Syllabus

Everything the certification covers

This is the whole course, module by module, with what each one teaches and how it is assessed. It is here because nobody should have to guess what they are signing up for.

The testing is still being built and opens later this year. You can read the entire syllabus now. What you cannot do yet is sit the assessment. Leave your email at the bottom of this page and you will hear from us once, when testing opens, with the price and the levels on offer.

Foundation

The knowledge floor. Every guide takes all of it, and it is the shared language everything else is built on.

BHG-101

Reading the Landscape

How the Black Hills were made, and what they still do

After this module you can

Explain the Black Hills uplift to a guest in under 90 seconds without a single number they'll forget.
Point at any roadside rock on the route and place it in the right order.
Say why the Hills look black, and say the Lakota name it comes from.
Explain the Red Valley while the guest can actually see it out the window.
Connect the terrain to the 1972 flood, and know how to handle that conversation.

What it covers

The shape: a dome, strippedThe layers, center outwardWhy "Black"The forest is a fire system, not sceneryWater is the active agent

Assessed by 8 questions drawn at random from a pool of 17; pass is 7 of 8, and a failed attempt waits 24 hours for a fresh draw. Plus 2 written answers, each rated meets or better by a reviewer. A single "not yet" sends it back.

BHG-102

The Badlands

Deposition, erosion, and a landscape with a deadline

After this module you can

Explain that the Badlands were built by sediment, not pushed up, the opposite of the Black Hills.
Name the three formations in the wall in order, and say what each band is.
Deliver the erosion rate and the disappearance date, which is the single line guests repeat to other people.
Read weather and know why wet Badlands clay is a genuine safety problem, not a nuisance.

What it covers

Built, then cutThe White River Group, bottom to topThe WallOne inch a yearRain is the sculptor, and the hazard

BHG-103

Deep Time and Fossils

What is actually in the ground, and the law that governs it

After this module you can

Name the headline Badlands animals correctly and resist the dinosaur question.
Explain why this is one of the richest mammal fossil beds on Earth.
State collection law before a guest bends down, not after.
Turn the rule into an invitation using the park's fossil reporting program.

What it covers

The wrong era, spectacularlyThe castThe Big Pig DigSue, and why she is the cleanest example in this moduleThe Mammoth Site, Hot SpringsThe law, and how to use it

Assessed by 8 questions drawn at random from a pool of 19; pass is 7 of 8, and a failed attempt waits 24 hours for a fresh draw. Plus 2 written answers, each rated meets or better by a reviewer. A single "not yet" sends it back.

BHG-104

He Sápa

The Black Hills as Lakota homeland

After this module you can

Say who the Lakota are, which nation holds which ground, and why the word Sioux is right in some sentences and wrong in others.
Say the Lakota names for the places on your route, correctly, and stop at the name rather than explaining what the place means.
State the treaty history accurately, in order, from 1851 to the present, without editorializing.
Answer "who do the Black Hills belong to?" honestly and without flinching.
State the record of Wounded Knee when asked, and never make it a stop or a story.
Speak about Pine Ridge today as a homeland with institutions, public events and neighbours, and never as a hardship exhibit.
Know exactly where the line is between public record and knowledge that is not ours to tell, and hold it when a guest, a colleague or a Lakota guest is watching.
Refer rather than perform, and be able to say "I don't know, and it isn't mine to tell" as a complete answer.

What it covers

Who the Lakota areThe names on the land, and the rule that goes with themTraditions that are on the public record, and how a guide handles themThe public record, in orderWhy 1877 is called a taking, in the court's own wordsThe fact that carries the whole storyWounded Knee, which is record and never a storyPine Ridge today, and how a guide speaks about itMore nations than oneThe protocol, binding on every certified guideWordsRefer, don't performIn their own words, reserved

Assessed by 8 questions drawn at random from a pool of 30; pass is 7 of 8, and a failed attempt waits 24 hours for a fresh draw. Plus 2 written answers, each rated meets or better by a reviewer. A single "not yet" sends it back.

