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Photo: Larry Koester, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This is a serious herpetological park (as well as a "fun" place) with one of the best collections of lizards, gators and snakes in the country-quite possibly the best. "Gus" (short for "humongous"), the resident 14-foot-long American alligator, is a favorite.
Reptile Gardens is a reptile-focused zoo south of Rapid City, South Dakota, on US 16 between Rapid City and Mount Rushmore. The park is open from the first Saturday of March through November 30 each year. Reptile Gardens was certified in the 2014 and 2018 editions of Guinness World Records as the world's largest reptile zoo.
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Movie-set buildings from Dances With Wolves are part of the fun of this traditional cowboy supper with music and comedy show. All you can eat 99¢ pancakes 6:30AM-11AM. Supper bell rings at 6:30PM nightly for a hearty meal of BBQ beef, chuckwagon potatoes, spice cake, baked beans, biscuits, applesauce and coffee or lemonade. Then is time for our foot-stomping music/comedy show by the Ft. Hays Wranglers.
A kids' park.
Concrete dinosaurs on a hill overlooking the city.
An old hotel
Art Alley is an unusual art gallery in downtown Rapid. Graffiti, Paintings, Sculpture, Poetry, and even profile photos fill this alley that is always changing where the Black Hill's under thirty locals hang out. Artists paint on the building walls with the owner's permission.