Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation Review

An amazing experience just with Mount Rushmore. This one might eventually be more magnificent, albeit at this point continues to be under construction.
As you see in pictures you can already see a lot of the massive monument. There is a great media presentation and artifacts walk. Along with a mirador that will easily have you staring for an hour.
There is a great display about the artist and many historic bits.
Easy parking, I cannot say enough about all the things close to rapid city, mount Rushmore being my top thing but crazy horse not to be missed and so many other things to do in the metro area. Loved it!

I had good time last year, ( this year I wish I had the time to go to South Dakota)but it was little bit too expensive to see the crazy horse statue in a long distance. Still was a great view.

It was cool to walk around and see the history can't wait till it is done

A great tribute to the Native American Indians inspiring Monument

1948 the largest of the world 172 meters sculptures died in 1982 continued by the family

We went on a family road trip out west and this was one of our stops. We spent $30 to get in and all we saw was an unfinished sculpture from far away! The view was not very good and we would have had to pay an additional $16 to ride down to the sculpture and we would still be atleast 1000 feet away from it. I do not recommend paying to get in the park, it's just better to stay in your car and look at it when passing by.

This was a must stop to see. But while you're there you have to see the movie and take the tour to the top. Stand below you just cannot imagine how big the face is.

Very informative, recommend to check out the the documentary in the theatre in the visitors center. The carving itself is not complete yet but they are making progress. The progress is very slow and we understand why it is that after watching the documentary. Good lesson on American history. Its worth going here of you are going to Mt Rushmore

If you are coming to this area to see Mt Rushmore, I recommend you see Mt Rushmore first. The Crazy Horse monument blows Mt Rushmore away.

Do not go on snowy days. I can not see anything. The memorial hall is very interesting.

Very interesting history of the vision behind it. Has a small museum attached to it. If your already checking out Mount Rushmore then it's just a short hop to check this out. Worth the visit.

Enjoyed going here. I was a little disappointed because I was thinking part of the horse had already been started and they have not started on it yet. They are still working on the arm. Brought home three of the big rocks, with a donation, which the Rocks came from the mountain where they are cutting into it to make the formation of Crazy Horse.

Cool idea and awesome memorial in theory! Was there at night to see the laser/light show, which was cool, but I have to say the patriotic Proud to be an American montage at the end (complete with Lee Greenwood) was a true record scratch moment, especially after lightly addressing the genocide and theft of Native Americans/native land? I get they have to sell tickets, which also reminds me: is that why it s taking so long to finish the mountain carving of the ACTUAL memorial?

Support this any way you can. Likely the greatest American of the 19th century.

GYPED/SCREWED/SWINDLED/DISRESPECTED is how we felt. My family and I, sympathetic to Native Americans, were initially excited to visit this memorial. We ended up being charged TWENTY-EIGHT DOLLARS for entrance, and then some lady outside the payment booth asked us for an additional 3$ for some "Volkmarch" which she didn't even bother explaining. We declined, and ended up getting rudely treated by some wannabe security guard who told us "YOU DIDN'T PAY FOR THE VOLKMARCH, SO YOU CAN'T SEE THE MONUMENT".....sarcastically, he said to us, "OH YEAH, IT'S A WHOLE LOT OF MONEY." What 28$ does buy you is admission to a forgettable museum, and a very distant view of the memorial which will never be completed. I left shaking my head at the incompetence of the people who put this pipedream together, knowing that they'll never complete this monument (it's been several decades and they only recently finished the face) and they will continue to screw over and alienate the very people who sympathize with Native Americans in the first place. I'm only bothering to write this to protect the average tourist who I'd hate to see getting ripped off. IF YOU WERE TRULY AN HONEST ORGANIZATION, LIST YOUR PRICES AND "HIDDEN COSTS" IN CLEAR SIGHT AT THE FRONT ENTRANCE!!!

Much much more than just a monument in progress. We were glad the Mt. Rushmore evening program has been cancelled this year or we might have missed this.

Stunning work and amazing effort to create something so spectacular for the Native American people. It's not just the monument. Your money is helping a much larger cause.