BHG-105

Wildlife and Ecology

What guests came to see, and how not to get anyone hurt

After this module you can

Handle the bison distance rule without turning the vehicle into a lecture hall.
Explain a prairie dog town as an ecosystem rather than a photo stop.
Tell the black-footed ferret story, which is the best conservation story in the region.
Identify the common large mammals reliably, including which ones don't belong here.

What it covers

BisonPrairie dogs are the keystoneThe black-footed ferretThe rest of the rosterSet the expectation before you drive, not afterViewing ethics

BHG-106

The Carved Mountain

Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and holding two truths for one van

After this module you can

Deliver Rushmore's construction facts accurately, including the ones guides usually get wrong.
Describe Crazy Horse Memorial's origin, funding and unresolved disagreement without picking a side.
Hold a mixed van in which those two monuments mean opposite things, and not referee it.
Recognize when a guest is asking a question and when they are making a statement.
Say the mountain's Lakota name and the record of protest at it, as names and dates, without delivering a verdict.

What it covers

Rushmore, the facts guides get wrongThe mountain before 1885, and the record sinceIt began as a tourism schemeCrazy Horse MemorialThe actual skill

Assessed by 8 questions drawn at random from a pool of 23; pass is 7 of 8, and a failed attempt waits 24 hours for a fresh draw. Plus 2 written answers, each rated meets or better by a reviewer. A single "not yet" sends it back.

BHG-107

Dark Sky

Running a night tour that works

After this module you can

Plan a night tour around moon phase before anything else.
Enforce red-light discipline over a group of strangers without being unpleasant.
Deliver the sky in the right order, so a guest can find their own way around it forever after.
Manage the specific safety problems of the Badlands after dark.

What it covers

Why it is dark hereMoon phase governs everythingThe Milky Way seasonRed light disciplineDelivery orderNight safety in the Badlands

BHG-108

The Guide's Craft

Interpretation, safety, and the last five minutes

After this module you can

Build a tour around one theme instead of a list of facts.
Say "I don't know" correctly, and close the loop afterward.
Run the safety decisions that actually come up here: heat, lightning, gravel, wildlife on road, poor cell coverage.
Handle the difficult guest, the silent guest, and the frightened guest.
Land the ending, because the last five minutes are what gets written down.

What it covers

Interpretation is not informationOne theme per tourThe "I don't know" protocolSafety, the real listThe peopleThe last five minutes

Places

One module per place you actually stand in. You take the ones you drive, so a guide who only works the Badlands does not have to study Devils Tower.

BHG-201

Badlands National Park

One unit, its owners, its permissions and its ways of hurting people

After this module you can

Say who owns and who manages each of the three units, and why that changes what you may do there.
State which authorization your operator holds, what it covers, and where the seat-count line falls.
Hold 100 feet from wildlife, which is stricter than the figure most guides carry in.
Run the Loop Road as a timed sequence with a known turnaround rather than a list of pull-offs.
Name the injury that happens most here, and prevent it before the first stop.
Check route status on the day of the tour instead of trusting last season.

What it covers

Three units, and they are not all owned the same wayThe bombing range, which is why the South Unit is shaped the way it isThe authorization, which is the thing that can end an operatorThe Loop Road as a sequence, not a list of pull-offsOne hundred feet, and the number most guides carry is shortHow people are hurt here, in the order it happensOpen hiking, which is rarer than guests expectVerify the route on the day, because nobody tells you it closedWhat this place does not give you

Assessed by 8 questions drawn at random from a pool of 21; pass is 7 of 8, and a failed attempt waits 24 hours for a fresh draw. Plus 2 written answers, each rated meets or better by a reviewer. A single "not yet" sends it back.

BHG-203

Wind Cave National Park

The same agency as the Badlands, and a door where your job stops

After this module you can

Say why this park's paperwork resembles the Badlands and not Custer State Park, and know what your own operator's position here is.
State plainly that you do not guide inside the cave, and know what your job becomes at the cave door.
Book cave tickets inside the real window and build the collection step into the schedule, because a cave stop is a timed commitment rather than a hope.
Match the tour to the group, because the walking tours differ by hundreds of stairs and the accessible one is arranged differently.
Handle the decontamination rule so guests understand it, and know what it does to an itinerary that also visits another cave.
Deliver the prairie and the bison above ground, which is half this park and the half most tours drive straight past.
Say the cave's Lakota names and that the Park Service publishes an emergence account naming this cave, attribute it to the park and the community it came from, and stop there.

