One of the last armed efforts of the Northern Plains Indians to preserve their way of life. Here in 1876, 263 soldiers and attached personnel of the U.S. Army, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer, met death at the hands of several thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors.

 Sculpted by Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln Borglum, Mount Rushmore features 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of four United States presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. 

 Granite peaks and forested mountains dominate the skyline of western South Dakota. America's oldest mountains rose above the surrounding flatlands 60 million years ago and even after eons of erosion their granite peaks still soar as high as 7,242ft. 

 Contains the world’s richest Oligocene epoch fossil beds, 28-37 million years old.  Horse and rhinoceros fossils are found in sharply eroded buttes. Scramble over the badlands formations. 

 Established in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt, it was the seventh U.S. National Park and the first cave to be designated a national park anywhere in the world. The cave is the sixth-longest in the world with 149.01 miles of explored cave passageways. 

 President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed it as the 1st National Monument in 1906. Once hidden, erosion has revealed Devils Tower which rises 1267 feet above the Belle Fourche River. It is a sacred site for many American Indians, also known as Bears Lodge. 

 Located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the park is home to a variety of wildlife and magnificent scenery. Nearly 1,500 buffalo roam the prairies and hills, which they share with pronghorn, elk, mountain goats and burros. Slender granite formations called "Needles" dominate the skyline. Swim in Sylvan Lake, where scenes from National Treasure 2 – Book of Secrets was filmed.

 With elevations ranging from 8,000 ft. in the wet, grassy valleys to 14,259 ft. at the weather-ravaged top of Longs Peak. Go sledding and have a snowball fight in August in an alpine meadow off Trail Ridge Road.. 

 Was a significant 19th century trading post and diplomatic site located at the confluence of the Laramie River and the North Platte River in the upper Platte River Valley. It was a primary stopping point on the Oregon Trail. 

 Jewel Cave, currently the third longest cave in the world, with 200.3 miles of mapped passageways. 

 This site has the greatest concentration of mammoth remains in the world. As of 2016, the remains of 61 mammoths, including 58 North American Columbian and 3 woolly mammoths had been recovered.