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Bear Country USA

13820 US-16, Rapid City, South Dakota 57702 USA

2,783 Reviews
$$
Reasonable
Closed Now
Opens Fri 9a
  • Independent
  • Credit Cards
    Accepted
  • Wheelchair
    Accessible
  • Outdoor
    Seating
  • No Wifi

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Learn more about this business on Yelp.

“Drive-thru wildlife park”

Very few people have had a full-grown black bear look in the window of their family car, or if they have, it was not by choice. Even fewer have seen a reindeer or a elk up close. However, many people are getting experiences like these at Bear Country U.S.A. in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Nestled over 250 acres amidst towering pines and along rolling meadows just eight miles south of Rapid City, Bear Country U.S.A. offers visitors intimate views of most North American mammals. Visitors take a leisurely three-mile drive through several enclosures and encounter black bear, elk, reindeer, deer, cougars, bobcats, rocky mountain goats, bighorn sheep, dall sheep and buffalo. At this "the home of the largest collection of privately owned black bear in the world", Bear Country U.S.A. guests are guaranteed to see more than they bargained for. From the comfort of their own car, visitors watch as these clowns of nature frolic in a pool, climb trees and amble across the road in front of their vehicle.

Read More >
Photo of Lee S.

Reviewed by
Lee S.

I've always enjoyed the outdoors and the wildlife that call it home. On a recent visit to Bear Country USA in South Dakota that fascination with wildlife was reaffirmed. Without question, out of... Read more

Photo of Janet S.

Reviewed by
Janet S.

Laws - a lot of bears, lovely shiny coats, shambling around, playing in their waterfall and ponds or just snoozing under a tree. The habitats are Four Seasons level. There are Wolves, Elk and... Read more

Photo of Cindy W.

Reviewed by
Cindy W.

We loved watching all the wildlife. Loved how the reindeer walked right in front of the car. Bears we're docile but we knew to stay in the car. They had just been fed some pumpkins and were... Read more

Photo of julie.hutmacher

Reviewed by
julie.hutmacher

Worth the 60 dollars. You will love the bears. At the end of the tour you can see baby animals. The badgers are hilarious. Read more

Photo of mkatzovitz

Reviewed by
mkatzovitz

This was an okay attraction to visit. You drive from habitat to habitat to see the different animals. Some were no shows, which is to be expected. The bears were the highlight of the tour, but it was so hot, all the animals were lethargic. The big negative was that about 5 minutes into the tour, the cars visiting got backed up, and what was supposed to be a 20-30 minute tour took two hours of bumper to bumper traffic. Go early, and make sure there isn't much traffic yet. Read more

Photo of tyrice

Reviewed by
tyrice

Pretty expensive $65 for the 5 of us, but worth it. The Bears walking up to and in-between cars made for great photos and had you constantly looking around to take in more stuff. We had a blast. Read more

Photo of 3gear

Reviewed by
3gear

Awesome, I think we should feed people like delle.conner to the wild animals. Get over yourself, Maybe give of a review of the place on it's merits alone and keep your PETA loving opinion to yourself, the comments you made are not helpful to someone planning a trip, Please keep your rants on FB and Twitter, not here... Read more

Photo of julie.hutmacher

Reviewed by
julie.hutmacher

Worth the 60 dollars. You will love the bears. At the end of the tour you can see baby animals. The badgers are hilarious. Read more

Photo of julie.hutmacher

Reviewed by
julie.hutmacher

Worth the 60 dollars. You will love the bears. At the end of the tour you can see baby animals. The badgers are hilarious. Read more

Photo of julie.hutmacher

Reviewed by
julie.hutmacher

Worth the 60 dollars. You will love the bears. At the end of the tour you can see baby animals. The badgers are hilarious. Read more

Photo of julie.hutmacher

Reviewed by
julie.hutmacher

Worth the 60 dollars. You will love the bears. At the end of the tour you can see baby animals. The badgers are hilarious. Read more

Photo of julie.hutmacher

Reviewed by
julie.hutmacher

Worth the 60 dollars. You will love the bears. At the end of the tour you can see baby animals. The badgers are hilarious. Read more

Photo of julie.hutmacher

Reviewed by
julie.hutmacher

Worth the 60 dollars. You will love the bears. At the end of the tour you can see baby animals. The badgers are hilarious. Read more

Photo of julie.hutmacher

Reviewed by
julie.hutmacher

Worth the 60 dollars. You will love the bears. At the end of the tour you can see baby animals. The badgers are hilarious. Read more

Photo of julie.hutmacher

Reviewed by
julie.hutmacher

Worth the 60 dollars. You will love the bears. At the end of the tour you can see baby animals. The badgers are hilarious. Read more

Photo of julie.hutmacher

Reviewed by
julie.hutmacher

Worth the 60 dollars. You will love the bears. At the end of the tour you can see baby animals. The badgers are hilarious. Read more

