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National Park Trip-Planning Weekend! Free National Park Cheat Sheet Pack with any guide. Orders $150+ get our printed 13 Epic Western Road Trips book (70 copies only)
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We provide detailed itineraries for 4 days, with additional suggestions for up to 7 days. You can re-order days as needed to fit your plans.
Our guide takes you to Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and 5 more national park sights.
You can’t fail with our easy-to-follow instructions, including destinations, arrival times, and over 80 images and maps to keep you on course.
Don’t miss the best scenic drives of the Black Hills. Added bonus: listen to our audio guide while you drive!
Visit the gold rush town of Deadwood to gamble, see shootouts, and learn about Wild Bill.
Our guide eliminates 10 to 20 hours of planning and costs a fraction of what a tour costs.
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The Black Hills pair perfectly with Yellowstone and Grand Teton. If you only visit the West once in your life, this is the trip you should take!
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If you travel using our guides and don’t love them so much that you would tell your best friend about us, we’ll give you your money back. Read more.
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Hey, We’re Matt and Cheryl and we are on a mission to help people have amazing vacations. Not only do we write easy-to-follow itineraries, but we love to share interesting stories in our audio guides about all of our favorite places!
We live in Utah, just four hours away from awesome national parks like Zion and Yellowstone, and have spent our lives exploring the West and the Rocky Mountains. We often travel with both sets of our retired parents (they like each other!) and our four teenagers (who like to travel…sometimes).
We met in a history of Utah class at Weber State University and tied the knot in 2002. Matt worked for Social Security and taught adjunct history classes at our alma mater. Cheryl taught special education for 28 years and continues to volunteer by teaching a weekly dance fitness class.
We took a shot at our dream in 2020 and started making YouTube videos about the national parks we know so well. We now have over 20 million views and have sold over 24,000 guides. We are delighted to help travelers fulfill dreams of their own!
We love trying out all the activities and working with local experts to give the best, most up-to-date travel advice out there.
At We're in the Rockies, we believe in education and donate 5% of the proceeds of your purchase to the Gene Sessions History Scholarship to make education affordable to future park rangers and history teachers.
Watch Cheryl show you how to plan out your travel day in minutes.
Sure. If you have extra time, additional activities are listed in the guide. But, we do recommend visiting other parks like Theodore Roosevelt or Yellowstone National Park instead of just staying in the Black Hills if you have 6-10 days.
You do not have to do the days in any particular order. Some of the days in the itinerary are good transition days that will get you to other places you may be interested in visiting.
We love to visit in September because the crowds are clearing out and it isn’t too hot.
Although the Black Hills are not immune to crowds, it handles them better than most places because there is so much to do and it’s so spread out.
The Black Hills are one of our favorite vacation spots because it offers so much variety! We have done practically everything in this area.
We travel with both sets of our retired parents and our 4 kids (who are now teens), so we have a pretty good radar on the interests of most types of travelers.
We recommend what we believe are the absolute best spots to visit and give backup options for longer hikes or things that cost.
We give star ratings and approximate prices to help you decide which activities are the best value for you!
We are of the mindset that you have a plan, so you can be flexible.
We lay out what we believe are the best activities for your time and money, but we all have different preferences.
Because each activity listed has a star rating, approximate time frame, and cost, you’ll easily be able to adjust to best suit your group’s interests.
We surveyed our customers and they reported that our guides saved them 10-20 hours of trip planning research, on average.
Although much of the information included in this guide can be found with significant research, this guide combines what you need to know into one place and it is from a source committed to giving you the best information.
This guide cost us over $12,422 to create when you combine travel expenses, consulting, map creation, and formatting. In addition, we have spent hundreds of hours visiting this area and doing additional research. The audio guide alone was over 80 hours of labor (but of course, a labor of love!)
If you are only visiting the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore, this is the only guide you need. If you are also interested in visiting Yellowstone and/or Grand Teton, we recommend the Yellowstone + Grand Teton Bundle. It will give you full itineraries and audio guides for all three areas/parks. Plus, it’s cheaper than if you were to buy each of the guides individually.
