America Tours West is the premier receptive tour operator for Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, the Black Hills and Badlands of western South Dakota. We provide the finest in step-on guide services, our itinerary planning includes existing and custom trips; we will make reservations for hotels, meals and attractions; and we provide contracting for local entertainment and educational presentations.

This area is famous for the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse. But there are many other places that make up the list of natural attractions you’ll want to see and listing all of them is impractical. Some of those are the Badlands, Spearfish Canyon, the Wild Horse Sanctuary, the Mammoth Site, Devils Tower, Bear Butte, Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, and Custer State Park.

The most difficult thing to do for tour planners unfamiliar with this area, is how to schedule visiting all the extraordinary number of things there are to see and do here. These things and places, along with the history of the Lakota Sioux, General George Armstrong Custer, Deadwood’s saloon girls and gold miners, the settlers, dinosaurs and wooly mammoths make this a destination unlike any other place on earth.

The first error that most people make in planning tours here is trying to see it in a day or two. It is not a huge area—about 100 miles north to south and 60 miles or so west to east—but packed into that area are a labyrinth of roads and highways. The second thing that is often underestimated is the value of a step-on guide. If people don’t understand the connection between gold miners and Mount Rushmore they don’t really understand this area at all. There is a connection between Mount Rushmore, Central Park in New York City, Custer’s Expedition of 1874, old time airplane barnstormers and professional football that will fascinate casual travelers and the dedicated historians. Don’t just come for the photos and leave without a full understanding of what buffalo and dinosaurs have in common!

In recent years, the marketing arm of Black Hills tourism developed a top-notch slogan to capture the essence of what a visit to the Black Hills is ... “Beyond All Expectations.” With icons like the Journey Museum, Deadwood, Bear Country, the Black Hills Central Railroad 1880 Train, Tatanka, Wall Drug, Reptile Gardens, Mount Moriah, Mt. Rushmore Black Hills Gold jewelry factory, the Homestake Mine Open Cut, Sylvan Lake, Stavkirke Chapel, the Dances with Wolves movie set, the Berlin Wall Exhibit and an almost endless list of things to see and experience – it truly is a fitting slogan. A visit to this awe-inspiring area is just that – Beyond All Expectations! The Black Hills are home to several nationally recognized golf courses, national award winning hotels, unusual museums like the National Museum of Woodcarving, and art galleries like Prairie Edge which markets Native American art and crafts nationally.

We encourage you to contact us to discuss how we can begin to put together the itinerary that fits with your travel and marketing schedule. If you just need a step on guide or you want us to plan your complete Mount Rushmore visit, we have the experience and the contacts to make this one of those tours that your customers will brag about.

Remember, we’re in the same business you’re in—creating experiences and memories that will last a lifetime.