What it covers

Same agency as the Badlands, and that is the easy halfThe cave door, and the thing you do not doTickets, which is where itineraries actually breakThe tours themselves, and the money, read from the park in August 2026Boxwork, which is the reason this cave mattersThe wind, which is the name and the factThe name, and the account the Park Service publishesThe mat on the way out, and the problem it creates for a two-cave itineraryAbove ground, which is half the parkDistances, and actually getting there

BHG-204

Jewel Cave National Monument

A second cave that is not a second helping

After this module you can

Say what a national monument is and is not, and say why the designation changes less than a guest expects.
Hand guests to a ranger at the cave door, the same as at Wind Cave, and know that the booking here shuts at noon the day before.
Say in one breath what makes this cave different from Wind Cave, because a guest who thinks they are repeating yesterday has been badly served.
Match the tour to the group, including the one tour that solves the stairs problem.
Explain the decontamination rule in the direction that catches people out, which is on the way out rather than on the way in.
Know that the two caves together are a sequencing decision and not a pair of stops.

What it covers

A national monument, and the word matters less than guests thinkThe cave door, and the same handoff as Wind CaveTickets, and a window that shuts at noon the day beforeThe tours, and the money, read from the monument in August 2026What makes this cave different, which is the whole reason to comeHow big it is, and why the number keeps movingThe decontamination rule, and the direction that catches people outThe stairs, which the elevator does not solve

Assessed by 8 questions drawn at random from a pool of 16; pass is 7 of 8, and a failed attempt waits 24 hours for a fresh draw. Plus 2 written answers, each rated meets or better by a reviewer. A single "not yet" sends it back.

BHG-206

Devils Tower National Monument

Another state, another unit's rules, and the one closure guides get wrong

After this module you can

Explain what the Tower is and how it formed, without reaching for the tree stump.
Run it as a Wyoming day, with the drive, the state line and the turnaround built in rather than discovered.
State the June climbing closure accurately, including that it is voluntary, and say what that means for a guest who asks to climb.
Work the Tower Trail as the interpretive spine of the visit, and know what the other trails are for.
Handle the Close Encounters question well, because you will get it on almost every tour.
Know which questions here are not yours to answer, and hand them on cleanly.

What it covers

What it is, and the answer guests arrive withIt is in Wyoming, and that changes the dayThe June closure, which is the thing guides get wrongThe Tower Trail, and what the others are forThe prairie dog town, which is a stop whether you plan it or notSafety here, which is not the BadlandsThe film question, and the moneyWhat is not yours to interpret here

Assessed by 8 questions drawn at random from a pool of 22; pass is 7 of 8, and a failed attempt waits 24 hours for a fresh draw. Plus 2 written answers, each rated meets or better by a reviewer. A single "not yet" sends it back.

BHG-207

Mount Rushmore National Memorial

The mountain is Module 6, this is the site

After this module you can

Say what this module covers and what Module 6 covers, and not deliver the wrong one at the wrong moment.
Explain why there is no entrance fee and there is still a bill, and say who is actually taking that money.
Answer the parks pass question correctly, which is the opposite answer from Custer State Park for a different reason.
Choose which way round the Presidential Trail goes, and brief the stairs before a guest commits to them.
Plan around the evening lighting ceremony, including the fact that its start time moves inside the season.
Hand back to Module 6 the moment a guest asks what the mountain means, rather than improvising.

