A Classic American Road Trip Through South Dakota

Seventy miles west in Chamberlain, at the Missouri River, visit the Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center to learn about the Northern Plains’ Native Americans and see the sacred Medicine Wheel installed in an outdoor garden. Nearby, board a replica 55-foot keelboat that the Corps of Discovery used to explore the river at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center at the I-90 rest area.

By the time you reach Wall, 150 miles on, you will have seen its billboards advertising “free ice water,” tempting motorists to Wall Drug since the 1930s. The 1931 pharmacy has now expanded into a massive tourist destination patronized by 2 million annually for that water, as well as arcade games, cowboy apparel, donuts and Western art.

Wall is the chief gateway to Badlands National Park, about seven miles south, protecting 244,000 acres of wildlife-filled prairie and eons of geological deposits visible in layered peaks. (See AARP's guide for what to see and do in the park.)

Where to stay: Rent a cabin in the national park at Cedar Pass Lodge in Interior, S.D., near Wall, to catch sunset and sunrise painting the striated rocks in warm tones.

Mount Rushmore National Monument

Mike Kline / Getty Images

Day 3: Wall to Custer State Park (120 miles)

Hike a bit of the national park's moderate 10-mile Castle Trail or drive its 40-mile Badlands Loop Road to spot bison and pronghorn before leaving the park and heading back to the interstate. In 55 miles, you'll reach Rapid City, South Dakota, gateway to the Black Hills region, with statues of 43 U.S. presidents downtown in homage to nearby Mount Rushmore. Also downtown, check out the paleontology for which the region is renowned at the Journey Museum. Grab creative sandwiches (think apple and manchego cheese) at nearby Harriet & Oak for a picnic in the 1.25-million-acre Black Hills National Forest, just west of the city. The forest encompasses most of the region's attractions, including national and state parks.

From Rapid City to Mount Rushmore National Monument, about 25 miles southwest on U.S. 16 and U.S. Route 16A, granite hills wink in and out of view amid the dense ponderosa pines that give the Black Hills their name. Get up close to the mammoth busts of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt on the park's 0.6-mile-long Presidential Trail, if you're game to climb its 422-step stairway. Try to catch a Ranger Talk at the Sculptor's Studio to learn how Guzton Borglum; his son, Lincoln Borglum; and nearly 400 workers transformed the mountain over 14 years, from 1927 to 1941.

To Native Americans, the Black Hills are sacred, and Rushmore a wound, a story told at Crazy Horse Memorial, about 20 miles west on SD-244. Still under construction, the 560-foot-high statue of the Oglala Lakota warrior centers the campus, also home to the fascinating Indian Museum of North America.

Loop 21 miles south and east to end the day at glorious Custer State Park, a peaceful 71,000-acre preserve of forested granite peaks and wildlife-rich prairie.