
If you start the Presidential Trail on the left side of Grand View Terrace the first portion is an accessible boardwalk that takes you close to the base of the memorial where you can stop and enjoy the close-up views of the presidents and avoid the stairs altogether or you can continue on the trail to take the stairs down to the Sculptor’s Studio. Looking back, this is what we should have done, but excitement got the better of us.
Visitor Center and Gift Shop
The Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center had fantastic exhibits about the history of the memorial, each of the presidents represented, and how the memorial was built. The informative video about Mount Rushmore was (surprisingly) our son’s favorite part of the visit.
Stop by the bookstore and gift shop on the way out to stamp your National Park passport or Junior Ranger book and to purchase goodies and souvenirs; we picked up some delicious huckleberry taffy! Many families were enjoying ice cream from nearby Carver’s café.
Next Time at Mount Rushmore
Overall we had great family trip to Mount Rushmore, but there are so many more activities than we had originally anticipated when visiting. From Ranger Led Programs to a self-guided tour of the park, we have a few things we want to plan for on our next visit. Next visit we will plan on taking one of the additional trails available at the Memorial. The Blackberry Trail is only about a mile long but is marked as a moderately strenuous trail though the natural surroundings of the park. Not something we were up for with our littles this time around, but something we would like to try when they are a little older and we have more time.
Visiting the park at night- You can come back to the Memorial in the evening for a ranger led presentation and a lighting of the Memorial. Keep your parking validation from earlier in the day to re-enter the park without having to pay another fee. We have heard the ceremony is fantastic and even though we missed it this time around we will be sure to plan around this activity when we visit again.
More to do in the Black Hills
If you want to see more things to do around Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills check out our post on all of the amazing things we did in this area!