What it covers

What this module is notNo entrance fee, and a bill anywayThe parks pass question, and why the answer differs from CusterThe trail runs a direction, and you choose itThe evening ceremony, which is an anchor rather than a stopHanding back

BHG-210

Sanford Underground Research Facility

Not public land, and not a place you can go down

After this module you can

Say who runs this and why it is a different kind of thing from every other module in this tier.
Never promise underground access, and answer the question that will always be asked without disappointing the guest.
Explain in one sentence why a physics laboratory is inside a gold mine, because that is the sentence the whole stop turns on.
Book a tour as a timed commitment rather than a hopeful stop.
Connect the mine to Module 1's geology and to the towns, so it is not an isolated curiosity.
Treat it as a working facility whose access changes, rather than a museum with fixed exhibits.

What it covers

A fifth kind of thingThe question you will always be asked, and the answer you must not get wrongWhy a laboratory is in a mine, which is the sentence the stop turns onHomestake, and what is visibleA timed stop, and a group route that already existsThe numbers that are not published, and what that means

Assessed by 8 questions drawn at random from a pool of 15; pass is 7 of 8, and a failed attempt waits 24 hours for a fresh draw. Plus 2 written answers, each rated meets or better by a reviewer. A single "not yet" sends it back.

Craft

How to guide, as opposed to what to know. Required for the Certified Black Hills Guide designation.

BHG-301

Theme and Structure

One idea, carried the whole way, with everything else hung off it

After this module you can

State a tour's theme as a full sentence that makes a claim, rather than naming a topic.
Decide what to leave out, which is the harder half of building a tour.
Open on a provocation rather than a welcome speech, and say why that is the choice.
Say the thread out loud at each stop, so guests hear the argument instead of inferring it.
Rebuild the same theme for half the time without letting it collapse into a list.

What it covers

A topic is not a themeProvocation rather than instructionThe cutting is the workHanging the stops on the threadSaying the thread out loudThe same theme in half the time

BHG-302

Commentary on the Move

Talking in a moving vehicle, where the road decides when you speak

After this module you can

Stop talking mid-sentence when the driving needs you, and pick it up again without losing the group.
Time a line to the window in which a thing is actually visible from a moving vehicle.
Set up the vehicle so the guest who hears least can still hear you.
Use silence deliberately rather than filling every mile.
Spot motion sickness early and seat the group to prevent it.

What it covers

The road talks first, alwaysThe vehicle is a bad room for soundPoint at things people can actually seeSilence is a tool and most guides are frightened of itMotion sickness, the back row and the phoneTwo-way rather than broadcast

BHG-303

Reading the Group

Mixed groups, the talker, the quiet one, and the argument you did not start

After this module you can

Use names, and know why that changes the rest of the day.
Manage the dominant guest without embarrassing them in front of the group.
Leave the quiet guest alone correctly, rather than treating silence as a fault to fix.
Take the heat out of a political or cultural argument in a mixed vehicle without taking a side or pretending it is not happening.
Run a tour that works for children and adults at once instead of alternating between them.

What it covers

Names, and what they buy youThe dominant guestThe quiet guest is not a problem to solveThe frightened guestContested ground in a mixed vehicleChildren, and two audiences at onceEnding an interaction

BHG-304

Access for Everyone

Mobility, hearing, sight, diet and understanding, sorted before the booking rather than in the car park

After this module you can

Ask the access question at booking, in a form that gets a useful answer.
Treat mobility as a range rather than a yes or a no, and describe a stop by what it demands.
Describe a landscape out loud for a guest who cannot see it, without narrating the obvious.
Write and speak plain language without stripping the content out of it.
Name the things you must not do, including deciding on a guest's behalf what they can manage.

What it covers

Ask before the day, and ask a question that worksMobility is a range and a stop has demandsHearing, and the vehicle problem againDescribing for a guest who cannot see itPlain language is not simplified contentWhat you must not do

BHG-305

Accuracy Under Pressure

Where a fact comes from, saying you do not know, and correcting yourself in front of people

After this module you can

Say where a fact came from, and know which of your facts you have never checked.
Run the full I-don't-know protocol, including the part after the tour that most guides skip.
Correct yourself mid-tour without damaging the group's confidence in the rest of the day.
Handle the guest who is confidently wrong, in front of everybody, without humiliating them.
Recognise the story that is too good to check, and check it.