If you are doing an even bigger trip, just email us at mattandcheryl@wereintherockies.com and tell us where you want to go. A real human will email you back within one business day.
Many of our travelers enjoy the confirmation that they have already created a good plan and may even find a thing or two to add to it.
Other travelers may find that our plan is similar to what they had already pieced together on their own.
If you’ve already spent hours planning, you may not find maximum value in this guide.
Yes! We travel with our 4 children and both sets of our parents. Although not every activity is for everyone, there are always backup suggestions.
We write these guides so all the work you should need to do is obtain your lodging and reservations. We include maps, the time needed to complete drives and activities, and lodging recommendations. We put boxes throughout the guide indicating it’s an item that you will need to take care of before you leave. We also give links to websites we think you should check before you leave.
Yes. You’ll be doing a bit of driving on this trip between all the national parks and monuments. Plus, the Black Hills are famous for their beautiful drives.
The roads are paved and easily passable in a regular car.
Yes. We give approximate time frames that are needed to complete an activity. The schedule is generally not so packed that you have to be a quick traveler. But if you know you generally need more time, you can make adjustments. If you are quick, there are suggestions for additional activities
This is a digital download, so it will be EMAILED to you. That way, you can have access immediately and have the option to download it to any device you want.
Many travelers, including us, prefer to print the itinerary and take it with us as we travel.
The itinerary and audio guide are available immediately upon purchase, right on this webpage. You will also receive an email within 30 minutes with download links in case you need to revisit the links and download the items later. If you don’t receive your email, check your junk mail folder. If it’s not there, contact mattandcheryl@wereintherockies.com, and we’ll be in touch with you within 1 business day. Also, the guides will be available in your account if you choose to establish one (we highly encourage it).
You need cell reception to download the audio guides. Once they are downloaded, no cell reception is needed.
Most people download the audio guides to their phone before they leave.
Just in case you are wondering, an average audio guide takes 150 MB of storage space.
National parks constantly change, including timed-entry requirements, construction, fires, and closures. To keep you updated on the most current things going on, we have a Parks Updates page that we update every week with important information. We recommend you look at this as soon as you begin planning your trip, as well as a few days before you leave.
Guides are automatically updated to the latest version when you create an account.
In addition to that, we also send an email notification out when a guide is updated. Just make sure to stay subscribed to our email list so we can reach you.
Because the download is a PDF file, you can do it on any device: computer, iPhone, Android, tablet, etc.
Stuff like this happens. We get it.
If you created an account, just log in again and download your guides.
If you didn’t create an account or forgot your password, just email us and we can resend your links.
For step-by-step instructions (including pictures) check out our Help With Downloads page.
If you still need help, reach out to us at mattandcheryl@wereintherockies.com. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible to help. We’re even happy to jump on a phone call with you if needed.
This guide is meant to be used May through October. Some of the more touristy attractions begin to close down in October, so be warned if you visit during that time.
All the national parks remain open in the winter with limited accessibility on certain roads and hikes.
Yes!! We update our guides as needed, but write the concepts to intentionally be as timeless as possible. We encourage you to purchase the guide as soon as you know you will be traveling. It will help you determine which areas to stay and how many days to obtain lodging. Upon purchase, you’ll be guided to create an account on our website. If we update the guide, it will automatically show in your account. Your purchase includes free guide updates for life.
It is not required, but is HIGHLY recommended. We encourage you to create an account when purchasing the guides because you’ll have access to the links at any time.
You will have access to the updated guide through your account (another reason to create an account) for life. We generally send an email announcement when we do an update as well.
We believe that once you buy a guide from us, you should be able to use it to visit a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th time.
If you created an account, just log in and download your guide again.
If you didn’t create an account, just email mattandcheryl@wereintherockies.com and let us know you want us to resend your guide links.
We put approximate price ranges on all our activities so you know what to expect. There are plenty of inexpensive and free activities in the Black Hills.
Although we do suggest some hikes, we offer plenty of alternatives if hiking is not desirable, including viewpoints and drives.
