If you only visit Mount Rushmore, you’re missing the best part of South Dakota. Badlands that look like another planet, wild bison, granite mountain roads, Old West towns, and Devils Tower — one of the strangest landscapes in America. Here’s how I’d spend 7 days 👇 📍Day 1 | Rapid City Pick up the car, grab supplies, eat, rest. 📍Day 2 | Badlands National Park Rapid City → Minuteman Missile → Badlands → Wall Drive Badlands Loop Road: Big Badlands Overlook → Yellow Mounds → Panorama Point → Pinnacles Overlook. 🌅 Save Pinnacles for sunset. The whole landscape turns gold and red and suddenly feels like another planet. Stay in Wall. 📍Day 3 | Iron Mountain Road + Mount Rushmore Wall → Custer State Park → Mount Rushmore → Custer Don’t take the fastest route. Drive Iron Mountain Road for rock tunnels, Pigtail Bridges and tunnel views that perfectly frame Mount Rushmore. Rushmore itself: 2–3 hours is enough. 📍Day 4 | Custer State Park Morning: Needles Highway → Sylvan Lake Afternoon: Wildlife Loop Road Expect granite spires, narrow tunnels and plenty of bison. 🦬 Reminder: bison are cute, but they are still wild animals. Keep your distance. 📍Day 5 | Wind Cave + Crazy Horse + Deadwood See Wind Cave’s famous boxwork formations, then visit Crazy Horse Memorial for another perspective on Lakota and Indigenous history. Spend the night in Deadwood for full Old West vibes. 🤠 📍Day 6 | Spearfish Canyon + Devils Tower Drive: Bridal Veil Falls → Spearfish Falls → Roughlock Falls Then cross into Wyoming for Devils Tower. Walk the Tower Trail, about 2.1 km / 1.3 miles. Don’t just take a photo and leave — you only understand how massive it is when you stand underneath it. 📍Day 7 | Spearfish → Rapid City Keep the last day easy. Sleep in, eat, drive back, return the car. It also gives you a buffer for weather, bison traffic or spending way too long taking photos. ✨ How many days do you need? 5 days = rushed 6 days = reasonable 7 days = perfect 8–9 days = better for hiking and photography If I only had 7 days: ❌ Skip Jewel Cave ❌ Don’t do two caves ✅ Keep Badlands ✅ Keep Custer State Park ✅ Keep Mount Rushmore ✅ Keep Iron Mountain Road ✅ Definitely keep Devils Tower One day you’re watching sunset over the Badlands. The next you’re driving through granite tunnels. Then you’re stuck behind bison, drinking in an Old West town, and finally standing under Devils Tower thinking: Did the Earth seriously make this thing by itself? That’s my kind of American road trip. 🚙🇺🇸 #USARoadTrip #SouthDakota #OOTD #phototips #travel - @guciny523