Tourist Trap..Be Aware in general International tourist in particular ..I have traveled a whole lot across the globe but this place is tourist trap. I unknowingly visited this place wanting to know more about the great culture and history of USA ..but turned out to be most crazy place you can be at
1. They charge you high amount at gate just to watch the gift shop..a small museum..ridiculous
2. If you want to go near to the place its an extra charge
3. the actual place is not built end to end..it might approx take 60-70 years to build
4. When i asked for refund i met Rude staff and manager

Save time do not visit this place until you are somehow related to this place and you have some extra $ to spare :)

Just a Note : If you hate this place you can get ur Money Back by disputing with credit card companies, i did that and i got my money back

Rip off! Can't really see the sculpture, you have to pay additional to go bus to see it good. This attraction is all about making a family money. It is not even close to being done, not even close. the few things you can see are a waste will not go back nor would i recommend it. Stop on side of the road and get pictures. Waste of time

This is still under construction so you get to see what goes into blasting a sculpture out of a mountain. It was a good experience.

Incredible accomplishment. Will be pretty impressive if it is ever finished. Nice facilities.

Fun place during covid 19. Plenty of local tourists here.

Going to the Crazy Horse Memorial was one of the places on my bucket list and when we arrived there I was not disappointed. The grandeur of the property, the staff, everything that I saw was impressive. I recommend this Memorial even more than Mt. Rushmore.

We thoroughly enjoyed our tour. We took the bus trip to the base, walked through the museum and the gift shop and learned so much! I really don't understand why the reviews on this memorial are so low overall. We were so glad we put this stop on our itinerary.

Spectacular sight from the highway!
The brochures and website tell you parking is free, but they do charge per person in the vehicle. We thought we d stop take a pic or two and head on to our next destination. We did not want to pay $30 to drive in for 10 mins.
Our next Black Hills trip we will put this on our schedule of things to do.

Fantastic place to visit especially during volksmarch when you will have a chance to get close with this magnificent statue. During that special event people have chance to climb all the way to the top. It is a 10K walk/hike in forest terrain.

Quite an undertaking sculpture. A monument you will want to see.

Awesome to have Native American History and power take a stand, still has a long way to go, but they have a tribal group singing and telling stories and a native American gallery, market... Can't wait to see what it looks like when it's finished...

Great place to take kids. And learn about crazy horse

The complaints on this site are the result of a generation focused on instant gratification and the desire to get something for nothing. The vision and commitment of this family is admirable. I have been twice and would return in a minute. SPOILER ALERT: The carving is not done and wont be for a long time. Quit whining about your $11. I candidly was more inspired by the Crazy Horse carving than Rushmore's, although both are awesome.

Although it is a few extra bucks, take the bus trip - amazing how getting closer really brings scale to the carving. And, for real perspective, get up top - either with the donation or the Volksmarch. You will be in awe.

I will agree that if you only come in and see the movie and gift shop, you miss the grandeur of the place and may be disappointed. It's a vacation - you pay more to see a movie and most of those are very forgettable - the mountain will never leave you! Get out and really see it.

Underwelming! To expand, the cost for 4 people was $30. Costs extra to take a bus to the actual mountain, otherwise you are stuck at the visitor center which is more interesting than the view of the monument itself. Don't get me wrong, it is pretty impressive moving that much granite to create a monument, but you are so far away at the visitor center it just was a let down. Some of the artifacts in the visitor center were pretty cool, especially the headdress, but it looked like a lot of the exhibits were not really artifacts, but created in the 20th century.

You get a glimpse of the head of the monument .... from FAR away. and they still charge you $10 per person. I don't think it's run by NPS so NP Annual Pass doesn't work here. There is a gift shop and some kind of museum. Not worth the money IMO

I first saw the Crazy Horse Memorial as a child, probably about 1949 , 1950, 1951, sometime around then. It made an indelible impression on me! At that time there was only a slight visible crevasse on the mountain. There was only timber and mountains visible; no highways, no museums, no restaurants! We met the sculptor who spoke to us about the project, a huge burly man with a beard. Totally impressed! A lot of his kids were running around. It was just his house and studio as I remember.

I vowed to return but so far have not been back so far. I have followed progress on the monument whenever I could find out anything about it. As a child we lived in Wichita, Kansas; now I am in Long Beach, NY where not a lot of attention is paid to "fly over country"! I relish any tidbit of information I am able to read!

Bless the kids who stayed with the project! Crazy Horse will ride again.

Cheers! Elsa Haupt

I should have read some reviews before coming here and saved my $11/person. All that gets you is access to the gift shop, a couple rooms with information and artifacts, and a short film about the builders. Why couldn't they have built a walking path to a closer but still safe area to view it better? Probably because they wouldn't be able to get another $4/person if they did something reasonable like that. Definitely felt like more of a scam/forced donation than enjoyable experience.

