Distances from Rapid City, SD to nearby and major US cities
Drive times and estimated fuel costs from Rapid City, SD to the towns around it and to the major cities most people head for. Pick any row for the full route.
Rapid City, SD sits in South Dakota, on Denver time, at 44.08° north and 103.23° west. The nearest place of any size is Gillette, WY, about 132 miles away — roughly 2 hr 12 min of driving.
Counting only places above twenty thousand people, 1 are within three hours' driving of Rapid City, SD and 29 within six — which is a better measure of how connected a town is than its position on a map. The nearest city of real size is Aurora, CO, about 362 miles out.
The two lists below answer different questions. The first is what is physically close, which is what you want for an errand or a day out. The second is the major cities people actually drive to from here, which is usually a longer trip and a different kind of plan. Every figure is an estimated road distance rather than a routed one, and every drive time assumes free-flowing traffic with no allowance for a stop — how the estimate works. For a pair that is not listed here, the calculator will work out any two US cities.
Which way the driving goes from Rapid City, SD
Reachable places are rarely spread evenly around a town, and they are not around Rapid City, SD. Of everything above twenty thousand people within three hours' drive, the largest share — 1 of 1 — lies to the west. That asymmetry is usually geography rather than road building: coastline, a state line, mountains or simply empty country in one direction and settlement in another.
Everything within three hours of Rapid City, SD lies across a state line, which matters more than the mileage does: speed limits, phone rules and what you may do at a red light are set state by state, so almost any drive from here is governed by two sets of rules. The state-by-state differences are set out separately.
The major-city list below spans a wide range: Denver, CO is about 363 miles out, roughly 6 hr 3 min of driving, while Brooklyn, NY is around 1,787 miles — a different order of trip entirely, and one to plan in stages rather than as a day. 6 of the 10 routes below have a page of their own, with the towns along the way and how flying compares.
One thing none of these figures account for: the distance is the same in both directions but the drive often is not. A route that climbs on the way out descends on the way back, rush hour is in one direction in the morning and the other in the evening, and a mountain pass can be open one way and closed the other in winter. The estimate here is symmetrical because the road is; the day is not. For a long haul out of Rapid City, SD, the road safety guides cover the part the mileage leaves out.
Closest cities to Rapid City, SD
- Gillette, WY 132 mi · 2 hr 12 min
- Casper, WY 204 mi · 3 hr 24 min
- Dickinson, ND 226 mi · 3 hr 46 min
- Cheyenne, WY 254 mi · 4 hr 14 min
- Mandan, ND 256 mi · 4 hr 16 min
- Bismarck, ND 258 mi · 4 hr 18 min
- Laramie, WY 262 mi · 4 hr 22 min
- North Platte, NE 278 mi · 4 hr 38 min
- Aberdeen, SD 292 mi · 4 hr 52 min
- Fort Collins, CO 301 mi · 5 hr 1 min
Major cities from Rapid City, SD
- Denver, CO 363 mi · 6 hr 3 min
- Lincoln, NE 469 mi · 7 hr 26 min
- Omaha, NE 485 mi · 7 hr 42 min
- Minneapolis, MN 574 mi · 9 hr 6 min
- Kansas City, MO 654 mi · 10 hr 23 min
- Madison, WI 806 mi · 12 hr 48 min
- Chicago, IL 930 mi · 14 hr 45 min
- Los Angeles, CA 1229 mi · 19 hr 30 min
- New York City, NY 1782 mi · 28 hr 17 min
- Brooklyn, NY 1787 mi · 28 hr 21 min