Cosmos Mystery Area will Blow Your Mind

It’s hard to find your balance at the Cosmos Mystery Area near Rapid City, South Dakota. You can feel the weight of gravity pulling you this way and that. The tour through the cabin definitely plays tricks with your mind.

While that description may steer you away from wanting to visit, it’s that mystery that keeps people visiting. Here are a few tips and tricks I learned during our family visit to the Cosmos Mystery Area.

NOTE: I’m using fewer photos in this post than usual. Although I snapped a lot of photos of my wife and kids during the tour, I don’t want to ruin the mystery of what you’ll see and experience.

Plan Your Visit to the Cosmos Mystery Area

The best way to plan your vacation is to purchase your tickets online to the Cosmos Mystery Area. Otherwise, you risk having hours between arriving onsite to purchase your tickets and your tour time.

Tour start times run every 30 minutes starting at 9:30 a.m. The last tour of the day starts at 4:30 p.m. Each tour lasts about 30 minutes.

Access the Cosmos Mystery Area via a short dirt road off of Highway 16, south of Rapid City. It’s a short drive from another popular attraction – Bear Country U.S.A. NOTE: We enjoyed a brief stop at the House of Scandinavia, too, where the kids picked up a cookbook, chocolates, treats and a Christmas decoration.

Arrive 15 minutes prior to your tour start time. Parking is free. Check in at the front desk to pick up your tickets. They’ll announce overhead when you need to head over to the patio area to start your tour.

Laugh and Be Amazed on the Tour

I hope your tour guide was as funny as ours. Right from the start, he told us he was going to share a lot of lame jokes. Sure enough, he delivered throughout the entire tour. I know the tour guide can make or break the level of enjoyment for the tour, and ours didn’t let us down.

During the tour, he engaged with members of the audience. In fact, each one of my kids had an opportunity to try something along the tour. Whether it was sitting in a lie detector chair or ensuring a tennis ball is a normal, everyday tennis ball.

As we entered the cabin area, my equilibrium was thrown off. The cosmic power of the area was strong and I had to lean up against a wall to try and keep my nauseousness to a minimum. My sister-in-law had visited this spot last year and she felt the same way.

As the tour continued, I was able to sort out the equilibrium problems. We had fun flying like superman, watching a pool ball roll uphill, or trying to to drop a bean bag on a specific spot that seems to fall funny.

When we completed our visit through the multiple rooms of the cosmic cabin, our tour guide offered to take group photos of everyone, so we took advantage of that and got a nice family shot.

A Few Pointers to Maximize Your Visit

If you get motion sick, there’s no harm in taking some dramamine before your visit. 😉 It’s also okay to lean up against a wall during your tour to help manage what your eyes are seeing and your body is feeling.

If you have extra time to fill before the start of your tour, you can purchase a bag of dirt from the gift shop. With that bag, you can head over to the gem mining area and sift through the dirt to find some gems. There’s running water to help you sift through the dirt. There’s also a guide to help you know which gems you’ve found. It’s a great activity for kids.

Another activity area allows kids to search for a geode in a large sand box. Then they can take the geode inside the gift shop and have it broken open.

The Details

Address: 24040 Cosmos Road, Rapid City, SD 57702

Cost: $11 for adults (ages 12+). $6 for children (5-11). Children 4 and under are free, when accompanied by a paying adult. Free parking is available.

Hours: The 40-minute tour starts every 30 minutes beginning at 9:30 a.m. The last tour starts at 4:30 p.m.

Website: https://www.cosmosmysteryarea.com/

Phone: (605) 343-9802

PIN THIS