With Mt Rushmore in driving distance I had to plan a trip while living in Minot. My husband and I hopped in the car and made the 7 hour drive to Rapid City. With one rainy day during the visit we had to make due and find something we hadn’t planned to do, and ended up with a really cool experience. I’m going to let you in on all the places we got to experience during our trip.
Accommodations:
Great Location
3-star hotel at a great price per night
We stayed at The Rushmore Hotel & Suites in downtown Rapid City. The location was in walking distance to coffee shops, restaurants, breweries, and not far off the highway. Location was very important to us because we wanted to be able to walk and explore the downtown area as much as possible.
Hotel Alex Johnson is another popular hotel location in downtown you could consider on this trip.
Restaurants:
Essence of Coffee: (Breakfast or lunch)
Essence has a great selection of high quality & specialty coffee. The menu is fairly small, but everything we ate was delicious. I had the apple and sausage hash, and of course a caramel latte.
Harriet & Oak: (Breakfast, lunch, or early dinner cafe)
This cafe has a VW bus inside, so it’s definitely a cool spot to hit while in Rapid City. We went here for breakfast and had a breakfast sandwich, and breakfast burrito. The burrito was the best breakfast we had on the trip.
Kol: (coal fired oven and craft cocktails)
We loved the ambiance at this restaurant. It felt very modern and upscale, but the food was at an accessible price. They have hand-tossed pizzas and everyone of them sounded amazing, but my husband got the Farmer Joe’s Chicken pizza. I absolutely loved their presentation of the pizza at the table. They set the pizza pan on top of a giant tomato sauce can to keep it lifted off the table, so it took up less space, and made more room for drinks! I had the mussels in white wine sauce, and both meals were delicious.
Firehouse Brewing Company: (located in the old Rapid City Fire Company, Brewpub)
We came to Firehouse several times during the trip, sometimes for food, and sometimes for a draft of beer. When we came here for dinner we got their BBQ and I loved the fire company themed names for the meals. Firehouse has an awesome outdoor patio with tables and fire pits.
Murphy’s Pub & Grill: (Irish pub style food)
We came here for a late night snack and one last beer before heading back to the hotel. We got the Redneck Sausage Sampler with mustard, it comes with 3 different styles of sausages, and the presentation was super fun!
Wineries & Breweries:
Prairie Berry Winery: After visiting Mt Rushmore I highly recommend heading to Prairie Berry for a tasting. My husband and I each did a tasting and we took a bottle of the 2017 Anna Pesa Louka home with us as a souvenir. If you're not a wine drinker, you can visit Miner Brewing Company at the same location.
Firehouse Wine Cellars: The tasting room is downtown right next to Firehouse Brewing Co, so we had a wine tasting before heading over to the brewery for dinner. I fell in love with their 2014 Syrah, so every time my husband goes to a training that they drive through Rapid City he picks up a new bottle.
Lost Cabin Beer Co: This is a small brewery outside of downtown, but a very short drive from the hotel we stayed at. I highly recommend checking them out, because every beer we tried we enjoyed.
Things To Do:
Mt Rushmore: We came to Rapid City during a long holiday weekend, and even with Mt Rushmore being busy it didn’t feel too crowded. Go up and get your picture with the faces in the background, and then go get some ice cream made with Thomas Jefferson’s original recipe!
Art Alley: While walking around downtown make sure you take a walk during Art Alley to get some awesome pictures.
Custer State Park: In my intro I talked about having to find something to do in the rain. We found that Custer State Park has several scenic drives, and we took the Wildlife Loop. I highly recommend doing this, because we ended up seeing so many buffalo, and even had them passing right in front of the car! This turned into one of my favorite parts of the trip. If you take the Wildlife scenic drive, do not forget your camera!
And there you have it, all of the places we visited on our quick trip to Rapid City!
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