When I was a kid, my family drove across country from Seattle to Pittsburgh and back again every two or three years. We visted many tourist traps, but my favorites were around the Rapid City area. And there are just so many of them. I think this maybe the largest concentration of tourist traps in the United States.
If you are in the area, you have to visit Mt Rushmore, which is basically a government sponsored tourist trap. It is really is cool seeing it in person. On one visit, I actually took a helicopter ride and flew over and around Mt Rushmore.
In the area is one of my all time favorite tourist traps named Cosmos. Cosmos is a place where the laws of physics are supposed to be all out of whack. You stand in a building, and you are leaning. Tall people are shorter, and short people are taller, water flows up hill, etc, etc. It’s basically one big optical illusion, but still a lot of fun. I have been to a similar tourist trap in California named The Mystery Spot.
Another tourist trap is Rushmore Cave. It is a cave you can go through that is filled with salactites, stalagmites, and other cool cave features. This cave is cool, but I like Lewis And Clark Caverns in Montana better. But then those aren’t near Rushmore.
Reptile Gardens was a family favorite! This place has reptiles of all kinds! Snakes, turtles, and all kinds of other stuff. I have a picture in an album somewhere of my grandmother with a giant snake wrapped her. I remember a glass dome filled with tree that you could walk through. And there were snakes of all kinds hanging from the branches above you.
Another one of my faves as a kid was The Flintstones Bedrock City, in Custer, SD. This place features full size mock ups of Flintstone cars, houses, characters. I still have a pictures of my family with our faces shoved in the holes in plywood scenes, replacing the faces of the Flintstones. I know the place is cheesey, but it was fun.
There are many other tourist traps in the area. Just watch for signs, billboards, and pamphlets
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