Crazy Horse Memorial is one of my favorites for the area. The price for entrance/parking is a little steep, but once you enter the memorial you can see that it is money well spent. The central had a free 20 minute video about the history of the Crazy Horse Memorial project and truly opens your eyes to how amazing it is. The museum is also very well kept. There is a bus ride to the base is the Memorial, but we did not take it. I highly recommend Crazy Horse Memorial to anyone, especially those who are visiting Mount Rushmore (it's a quick drive to see both and you will not be disappointed).

The sculpture of him was beautiful. The rest of it was boring. No historical stories, just a Native American on a stage telling jokes. There s a museum, but it s mostly random donations. It was hardly any Native American memorabilia. I mean, there was a whole case full of signed college sports balls I m fairly confident that Crazy Horse was not a Duke basketball fan. Why was that there?! It was incredibly underwhelming. Honestly, not at all worth $30. Spend $20 and go to Custer State Park. It s better and more fun.

Interesting place to visit especially if interested in Native American history and a good contrast to Mount Rushmore. Staff was nice and enjoyed watching the movie about the history and construction of the monument. The museum was a nice surprise and had a lot of information, history , and artifacts from early American Indians. Enjoyed my time here.

Interesting place to visit in SD. I am not sure how long it will take to finish the whole project.

Great joy. Glad to visit some place that is run by a private group and doesn't cost a crazy amount of money to go to.

If this ever gets finished it will be an amazing site to see. Sadly I feel people don't really care about this monument for whatever reason. The area is beautiful and what they have done looks great.

We were awe struck by the magnitude of this beautiful sculpture! We took the bus ride to the base of the mountain and it was well worth the nominal fee! The driver was interesting and gave us a wealth of facts regarding the history and ongoing work on the sculpture. It was well worth the time we took to visit.

It's great, we really enjoy it, it be nicer it they focus more on Crazy Horse as opposed to the person who started the memorial.

Impressive stone carving. It's world's largest stone carving.stil work in progress.i visited this place in 2015 and then in 2019.does not see much progress. They also charge $4 for a bus ride.in my opinion not useful.

it cost to go to the crazy horse monument, also it was too foggy to see it anyway.

One of many places that have to be seen in person to fully appreciate it.

Its America History in the making take your kids to visit if you get a chance...

Place is fine because of history and the actual sculpture, but it's a high fee for almost nothing else to see. I'm a bit disappointed

Interesting history into the life of crazy horse and the Lakota people, only complaint is that the entrance fee is quite steep for what you get.... after getting to spend time and see Mount Rushmore for basically free.

Expensive, not much more there than you can see from the highway.

Why is this project not complete?!?

Quote from NPR "Carzy Horse is now more than six decades in the making. In comparison, most historians say Egypt's Great Pyramid took about 20 years to finish."

Per the National Park Service "Mount Rushmore National Memorial is visited by nearly three million people each year."

So the dirty math is if just half of the visitors see both 1.5 million x 28.00 dollars a carload = 42,000,000.00 in non-taxable revenue.

Plus if only half of that take the school bus 750,000 @ 4.00 dollars a person = an additional 3,000,000.

And if only a 4th of that pay the 125.00 dollar for the van ride to the top (187,500) that's an additional 23,437,500. But that seems a bit high so let's say only a (100,000) pay to go to the top that's still 12,500,000.

That totals 57,500,000 (PER YEAR). Not counting concessions or extra donations. A million here and a million there. Now your talking real mony.

They are quick to point out that they are 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization and would not lower themselves to take federal money to complete this project, it more likely they don"t not want government oversight messing with their cash cow.

What I learned about Carzy Horse ZERO. What I learned about Korczak Ziolkowski and his family too much!

Very disappointed!

P.S. I don't think Carzy Horse would appreciate the tribute to the U.S. armed forces (in the laser light show on the monument) as they were his biggest enemy.

Can't give it no stars. Too bad. You can either have a root canal done or go to Crazy Horse Memorial. At least with a root canal something productive comes out of it! This monument, despite the MILLIONS, that people have given to the project, is unchanged for decades. Please please please! Don't waste you time or money like we did.

There is no comparison between this private commercial family operated enterprise and the national monuments like Rushmore. Very expensive and you are not even able to get close or even see it very well. A sham really. They will never, ever finish construction.

