On our drive from Utah to Maryland, we had a lot of fun stopping and exploring some random roadside stops along with a couple of national parks. One of the places we stopped was Wall Drug in South Dakota.
Wall Drug is a big tourist stop in Wall South Dakota near Badlands National Park. It’s only a couple of minutes of the highway and a fun place to stop and stretch your legs.
Wall Drug Store
The Wall Drug Store is hard to miss if your driving on 90 you will see signs advertising it for miles before you stop. While the signs advertise for Wall Drug you still might wonder why you should stop and what Wall Drug actually is.
What is Wall Drug Store?
Wall Drug Store is a drug store, gift shop and restaurant among other things. It’s a 76,000 square foot attraction with a variety of shops, some fun photo opportunities and free water.
Things to Do at Wall Drug
If you decide to stop at Wall Drug it can be a little overwhelming the building is massive and it’s hard to know where you should enter or what you should do in the store.
My advice pick an entrance and see where it leads. We entered an area that was like an indoor shopping mall with a main walkway and little shops of each side.
In this area, there were some western statues and benches along the walkway as well as some coin pressing machines.
As we walked down this path we found a gift shop that had all the typical souvenir things you would expect. In the shop, there was a Dr. Feelgood animatronic that reminded us of an episode of the Andy Griffith show.
If you put in some change Dr. Feelgood will share a little sales pitch about his miracle feel good syrup.
From this area we headed to the Wall Drug backyard. In the backyard you will find stations to get free water as well as some fun areas to take pictures.
There was a horse, train caboose, jackalope and even a mini Mount Rushmore that you could take pictures with.
Keep in mind that they can be hot, so check the temperature before setting your kids on the animals for a picture.
In this area there is also Buckaroo Bill’s skinny saloon where for a quarter a gorilla will play the piano. There are several little kid rides like you find in the mall or outside grocery stories that also cost 25 cents to ride.
Inside the backyard building, we found a Weight and Horoscope machine that cost 1 cent for your weight and 5 cents for both your weight and horoscope.
There were some other cheap little games that you could play in this area, as well as a lot of taxidermy.
The big attraction for the backyard building is a dinosaur that comes to life throughout the day.
After exploring and taking pictures we headed for the front building to get some lunch and the donuts we saw advertised.
Jared and I tried the Buffalo Burger while the kids stuck with french fries and chicken strips.
We also tried a slice of pie with ice cream and a couple of donuts. The food was ok but not anything special.
In the restaurant they had cups for free water and we thought it was kind of funny that they had printed on the cups that it was free ice water at wall drug.
They also had 5 cent coffee which is something else they advertise on the signs leading up to the stop.
I have no idea how the coffee is since I don’t drink it, but it really is only 5 cents for a cup.
On our way out we stopped and did a couple of pressed pennies we got one for Wall Drug and another for Badlands National Park.
Once your done exploring Wall Drug it’s only a short drive to Badlands National Park or if you’re heading west Mount Rushmore is about an hour west of Wall Drug.
While the Wall Drug Store in South Dakota probably isn’t a destination you want to plan a trip around it is a fun place to stop if you are traveling through the area.
Have you ever visited Wall Drug in South Dakota?