Nordemeer Formal Gardens

The William Noordermeer Formal Gardens are located in Sioux Park on Canyon Lake Drive, featuring over 10,000 annuals and perennials arranged across more than 70 garden beds in a European formal design. They are among the most beautiful and most overlooked attractions in Rapid City — free, accessible, and in peak bloom throughout summer. Rapid City maintains three formal garden settings — at Halley Park, Sioux Park, and along Canyon Lake Drive — but the Noordermeer Gardens at Sioux Park are the most elaborate. Marigolds, cosmos, and dozens of varieties of perennials fill tightly arranged geometric beds that reward a slow, close-up walk as much as a distant view from the road. The gardens also feature a giant sundial and a paved walking trail circling the park. In recent summers, the city's greenhouse team has added a rotating selection of exotic plants — including towering banana plants — alongside the traditional European plantings, giving the gardens an unexpected tropical flourish.