What it covers

Where a fact has to come fromThe I-don't-know protocol, in fullCorrecting yourself mid-tourThe guest who is confidently wrongThe story that is too good to checkWhat repeating a myth actually costs

BHG-306

The Shape of a Day

Sequence, timing, the thing that goes wrong, and the last five minutes

After this module you can

Build a day with an arc rather than a running order, and protect the opening and the ending from the middle.
Treat the return time as a promise, and know where on your route the time can actually be recovered.
Carry a named substitute for every stop, decided before you leave the yard.
Run a recovery so the group does not absorb the stress of it.
Land an ending, and do the part that happens after the guests have gone.

What it covers

A day has an arc, not a running orderTiming is a promise, and it is the one guests measureEvery stop needs a named substitute, decided in the yardThe recovery, and who absorbs the stressThe unglamorous half of the dayThe last five minutesAfter they have gone

Conditions and seasons

The days that are not ordinary. Winter, night, fire and smoke, storms. Optional by season, because a summer guide should not have to carry winter.

BHG-401

Winter Operations

Short light, long cold, and the day the right answer is not to go

After this module you can

Build a winter day around the light window rather than the summer clock, and say the turnaround out loud.
Check the road twice, morning and before the return leg, and read what bridges and shaded curves do that the rest of the road does not.
Watch a group for cold the way Module 302 watches for motion sickness, and know why a guest who stops shivering is the emergency.
Run a stranded-vehicle plan that keeps everyone alive and does not poison anybody.
Make the no-go call early, say it plainly, and sell winter honestly as the different product it is.

What it covers

The day is shorter than the planThe road is the decisionCold arithmetic on guestsThe vehicle is the shelter, so treat it like oneWhen the right answer is not to goWhat winter gives you

BHG-402

Night Operations

Moving people who cannot see you, counting them, and getting them home

After this module you can

Run darkness as a working condition anywhere it finds you: a night stop, a pre-dawn staging, a late leg home.
Lead with voice and structure once eye contact is gone, because a group behaves differently when it cannot see the guide.
Count in both directions at every transition, and never move the vehicle until the count closes.
Choose and set up night ground in daylight, and spend dark adaptation deliberately when footing demands it.
Run the first two minutes of a night incident in the right order, starting with the count.

What it covers

What this module is, and what it is notA group in the dark is a different animalCounting in both directionsThe ground is chosen in daylightThe pre-dawn shiftWhen something goes wrong in the dark

BHG-403

Fire, Smoke and Heat

Red Flag days, what contained does not mean, and the afternoon that cooks a guest

After this module you can

Say what a Red Flag Warning means, run the changed day it requires, and know where to check what it changed.
Park and stop a hot vehicle like something that can start a fire, because it can.
Translate incident language honestly, starting with what percent contained does and does not mean.
Treat smoke as a health problem and an experience problem at once, and know which guests it finds first.
Tell heat exhaustion from heat stroke, act on each correctly, and run heat days so neither happens.

What it covers

Fire weather is a forecast product, so read it like oneThe vehicle is an ignition sourceContained is not outSmoke is two problems at onceHeat, operationallyThe two heat illnesses, and the line between them

BHG-404

Storms and Water

Lightning with no cover, water over the road, and the wash on its own clock

After this module you can

Act on the difference between a watch and a warning, and recheck the sky at midday, not just at dawn.
Run the one answer lightning allows on open prairie, on the clock it demands.
Refuse a flooded crossing without a debate, and treat a one-way-out road as its own weather decision.
Handle hail and severe wind from inside the plan instead of improvising under them.
Read the after-storm ground honestly, because the clearing sky is not the all-clear.

What it covers

Watch, warning, and the midday recheckLightning allows one answerWater over the road, and the wash on its own clockHail and wind, from inside the planAfter the stormStorm season as a product

Professional practice

Permits and whose land you are on, ethics, cultural protocol and when to refer rather than answer, and mentoring.