Photo of julie.hutmacher

Reviewed by
julie.hutmacher

Worth the 60 dollars. You will love the bears. At the end of the tour you can see baby animals. The badgers are hilarious. Read more

Photo of julie.hutmacher

Reviewed by
julie.hutmacher

Worth the 60 dollars. You will love the bears. At the end of the tour you can see baby animals. The badgers are hilarious. Read more

Photo of julie.hutmacher

Reviewed by
julie.hutmacher

Worth the 60 dollars. You will love the bears. At the end of the tour you can see baby animals. The badgers are hilarious. Read more

Photo of StayceBrumley

Reviewed by
StayceBrumley

It was such a neat experience and the kids had a blast. Read more

Photo of julie.hutmacher

Reviewed by
julie.hutmacher

Worth the 60 dollars. You will love the bears. At the end of the tour you can see baby animals. The badgers are hilarious. Read more

Photo of NickyandEric

Reviewed by
NickyandEric

Really nice to see the animals up close, we had elk walk right in front of the car, an Arctic wolf laying in the grass next to the road. Tons of bears in the bear area. Worth the money! Read more

Photo of AshMartin

Reviewed by
AshMartin

This was so worth the $$! It was so cool, the animals are able to walk around and come right up to the car. Read more

Photo of DavidVoight

Reviewed by
DavidVoight

Super cool experience! The animals literally are right next to you when you drive through. I believe the drive around took roughly 30-40 minutes and was very cool. Our boys enjoyed it and walking after the drive through tour to see the other animals and baby bears. This was a great stop for our family! Read more

Photo of RCB912

Reviewed by
RCB912

RAPID CITY - Two members of the Casey family, which owns and operates Bear Country USA, pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to illegally selling bear gall bladders to buyers in Spearfish and Alaska. And a U.S. Fish & Wildlife official said the black bears those parts came from didn't die of natural causes. "They were being harvested. They were slaughtering them," said Bob Prieksat, resident agent in charge for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in Pierre. "They were definitely breeding bears to produce more bears, and that's something they controlled. Prieksat said the local investigation originated in Colorado, where wildlife officers were investigating a specialty meat business that had reportedly either bought or sold bear parts originating from Bear Country USA. South Dakota officials began investigating in 2001, but Prieksat said he suspects the wildlife park had been selling parts for some time before then. Read more

Photo of amgaunt3

Reviewed by
amgaunt3

Totally worth every penny!!! Such an amazing experience... I thought it was a bit pricey, but nice to see the animals in such great health and to know they're being well taken care of makes you feel like you're contributing! Also you are guaranteed to see everything!! Read more

Photo of mabi0519

Reviewed by
mabi0519

The price was a little steep for a family of four, but it was unique. The best part was the bear area since they walked in front of cars with no care in the world. As said before, there baby bears were the most entertaining. Read more

Photo of PatrycjaKobak

Reviewed by
PatrycjaKobak

Great place, kids loved seeing all the animals up close, HOWEVER, avoid 4th of July weekend if you can! They say it's their busiest time of the year.. it was really backed up.. .it took us about 3 hours to get through this park, and it's not that big.. there was bumper to bumper traffic, and it was at standstill a lot, with no way to pass other cars, or turn around... we had to change our plans for the rest of the day, because it took so long to get out of here... they did give us free bottles of water about half way through which was nice. Read more

Photo of ChadRigert

Reviewed by
ChadRigert

Very cool, had 2 bears walk right in front of me. No notion of timing though as 15 cars ahead of me were always stopping to take 160 pictures. Huge grizzly at the zoo. Read more

Photo of annablue16

Reviewed by
annablue16

Kids loved it! We saw some elusive rams and sheep we hadn't seen on the trip. We have multiple bears walk right by our car. Kids said this was one of the real highlights of the trip for them. You drive by slowly, and then walk around the baby bear part. Read more

Photo of michellemx

Reviewed by
michellemx

Our family really enjoyed it. Two reindeer walked right in front of our car and right to the side of us. They stopped the truck behind us from going and wouldn't move. It was pretty funny. Of course the Bears were the best. They were practically touching our car. We even got to see two of them fighting...or playing. One or the other. Either way it was fun to see these animals so close to us. So close we could touch them but of course didn't dare put our windows down. We went on a Thursday afternoon in the last week of July and it wasn't crowded at all. Afterwards you can park and look at the baby bears. They were really cute to watch. There are a few others to look at as well while you are walking around (skunks, porcupines, etc) . The water mists were a plus for a hot day. Kids played there for a while and got more wet than I would like but they had fun. Read more

Photo of delle.conner

Reviewed by
delle.conner

I think that allowing people to pet what should be wild animals is very troubling. Animals that are wild belong in the wild. Not put on display for a tourist attraction because there's not much to see on your little hill. And using them for your own monetary gain is downright appalling. You should be ashamed of yourself. Read more

Photo of nicole.wilson.180072

Reviewed by
nicole.wilson.180072

I think $60 is much to charge to drive around in a circle. Not anything different than the local zoo. Read more