It's awe inspiring. Enormous. Started in 1948 it's entirely privately funded and government help has been refused as it will take, probably, another 70 years to finish. It's not just about the monument though, it's about Indian culture, history and education. I really was moved by the whole idea.

Interesting...and I'm glad I went...but its expensive and not completely worth the time.

Could spend hours in the culture center alone. What an amazing story.

This will be really cool once it is done, but it's definitely not worth the $30 cost per vehicle and then they try to get you to pay an additional $4 per person to take a bus out to the memorial. Take a page from Mount Rushmore and bring down the cost to $10 per vehicle. Maybe once it's finished you can charge a bit more, but not yet.

This place is epic. you must, I mean must come here. This is truly an American marvel and the story about how this monument came to be is nothing short of fantastic.

Please don't come here for a tons of likes Instagram kind of pictures. Spend $11 for elsewhere like Macdonalds early bird special or so

Tourist trap. They pretend that they are actually planning on finishing it. But they obviously have no plans to. Occasionally they'll do a symbolic detonation at the base. But that's just for publicity.

We took bus up there to c it close o it's something to c you would love it great family stuff

Was informed it will be completed in 81 years. About 30 mins away from Mount Rushmore. Take the shuttle bus to get a better photo opportunity of Crazy Horse.

Take the $4 quick van ride to get a closer look and a little oral history. It will be pretty awesome looking when it is completed. However, it definitely won't be completed in my life time or my 17 year old son's lifetime. They said it will be 100 years before it is completed.

You know what $30 gets you? The same view you get from the highway, matter of fact the same view from 15 years.....this and Four Corners are the biggest jokes. Donate the money to a natural park, go somewhere that isn't man made...

There is so much history with in those walls it's absolutely amazing!! History in the making and holding on to the past. It's so amazing to the work that has gone into the mountain. There is artifacts from all native Americans nation's. Very glad we got to experience some thing so beautiful. The drums and dance's there is something for everyone!!

Unless you do the bus tour your wasting your money $30 for family of 4, the face can't be seen from the viewing area other then a side profile.

A friend and I were doing a seminar in Fort Collins, CO one summer and decided to drive out to see Mount Rushmore . We were almost there and came up a sign that read Crazy Horse Monument 2 miles on right. We decided to stop and check it out which turned out to be the right choice. Very interesting to learn all the facts on the man that started the project with his wife and the way he planned his work and worked his plan with a lot of sweat and very little reliable equipment. He never took any government money to help with the cost. We spent as much time as we could there and drove over to Mt. Rushmore and stayed long enought to take a picture. Before we left Crazy Horse I asked a guide when the monument would be finished. Without hesitation or emotion he said "Tuesday". I hope my Grandchildren will get to see the completed tribute to Crazy Horse. TH

For 2 adults it was $24 for entry only, you are very far from the monument and only really get to see the profile of Crazy Horse. About 2-3 times further than Mt. Rushmore. Based on other reviews I m assuming it s because of the time of year. We went in November and the welcome center was cool to look through with all the stories and what appeared to be artifacts. To get closer was an additional fee, does not seem worth it unfortunately. Locals told us they have not made any progress in the last 20 years

Expensive. $24 to park the car, tour the museum and gift shop; one expects these tourist places to overcharge for their stuff but this was worse. To see the sculpture up close it would have been more money. May have spent 1/2 hour there. Maybe if it were warmer and walking would have been possible my opinion would have been different.

I think this place gets a bad rap in some reviews. I took my family and we felt it was completely worth the $30 car entry fee. While we were here we opted for the $4 per person bus ride that got us closer to the monument. Our driver/guide More

Love it!!!! Can't say enough good things about it!! Incredible memorial and project!! Great tribute!!! Pay for the trip to the top of the monument!! Well worth it!!

A another must visit that's near MT Rushmore. Plan on a few hours to see all the exhibits and the short video about the history, the project and vision.

Beautiful and very inspiring!
Good job to everyone who works hard to get the job done!

My name is Michelle. I came to see Crazy Horse last week and was very impressed with the story, family, and all of the accomplishments to date. I had the pleasure of meeting Monique. She stopped us at the top of the statue (mountain) to formally introduce herself, which I felt was very cool. She seemed to be a well educated woman who has spent her life on the mountain. We had a short conversation, I learned some history and got some great pictures while up at the top. Well worth the trip. I wish I had more to donate to speed up the completion of this magnificent project. I also wish I would have gotten my picture taken with Monique as that would have made me a part of this amazing history!!!