Best Things to Do Near Rapid City with Kids (2026 Guide)

If you’re planning a family trip to the Black Hills, one of the most common questions is: What are the best things to do near Rapid City with kids?

The good news is that the area is packed with family-friendly attractions—but a few stand out for being truly memorable.

Top Family Activities Near Rapid City

  • Mount Rushmore National Memorial
  • Custer State Park
  • Reptile Gardens
  • Storybook Island
  • Bear Country
  • The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs

Why The Mammoth Site Is a Must-Visit

Located less than an hour from Rapid City, The Mammoth Site offers something completely different from other attractions. Instead of just sightseeing, families can explore a real Ice Age dig site and even participate in hands-on experiences.

Kids love: The Family Dig experience, the Family Ice Age Hunt, and seeing real mammoth fossils up close.

Parents love: The educational value, affordable pricing, and indoor comfort (great in summer heat or bad weather).

Plan your visit at www.mammothsite.org/visit

New Research Re-Dates The Mammoth Site

Researchers from The Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, South Dakota, have published the results of their study using infrared-stimulated luminescence to re-date The Mammoth Site, with the new dates ranging from 160,000 to 232,000 years ago. The paper, “Age reassignment...

Discover The Mammoth Site

Tucked into the southern Black Hills in Hot Springs, South Dakota, The Mammoth Site offers something you won’t find anywhere else in the world—an active Ice Age dig site preserved indoors. Located less than an hour from Rapid City, and within easy driving distance of...

Lang Family Dig Building Dedicated

HOT SPRINGS, S.D. – Donations and support from local businesses, foundations and the Lang Family have made the opening of a new dig building and a free summer camp program possible at The Mammoth Site. During The Mammoth Site’s 50th anniversary celebrations, the Lang...

International Beaver Day

International Beaver Day

Kelly Lubbers, Bonebed Paleontologist Happy International Beaver Day!! Beavers have been around for a long time (since the late Eocene, about 33 million years ago) and were not all semi-aquatic, tree chewing, dam building like the beavers we see and love today.  Some...

A Bone Voyage

A Bone Voyage

By Greg McDonald “I have been wonderfully lucky, with fossil bones — some of the animals must have been of great dimensions: I am almost sure that many of them are quite new; this is always pleasant, but with the antediluvian animals it is doubly so.” —Letter from...

Botany and Bones in Brazil

Botany and Bones in Brazil

By Greg McDonald The first discoveries of the ground sloths Megatherium and Megalonyx consisted of single individuals that were not mixed with other species. Such discoveries make it easier to be confident that all of the bones are of a single species and that the...

The American Pronghorn and its Ancient Relatives

Richard S. White, Research Associate Antilocapra Americana (Walt Anderson painting) When Europeans began exploring the New World in the 16th-19th centuries, they encountered a wealth of unfamiliar animals and plants. They generally called these animals by some version...

Saltpeter and Sloths

Saltpeter and Sloths

It was not long after Cuvier described the first fossil sloth, Megatherium, in 1796 that additional discoveries of fossil sloths were made. The next prominent discovery was not in South America as might be expected but instead in North America. The discovery of this...