Mount Rushmore National Memorial
South Dakota
Tonight
🌗 46% moon
5.8 h fully dark
Crowds
high
Open today
Open
Entrance
Free entry
Presidential Trail Partially Closed
The Presidential Trail is currently partially closed until 9:00 pm July 8th, 2026. The historic stairs leading down to the Sculptor's Studio, the Borglum View Terrace, and the Nature Trail remain open. The closure order and map are available by clicking "more".
Official NPS alert →Majestic figures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, surrounded by the beauty of the Black Hills of South Dakota, tell the story of the birth, growth, development and preservation of this country. From the history of the first inhabitants to the diversity of America today, Mount Rushmore brings visitors face to face with the rich heritage we all share.
Activities
Topics
No entrance fee.
Hours & seasons
Weather permitting, the grounds at Mount Rushmore are open every day of the year. The Information Center, Visitor Center, Gift Shop and Carvers' Cafe are open every day except December 25th.
Generally open:
winterspringsummerfallHours are reported by the park — verify before you go.
📞 6055742523
✉ moru_information@nps.govConditions
Quietest months (fewer crowds): Jan, Feb, Nov, Dec
Typical crowds: high
Weather now: ☀️ Clear, 73°F
⛅ 82°/54°
☀️ 90°/62°
☁️ 83°/61°
Typical monthly recreation visits · NPS avg 2023–2025 — orange months are the quietest by crowds.
Quietest months
Relative crowds by month — lighter is quieter; ringed months are the calmest by crowds.
Jan
3%
Feb
4%
Mar
8%
Apr
11%
May
36%
Jun
76%
Jul
100%
Aug
79%
Sep
55%
Oct
21%
Nov
7%
Dec
4%
Log a sky reading
Measured the sky with an SQM meter or app? Add your reading (16 = city glow … 22 = pristine). Opt in under “Travelers like you” to share it on the community leaderboard.
Things to do
Walk the Presidential Trail · 0.6 mi
Visit The Sculptor's Studio
Visit The Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center
Hiking The Blackberry Trail
Visitor centers
Information Center
Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center
Accessibility
23 audio-described place(s)
Reported by the park — verify before you go.
Not an official safety source — always defer to NPS.gov and rangers for life-safety decisions.
By the numbers
A visual read on Mount Rushmore National Memorial — its character, trails, sky, and weather.
Park fingerprint
How this park scores across the dimensions travelers care about.
Trail difficulty
Difficulty mix across this park's trails.
3-day forecast
Daily high and low temperatures (°F).
People & stories
Figures tied to Mount Rushmore National Memorial — each spans a cross-park journey.
Gutzon Borglum
— Art, Sculpture, PresidentsLuigi Del Bianco
— Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Mount Rushmore, ArtistsPeter Norbeck
— Great Plains, South Dakota, Midwest NPSTheodore Roosevelt
— Presidents, Sagamore Hill, Mount RushmorePassport stamps
Mark the stamps you've collected — they show in your memory and along your routes.
🎫 Information Center
🎫 Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center
Places to see
Abraham Lincoln Wayside
audio
Avenue of Flags
audio
Borglum View Terrace
audio
Carver's Café
audio
George Washington Wayside
audio
Gift Shop
audio
Grand View Terrace
audio
Historic View Terrace
audio
Iron Mountain Road (North Entrance)
audio
Lincoln Parking Facility
audio
Mount Rushmore Bookstores
audio
Mount Rushmore National Memorial Amphitheater
audioAudio & media
🎧
🎬
🖼
Learn more
Recipients of the 2003 Environmental Achievement Awards
Hopa Mountain, in partnership with the National Park Service, is pleased to announce the 2019 awardees of the Connecting with our Homelands travel grants. Twenty-one Indigenous organizations, schools, and nonprofits have been awarded travel funds for trips to national park units across 12 states/territories within the United States.
Humor is a form of commentary that often reveals serious truths. Cartoonists combine artistic talents with razor-sharp wits to shine light on political and social issues. In most cases, those artists are external observers. In the National Park Service (NPS), employees in the 1960s to 1980s drew cartoons, published in official newsletters, that provide unique insights into NPS organizational culture, working conditions, and employees' concerns—many of which still exist today.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a 1,278-acre park in the center of the Black Hills in South Dakota. The granite outcroppings and old growth ponderosa pine forest at the park provide good bat roosting habitat. The Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network monitors bats to detect long-term trends in bat populations at this park.
Across six Northern Great Plains parks, education and outreach for bats was conducted.
Across the US, changes in water availability are altering which plants grow where. These changes are evident at a broad scale. But not all areas experience the same climate in the same way, even within the boundaries of a single national park. A new dataset gives park managers a valuable tool for understanding why vegetation has changed and how it might change in the future under different climate-change scenarios.
Meet Hannah Murray, a Cub Scout from Pack 743! She is also a youth volunteer with the National Park Service (NPS).
Pollinators play a crucial role in national park ecosystems and beyond. In the national parks, species inventories help managers know which pollinators are present, and in what abundance, to better understand the state of park ecosystems and make decisions about how to manage them. From 2024 to 2026, 17 parks across the country will be surveyed for bees and butterflies.
How Mount Rushmore National Memorial connects
This park's activities, topics, location, and on-the-ground places — one hop in the graph. Drag to explore; click an activity, topic, or related park to follow it.
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Activity
Topic
State
VisitorCenter
PassportStamp
Trail
ThingToDo
Alert
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