BHG-502

Ethics and the Honest Tour

The easy no, the promise you may not make, and why tips are never scored

After this module you can

Deliver a warm, immediate no with the reason attached, and know why the wobbling yes is what actually costs you.
Promise your own effort and process, and never an outcome that belongs to animals, weather or an agency.
Hold a boundary when money is quietly offered for bending it.
Answer tip and recommendation questions with disclosure instead of theater.
Keep the tour honest when the marketing was not, without running down the operator in front of guests.

What it covers

Why this is a module and not a posterThe easy noPromises, and who owns the outcomeMoney against a boundaryTips, disclosure and theaterWhen the marketing wrote a check the ground cannot cash

BHG-503

Cultural Protocol and Referral

Three kinds of knowledge, what a guide does with each, and the door that stays shut

After this module you can

Sort any cultural claim into public record, recorded tradition or meaning, and do the right thing with each of the three.
Attribute correctly, in sentences that name where a thing is written down, and never say "legend has it."
Brief a group before a stop where offerings or ceremony may be met, so nobody has to be corrected during it.
Handle photographs of people, of offerings and of ceremony without a guest ever being told off.
Help a guest buy Native art honestly, and know the law that makes "Native-inspired" a different thing from Native-made.
Drive on and beside the Pine Ridge Reservation as a guest of a sovereign nation, and speak about it as one.
Give the easy no to the guest who wants a ceremony, and give them the real thing that is open to them instead.
Refer by name, to institutions and to Lakota voices, and write the name down before the guest gets out.

What it covers

Three kinds of knowledgeThe grammar of attributionBefore the stop, the briefingPhotographsBuying, and the law behind the labelOn and beside the reservationThe guest who wants more than there isThe Lakota guestWell-meant harmBone, beads and the groundRefer, by name, and write it downWhen you get it wrong

BHG-504

Mentoring and Contribution

The mentor's seat, the evaluator's clipboard, and how the standard stays alive

After this module you can

Keep a credential current: what earns the twelve field credits a year, and what counts as evidence.
Run a shadow ride that teaches, with the narration in the debrief rather than over the guests' heads.
Give feedback in rubric language about behavior, and make a not-yet a route back rather than a verdict on a person.
Hold the evaluator's line on a check ride, because a soft pass is theft from every other holder.
Bring a contributed module through the template, the source rules and the gates, or say plainly why it cannot enter.

What it covers

The credential expires on purposeThe shadow rideThe debriefThe evaluator's lineContributed modulesWhy contribute at all

Tour endorsements

A guide runs only the tours they hold. Each endorsement is three things: a route exam online, a shadow ride, and a scored check ride with a certified evaluator in the vehicle. Knowledge and delivery are assessed separately, because they fail separately.

END-BADL-DAWN

Badlands, pre-dawn and first light

Pre-dawn staging, cold and dark-adaptation carryover, the light window, wildlife at first light.

Requires M1, M2, M3, M5, M7, M8, P1, P8

END-BADL-NIGHT

Badlands, after dark

Moon-phase planning, red-light discipline, the delivery order, night safety and head counts.

Requires M1, M2, M3, M5, M7, M8, P1, P8

END-BADL-WILD

Badlands, wildlife focus

Distance rules, the keystone reframe, ferret recovery, reading behavior change as the threshold.

Requires M1, M2, M3, M5, M8, P1, P8

END-HILLS-WILD

Central Hills, wildlife focus

Custer State Park herd, bighorn and non-native goats, dusk road hazard, viewing ethics.

Requires M1, M5, M8, P2, P9

END-HILLS-CARVED

Central Hills, the carved mountain

Contested meaning in a mixed van, construction accuracy, the Red Valley and granite stops, treaty record.

Requires M1, M4, M6, M8, P2, P7, P9

END-HILLS-SHORT

Central Hills, condensed route

Theme discipline under time pressure, condensed carved-mountain material, hogback opener.

Requires M1, M4, M6, M8, P2, P7, P9, END-HILLS-CARVED

Tell me when testing opens

One email, when it opens, with what it costs and what the levels are. Nothing else, and never a mailing list. If you would rather just talk to somebody, the contact details are on the front page and that works too.