When the audio guide is available, here’s what you’ll need:
If you need technical support, check out our help with downloads page. If you are still struggling, you can email us at mattandcheryl@wereintherockies.com
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This itinerary works whether you’re visiting for two days or seven days! It provides four detailed days of activities to see the BEST of the Black Hills. For those who have extra time, it provides ideas for 3 additional days, depending on your interests.
We found the itineraries very helpful and informative. We took your advice about staying in Custer. We spent time taking the scenic trips around Custer State Park and Wind Cave. Enjoyed the Nettles Highway and the Iron Mountain Highway. Took the train ride from Hill City and found it enjoyable and well narrated. Rushmore was not crowded and enjoyable. We didn’t like the Wind Cave scenic drive on the dirt roads. The ranger said the roads were fine but they were not well maintained especially the route five. The Badlands were great with all the pullouts. Unfortunately we saw Deadwood on a rainy day. We stopped at the Devil’s Tower on the way to Yellowstone. Your itinerary mentioned about getting there early. That was so true. We arrived about 10:30am and were able to get a parking spot. This was before Memorial Day. We took the itineraries and altered them to include items we wanted to see in our order. One note, be sure to buy a bag of carrots before seeing the begging burros.
Excellent guide! We just came back from the Black Hills. We followed your itinerary. We went there to see Mt. Rushmore but fell inlove with the Black Hills. We love the little towns. Thank you so much!
We loved this guide of the Black Hills. It took all of the guess work out of our vacation and made our vacation more relaxing. I really liked the audio guides. They really made the historical sites come to life. I will definitely use the other guides for our next trip west.
We’ve purchased several of these guides. All have been very helpful in planning and understanding before we embark on the vacation. Having never been to Mount Rushmore or the area, it was especially helpful to see the highlights of the area, places for eating, getting tickets, and lodging, during planning and while on the road. We’ve listened to their audio tracks also. Very informative, as if we had a guide in the car with us.
Just ending our week in Rapid City, following along with your Black Hills itinerary we purchased! We found the guide to be extremely helpful and full of great recommendations! We always check utube for your videos before each of our road trip adventures as retirees. They are always so helpful!!! This time we had 10 yr old granddaughter with us…so really appreciated all your kid friendly tips on this trip!
The guide was really helpful. Down to the places to eat. The purple pie place in Custer was a favorite!
The guide was very useful. There recommendations were very good and the audios were a nice touch.
Our recent two-and-a-half-week odyssey across the stunning American West has drawn to a close, and we are still buzzing from what truly felt like an epic adventure! From the historic charm of Deadwood to the majestic grandeur of Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, every moment was a testament to meticulous planning and unforgettable experiences.
We simply had to reach out and express our profound gratitude for the extraordinary role your “We Are In The Rockies” guide played in making this journey so seamless and spectacular. Receiving it as a Christmas gift proved to be an absolute godsend. It quickly became the cornerstone of our itinerary, transforming what could have been a logistical puzzle into a beautifully orchestrated exploration.
Your comprehensive guide provided us with a fantastic framework, ensuring we made the most of every day without ever feeling rushed or lost. My husband frequently quipped, “Do you have ‘the book’?” whenever we contemplated our next move, a testament to its indispensable value. We moved with such efficiency, never once backtracking or wasting precious time trying to figure out our next step, which truly enhanced the enjoyment of the trip.
While Custer State Park offered breathtaking beauty, it was the awe-inspiring vistas of the Grand Tetons that utterly captivated us. We dedicated two full days to soaking in its splendor, diligently using your recommendations to discover iconic spots like the rustic barns, the serene Jenny Lake, and Snake River. The landscapes there were nothing short of breathtaking. Yellowstone’s cascading waterfalls also left us spellbound, a magnificent display of nature’s power and beauty.
Even our stay at the historic Bullock Hotel in Deadwood proved memorable – though thankfully, we can report no ghostly encounters, despite confessing to keeping the bathroom light on for an extra measure of comfort!
Your guidance, the sheer thoroughness of your recommendations, and the obvious passion woven into “We Are In The Rockies” elevated our trip from a simple vacation to an extraordinary, life-enriching experience. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for crafting such a brilliant and invaluable resource. You truly made our Western adventure spectacular.
Ray and Lorraine Hall