Rapid City/ Mount Rushmore

Looking for tips/ recommendations for a trip to this area. Suggestions please!

KSPF

Did this July, 2018 when I did 2 weeks flying around the NW. I landed in Spearfish (note traffic pattern). Nice airport, I called ahead and they had a rental car waiting for me. Drove to Rushmore and stayed at a hotel in Deadwood. I circled Devils Tower on the way there and flew past Crazy Horse and Rushmore when I departed the area. I also flew over the Badlands on the way home.

Custer works. You can get some hangar space (unfinished floor but who cares), a car rental, hotels. Close to all the stuff that needs seeing.

Ed Holyoke

Custer State Park

Check out the east wild life loop. Great resorts from reasonable to pretty fancy.

Rapid City

I have stopped in Rapid City 3 times on the way home from OSH, each time with a different set of passengers.
Car rental on site at KRAP and a short drive to the city and Best Western Ramkota Hotel, rustic, very nice and a good restaurant is part of the hotel as well.
Rapid City is a very interesting town with all its bronze presidential statues and a well documented history.
Mt Rushmore is a 30 mile drive and there are many options if you have time to stay a couple of days. Crazy horse, Custer state park and much more.
Mt. Rushmore has its own advisory frequency and helicopter sightseeing traffic is ever present. The black hills and surrounding geography reminded me of growing up in Switzerland and it is truly a shame to include that scenic state in "flyover country", Stop over would be more appropriate IMHO.
There are less expensive options and more rudimentary accommodations but my vacations are short and few, so I allow for a bit of luxury when I do get to travel.

Custer

If you land in Custer watch the weather closely. It hails a lot there. Best to get a hanger if available.

Rapid City

...."KRAP".....? Someone from ICAO must have had a great sense of humor (or was drunk) when that code was approved....

"I'm going to KRAP as soon as possible!"...
"My flight was headed for Sioux Falls, but then turned to KRAP!"...
"Lost my GPS and I'm not sure where I landed, but it sure looked like KRAP!"...

Don't believe I need to go on...

qtrmiledan said:

Looking for tips/ recommendations for a trip to this area. Suggestions please!

Click to expand...

Made this trip July 4th weekend. Landed at KRAP after flying over Crazy Horse and Mt Rushmore on way in. Rental car was easy, reserved early, waiting at FBO. FBO personnel was great. Stayed at “Under Canvas”. Expensive, but great “glamping” experience. Take the wildlife tour of Custer State Park. It was an AWESOME drive. Keystone has some decent places to eat and shop for tourist stuff. You’ll love the trip!

Thanks!

Thanks for the tips and info!! How busy was the airspace near those monuments? The sectional requests 2500 from and no lower than 7700msl. Appears helicopter traffic stays near 7500. Thoughts?

qtrmiledan said:

Thanks for the tips and info!! How busy was the airspace near those monuments? The sectional requests 2500 from and no lower than 7700msl. Appears helicopter traffic stays near 7500. Thoughts?

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Traffic was less of an issue than expected. Only saw one other plane in Crazy Horse area. Did see helicopters below. Your mileage my vary.

Depends

Busy is a relative description.
In my experience LA Class B and SFO Class B is "busy"
Mt. Rushmore, meh... not so much.
As I pointed out, there is a published frequency, 122.85 to use when operating in the vicinity of the monument.
There is activity but I would not call it busy.

Rushmore area trip

Thanks for the tips and info all!!! Had a great trip! Checked that off the bucket list!

We are thinking about flying up from Denver to see Mt Rushmore this weekend - probably will just fly up, view it, and fly back (food and bladders determining when and where we stop). I see the notices about 7700 feet and 1/2 mile horizontally. The sectional says there is a local frequency. Another forum on Reddit says it is best to contact Ellsworth AFB.

Does anyone know if there is any particular procedure for a flying tour of it? I don't want to be against traffic if all aircraft tend to follow a standard route. And should we just monitor the local 122.85 helo freq? Or get on the horn with Ellsworth?

Thanks!