Parking
Use the memorial parking complex, then walk to the Main Entrance Pergola. The trail starts at its far-right roadside edge by the garage. Parking fees apply; the memorial has no entrance fee.
Overview
About Nature Trail
Why go
- Wooded route links the entrance side with Sculptor's Studio.
Heads up
- Very short as an out-and-back; the Studio is the main payoff.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Mount Rushmore map
Full mapElevation5,177–5,266 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
1 active Mount Rushmore alert
- 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
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Mount Rushmore Tour Guide
Your drive to Nature Trail, 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 trailhead
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 this trailhead 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.”
Trail guide
Hiking Nature Trail
A short walk through the pinesNature Trail is a wooded footpath connecting the Main Entrance Pergola with Sculptor's Studio.
Nature Trail is a wooded footpath connecting the Main Entrance Pergola with Sculptor's Studio. As a standalone hike, the complete walk is about 0.4 miles, with the return retracing the same corridor. The stored map follows the path one way. Allow 15 to 20 minutes of walking, then add time if you are visiting the Studio. This is a brief campus walk, not a destination-length hike.
Finding the trailStart at the far-right edge of the Main Entrance Pergola near the road and parking garage.
Start at the far-right edge of the Main Entrance Pergola near the road and parking garage. The path runs through Ponderosa pines toward the Studio area. Turn around there for the standalone out-and-back; continuing on other campus walkways makes a different, longer outing.
At the Sculptor's StudioThe Studio holds Gutzon Borglum's original plaster scale model, one-twelfth the size of the…
The Studio holds Gutzon Borglum's original plaster scale model, one-twelfth the size of the carved faces. It opens seasonally, from late May through September 30, so check the season before planning to go inside. The Nature Trail is not wheelchair accessible. Pets may stay only in the parking garages and areas next to them, so leave them off this walk.
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.
