By state · SD

National Parks in South Dakota.

By Nicholas Major · Last updated

South Dakota's NPS units cluster in the southwestern corner of the state and include Badlands National Park, Wind Cave National Park, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Jewel Cave National Monument, and Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, plus Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail segments. Rapid City (RAP) is the dominant anchor airport; most South Dakota NPS visits begin with a flight or drive through Rapid City. Mount Rushmore is the most-visited unit by a wide margin and runs evening lighting ceremonies in summer. Badlands' practical visiting window runs late April through October; summer thunderstorms and triple-digit heat are common in July and August. Wind Cave and Jewel Cave tours are temperature-stable year-round, but surface trails track the same seasonal pattern as Badlands.

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South Dakota map with place names

South Dakota National Parks map: labeled satellite map, showing 2 locations: Badlands, Wind Cave
South Dakota's 2 designated National Parks. Dots mark general locations, not entrances. This map does not show every NPS source record in the directory below. Map: National Sites Guide, CC BY 4.0.

Customize or download the South Dakota map. Change the names, pins and background, or download a ready-made PNG or SVG.

NPS source records in South Dakota.

South Dakota has 7 records in our combined NPS metadata and visitor-statistics registry: 2 National Parks · 1 National Monument · 1 National Historic Trail · 1 National Historic Site · 1 National Recreational River · 1 National Memorial. This is a source-record count, not the Park Service's official system-unit census. Combined 5-year-average annual visits: 4,313,239 (multi-state units count their full visits in every state they touch, see methodology). The most-visited record is Mount Rushmore National Memorial at about 2.23M annual visits.

Map of the broader NPS source-record directory
Every National Park Service site in South Dakota, mapped. Each glowing marker is one site, placed at its real coordinates and colored by type. Select a marker for its yearly visits and a link, or use the filters to show or hide a group. 6 of 7 units are mapped here; long-distance trails and units centered in another state are in the table below.
National Park Service sites in South Dakota, mapped Interactive map of South Dakota showing the location of 6 National Park Service sites, colored by type: national parks, monuments and memorials, historic sites, recreation areas and seashores, rivers, trails and parkways, and other sites. It includes the National Parks Wind Cave National Park and Badlands National Park. Each site is also listed with its yearly visits in the table below the map.

Marker positions are each unit's official NPS coordinates. State outline: U.S. Census cartographic boundary (public domain). Independent site, not affiliated with the National Park Service.

UnitDesignation5-yr avg visitsBusiest month
Mount Rushmore National Memorial National MemorialMORU 2,230,698 July
Badlands National Park National ParkBADL 1,102,208 July
Wind Cave National Park National ParkWICA 600,907 July
Missouri National Recreational River National Recreational RiverMNRR 142,015 July
Jewel Cave National Monument National MonumentJECA 120,995 July
Minuteman Missile National Historic Site National Historic SiteMIMI 116,416 July
Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail National Historic TrailLECL — —

Methodology

Rows come from our combined NPS metadata and Visitor Use Statistics registry, not the Park Service's official census of 433 managed system units. Per-record visit counts come from the official NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025; the "5-year average visits" column is the mean of 2021-2025 Recreation Visits. Multi-state records are listed under every state they touch, and their full visit total appears in each state. Official National Park counts use the central 63-park classification rather than the source designation label alone. Independent site, not affiliated with the National Park Service.

Adjacent reading

Independence

Independent site. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Park Service. Data comes from the official NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025; editorial analysis is ours. The NPS Arrowhead and other NPS marks are not used.

Last updated · 2026-09-10