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- InfoSculptor’s Studio Heat AdvisoryThe Sculptor’s Studio may close temporarily during periods of high heat. - The closure protects visitors and staff from high heat.Official details
Overview
About Carvers' Café
Why stop
- The memorial’s only full meal venue also has a sculpture view.
Heads up
- Food quality is inconsistent.
Map
Where it is
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Full mapPlan your stop
Before you go
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Mount Rushmore Tour Guide
Your drive to Carvers' Café, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Mount Rushmore National Memorial. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this place
Grand View Terrace and the Visitor Complex0:00 / 0:34
“You're approaching the memorial visitor complex and the walk to Grand View Terrace. For the classic photo of all four faces, keep some granite below the portraits in frame to show their scale.”
Plays as you drive up to Carvers' Café in the Parkwolf Mount Rushmore Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Blackberry Trailhead: Creek Walk or Lake Hike
- Washington's Profile View
- A Record for the Distant Future
- Wrinkled Rock Climbing Area
- 5 audio storiesacross Mount Rushmore’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Mountain Goat, Mule Deer, White-tailed Deer, and 7 more
- Works offlinemaps, 8 trails, 18 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“We recently toured Badlands, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore and more! We learned so much from this app as we toured each of these sites. The audio tours are worth the money.”
Guide
More about Carvers' Café
The meal stop at Mount RushmoreCarvers' Café is a counter-service cafeteria inside the memorial, and its only full dining…
Carvers' Café is a counter-service cafeteria inside the memorial, and its only full dining venue. If you want a meal without leaving the visit, this is the practical stop; I wouldn't make a special trip for the food alone. You can eat indoors or outside with a view of the sculpture. The café has public restrooms, drinking water and wheelchair access. Food quality is mixed: some visitors praise the pot roast meals, while others report cool or unevenly prepared dishes.
Buffalo chili, full meals and ice creamBuffalo burgers and buffalo chili are listed as year-round favorites.
Buffalo burgers and buffalo chili are listed as year-round favorites. Pot roast and grilled chicken come as full plates with mashed potatoes, a vegetable and a dinner roll, and the summer menu expands. The separate Memorial Team Ice Cream counter is inside the same venue; its Thomas Jefferson vanilla is inspired by a recipe associated with Jefferson.
The ice cream has a baseball storyThe Memorial Team name comes from a baseball team formed among the sculptors' crew.
The Memorial Team name comes from a baseball team formed among the sculptors' crew. Some workers were hired for pitching and fielding as well as carving, and the amateur team placed second in South Dakota's state competition in 1939. Photos of the players in uniform are displayed in the parlor, giving the ice cream stop a small piece of the monument's working history.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Mount Rushmore
87 sightingsMountain GoatMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
44 sightingsMule DeerMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
20 sightingsWhite-tailed DeerMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
14 sightingsTurkey VultureMost seen around 1 PMSighting map
32 sightingsMarmotMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
11 sightingsBrook TroutMost seen around 8 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Mount Rushmore. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
