Mt Rushmore-Yellowstone

Just remember the first full week of August is the official time for the Black Hills Motorcycle Rally. The whole area you're vacationing in will be busy during that time.

Several years ago we drove our then 15 to 18 year old Bounder over the Buckhorns to Cody and we were pulling the Suzi Sidekick. We came from Mt Rushmore and we stayed at Crooked Creek Campground which is about a 1/4 mile closer to Hill City than Rafter J. It's a small campground but less expensive than RJ and easier to get in at the last moment. We couldn't get reservations at RJ so had to look elsewhere. Doing it again I'd stay a Custer.

Being self contained we didn't need full hookups at Yellowstone and Fishing Bridge was full. The DW got us a space by calling the Park rather than the reservation website. The gal she talked to got us three nights in the same site when the website said there were no spaces available. We wanted to stay an additional day and for that we did have to move to another campground.

The journals we keep are in the garage in boxes while we refurbish our S&B so I can't give the names of the campgrounds, all I know for sure is it wasn't Fishing Bridge and the access road around the loop was very narrow and getting in and out caused a traffic jam no matter what day or time of day.

Have fun and let us know how it went.

Both Hwy 14 and 16 over the Bighorn Mountains are beasts, be prepared. Looks like you're using a big truck though.

Rafter J or Custer State Park (Game Lodge campground) for Rushmore visit
highway 16 west to I 90 to Buffalo and 16 on west across the Bighorns...several national forest campgrounds along that route...
small rv park in Ten Sleep on the west side of town...
Ponderosa RV park in Cody is a good one if you're planning to do the Bill Cody Museum. Otherwise, Buffalo Bill State Park about 7 miles and 15 miles west of Cody. And further out, there are a couple national forest campgrounds with elec. Wapiti and Rex Hale...if you want to get closer to Yellowstone's entrance gate.
In Yellowstone, Fishing Bridge in the only one with full hookups.
Bridge Bay is about 2 miles away with water and dump station.
Madison is on the west side of the park with water and dump.
Reservations NOW for any of these parks except the one in Ten Sleep or national forest campgrounds.

I would also recommend the Rafter J for Mt Rushmore.
Ron S

I stayed at Rafter J Bar Ranch Camping Resort at Mt Rushmore. It's one of my favorite RV Parks and it's right outside the entrance to Mt Rushmore. I drove over the Bighorn Range towing my FW and didn't have any problems. I stayed at a park in Cody that's within walking distance of the Cody Museum.

This is a very common request for information, so you can find out LOTS by doing a search. Almost all roads are "main roads", so no issues with gas, etc. Towns are a bit apart, though, so don't push until almost empty.
RESERVE campsites NOW for your destinations. Very popular areas. We did a drive through of both this past summer, on the way to the west coast, and while we found overnight places a day ahead, they would not be preferred if we really intended to stay a bit.
Not like the old days where you could just show up around 10-11 am and be pretty assured of getting a campsite.

Search this Forum for each location. For campgrounds limit the search to the RV Parks section.