Dinos, missiles, & vinegar: South Dakota's weirdest museums

If you have any dinosaur enthusiasts in your group, then definitely make sure you stop by Dinosaur Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Providing fun since 1936, Rapid City's Dinosaur Park is the perfect place to stop off and enjoy the views. Oh, yeah… and there are kitschy, larger-than-life dino statues, too! They're perched along stairs leading up a hill that offers panoramic, 100-mile looks at the landscape. Pose for some pictures with the beasts, and admire the fact that these creatures once roamed the area.

Built for those who love music, the National Music Museum (NMM) in Vermillion, South Dakota, is a must-see. This is one of the most iconic music locations in the world, and contains music and instruments from virtually every culture and time period. Classical, jazz, blues, and every style of music in between is represented in some shape or form. In addition, the NMM is also home to hundreds of music artifacts, memorabilia, and more. You're bound to stumble across at least a few instruments you've never even heard of, pieces owned by famous musicians, and even a Stradivarius violin.

Designed to highlight the historical significance of the Cold War and the arms race, the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site is the perfect stop for any group that enjoys history, American or otherwise. It's the site of one of six missile complexes built during the Cold War as a deterrent to a nuclear strike by the Soviet Union. You can see a real-life decommissioned nuclear missile in the Delta-09 silo, which is a rare opportunity. This historic site offers very small guided tours of the Delta-01 Launch Facility (reserved for 6 people) where you can see the control room up close and personal. Book those in advance! If you don't snag tickets, fear not; the visitor center has loads of exhibits, films, and other info that will scratch your itch for learning about America's nuclear history.

The perfect stop for both adults and kids, thanks to its wide variety of artifacts, the Adams Museum is a fantastic place to spend a few hours of your day. Learn more about the historic town of Deadwood, South Dakota, and get an in-depth look at some of the characters that helped create it. Adams Museum is the oldest Black Hills museum, and the informative displays about this infamous town won't disappoint. If visiting with little kids, be sure to check out the schoolhouse on the lower floor. The one can't-miss display? The recording of Tootsie the Singing Coyote. In 1947, a Deadwood native named Ollie Wiswell found a stray coyote cub at Custer State Park. Fred Borsch and his wife adopted the cub, dubbing her Tootsie, and it didn't take long for Fred to teach Tootsie how to change the pitch of her howls to match his. Soon enough, the two were the talk of the town, performing across the state, appearing in parades, and even singing for President Eisenhower. Tootsie was almost memorialized on the state's license plate, although Mount Rushmore beat her out. She died in 1959, but the display about her at the Adams Museum ensures that her vocal stylings will be remembered.