Are you planning a trip to Mount Rushmore? If so, you may want to consider staying in Rapid City, SD, which is located just 25 miles west of the famous carved faces of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson. Plan your next vacation to Mount Rushmore with Rapid City in mind. Easy access to nearby top attractions make Rapid City a great detour for sightseeing. Take memorable photos at Dinosaur Park, where you will find seven concrete, life-size replicas of prehistoric dinosaurs and reptiles. At the free children’s park Storybook Island, kids can meet fairy tale characters, see a replica of Snow White‘s house and the seven dwarves, and ride a choo-choo train. To get to Storybook Island, take the City View Trolley, which provides narrated city view tours and stops at all the city’s major points of interest. Rapid City is home to the world’s largest reptile zoo at Reptile Gardens, where you can watch a snake, gator, or bird show, see exotic amphibians like the poison dart frog, learn about the reptile family and meet Maniac, America’s Giant Crocodile. Experience the great outdoors at Rapid Creek, with fourteen manmade lakes where you can swim, scuba dive, kayak, or canoe. Rock climb in the Needles-Sylvan Lake district, where you can descend 300 feet from towering, granite spires. Rapid City also provides a unique spot for rock hounding and/or mineral mining. Unique mineral collections are on display at the Museum of Geology. Less