Photo of audrebri

Reviewed by
audrebri

Very expensive for the drive through the park. We did see a lot of animals but not worth the cost of admission ($60 car load). If you plan on going to Yellowstone National Park - skip this place. Read more

Photo of usandouradventures

Reviewed by
usandouradventures

Tried to go in April... They're only open May through November. My kids were so bummed. Read more

Photo of cityfer86

Reviewed by
cityfer86

This place was awesome! $16 a person or $60 for a whole car of people. Seeing all of the animals right next to the car is amazing! I especially loved all of the bears. Definitely worth stopping! Read more

Photo of PSUgirl2011

Reviewed by
PSUgirl2011

So to start let me say that I went on July 4th which is apparently the busiest week to go. Therefore what should have taken an hour took two and a half. This is virtually a drive through zoo: the set up was not even close to what I assumed from the website. Yes, you get to see all of the animals on every trip but they don't roam free as advertised. They are still caged. I would rather go to the zoo so that you can see more animals, these included for a cheaper price. The best part was the baby bears which are located at the end. So fun to watch play and tumble over each other! Read more

Photo of pjnavarre

Reviewed by
pjnavarre

The best time to go was the last week in August. It was not busy at all, and there was no rush to get through the park. There were so many animals to see, and my goodness... There were hundreds of bears. The animals would come right up to the car; it was amazing. The best part were the baby bears. It was so neat to watch them play with one another! Kind of pricy though, we paid $60 for a "car load". Read more

Photo of campbellwi

Reviewed by
campbellwi

Agree that this was too pricey for what it was. I also went the last week of August and it was not crowded. Lots of bears and some other animals. For $60 it was our most expensive day. They do walk right up to your car, so that makes for some great pictures. Read more

Photo of june14th

Reviewed by
june14th

this was a blast. I was extremely disappointed the first half of the tour because all the animals where hiding but once we got to the bear section it was amayzing. worth the money Read more

Photo of seajaydw

Reviewed by
seajaydw

This is a pretty unique experience and we found it worth the money. We had wolves walk right in front of us and alongside the car and were very close to many other animals that we normally wouldn't be able to see up close like that! Read more

Photo of dmrolsen

Reviewed by
dmrolsen

This was a super fun experience. We were concerned about going because it was a super hot day (104 degrees) and we could only go later in the day (4 pm) and thought the animals might not be very active but they were very fun to watch. The kids were out of their seats scrambling to whichever window the animals were out in each section. The animals truly roam free (within very large caged areas, of course) so they can come right up to your car, onto the road, wherever they want. We saw several different kinds of animals within feet of our car. The bears were the best, obviously. I was surprised by how many they have and how large their area is. It was really incredible to see. The baby bears were the kids favorite! They were super cute and funny to watch. It took us about 2 hours to go through both the driving section and the small/baby animal walking section. Read more

Photo of erik.backlund

Reviewed by
erik.backlund

A little pricey per person but so worth it. They have the adults and the babies separated the adults are in the drive through area and the babies are in the walking section. The kids freaked a lot of fun. Read more

Photo of juicejr33

Reviewed by
juicejr33

Awesome, whole family loved it! Bears right next to your car! Read more

Photo of NuttyHiker

Reviewed by
NuttyHiker

Not a bad little drive-thru safari. Price is a little more than what we usually pay at drive-thru safari's but not by much. They had a lot of bears that were very playful. It was fun sitting there and watching them interact with each other. The Wildlife Walkway loop was where the bear cubs were located and it was fun watching them roll around and play with each other. They have a snack shack if you are hungry (hamburgers, hotdogs). Don't expect freshly made food. Hamburgers are your typical frozen patty heated on a grill and placed on a bun. Our Trip: https://nuttyhiker.com/bear-country-usa/ Read more

Photo of julie.hutmacher

Reviewed by
julie.hutmacher

Worth the 60 dollars. You will love the bears. At the end of the tour you can see baby animals. The badgers are hilarious. Read more

Photo of julie.hutmacher

Reviewed by
julie.hutmacher

Worth the 60 dollars. You will love the bears. At the end of the tour you can see baby animals. The badgers are hilarious. Read more

Photo of Senrabad

Reviewed by
Senrabad

A lot of fun and even though it's mostly a drive-through zoo, you do get some sense of intimacy with rhe animals. The "babyland" exhibit was enchanting and the critters seemed happy. Read more

Photo of julie.hutmacher

Reviewed by
julie.hutmacher

Worth the 60 dollars. You will love the bears. At the end of the tour you can see baby animals. The badgers are hilarious. Read more

Photo of JRSummey

Reviewed by
JRSummey

wife loved it, the baby bears were fun Read more

Bear Country USA

13820 US-16
Rapid City, South Dakota
57702 USA
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Hours

Closed Now
  • Sun - Sat: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

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    Pets Allowed
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    Wheelchair Accessible
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    Credit Cards Accepted
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    Outdoor Seating
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