Rapid City

Rapid City needs 2 days: visiting Mount Rushmore, with the faces of four presidents carved in granite 45 minutes from the city, on one, and touring the Crazy Horse Memorial, a monument under construction since 1948 that, once finished, will be the largest sculpture in the world, on the other. May-September brings the best weather for touring the Black Hills. It's mid-priced for the Midwest. It's the common gateway to both monuments and to Badlands National Park, with its eroded, colorfully layered formations, and its nickname 'City of Presidents' comes from the life-sized bronze statues of every US president scattered along its streets.