Cedar Pass Campground

Wind and exposed but nice http://www.campgroundviews.com/listing/cedar-pass-campground/

We stayed there a few years ago and enjoyed it. As others have mentioned early morning and evening are a beautiful time of day as the colors of the rocks become accented by the low light.

Here is an article with comments and pictures.

Last summer we hit it on a whim, with no plans. Cedar Pass was full, and the KOA was full. We stayed just down the road from Cedar Pass, at a combination hotel/campground. That was one rough place. Standing water, high grass, killer skeeters, and that was the good part. Sad part was that I knew better, since we are in SD. a lot. I should of just headed up to Wall, or west to Hermosa, and found something civilized.

Between the sketchy campground and the "interesting" meal in the little town of Interior, that night, I was pretty much in the dog house, for a long time, as far as the DW was concerned. She is no spoiled princess, but doesn't really take to third world conditions to well either, LOL.

2gypsies wrote:

dahkota wrote:
We have stayed there twice and love the location. The campground, not so much. When we had a 22' tt with no slide, it was easy. With a 26' tt, not so much.

Wow! We easily fit our 40' motorhome and Jeep on sites. We visited a few times. We did pull in early in the morning though as folks were leaving so we had a good choice of sites. If you come in at 4pm you'll get leftovers.

If we were a little smarter, we would have arrived early, too! As it was, we had to cram 50' of truck and tt into a 45' space with someone both in front of and behind us. It took a little while to get far enough off the road to open our slide but once we did, we settled in for a few days and loved the place. We are looking forward to returning with the mh.

If you do want to spend some time in the Badlands but Cedar Pass CG won't work for you, there's a nice (and shady!) KOA about 8 miles south of there. We enjoyed it there. For a change, not right next to the interstate and not next to a RR track :) and it was really quiet at night.

This is a photo from Sept 2010. Before they added any elect sites.

We stayed there in 2013 and enjoyed it - especially the sunset and sunrise colors on the rock formations surrounding the CG.

It was good to have a hookup there because it was about 110 degrees in late August.

dahkota wrote:
We have stayed there twice and love the location. The campground, not so much. When we had a 22' tt with no slide, it was easy. With a 26' tt, not so much.

Wow! We easily fit our 40' motorhome and Jeep on sites. We visited a few times. We did pull in early in the morning though as folks were leaving so we had a good choice of sites. If you come in at 4pm you'll get leftovers.

yaya wrote:
Has anyone camped there at the base of the Badlands?

For the most part - everyone does the Badlands as a drive through, and I might be so bold as to make that suggestion. (IMHO, it is just that) try to time it so as to be able to push it to Custer and start to enjoy the "Vacation".

BOL,

We have stayed there twice and love the location. The campground, not so much. When we had a 22' tt with no slide, it was easy. With a 26' tt, not so much. The stated length is the entire length and there is really no room for going over. Most sites are parallel to the road and a tight squeeze if the space in front of or behind yours is full. Also, if you have a slide out on the road side, it will practically be in the traffic lane. Last time we were there, a class A pulled up in the site across from us and extended their slide. Between the two RVs, there was about 7' of road. They got mad and left. Also, some sites are on a hill, making leveling a bit difficult.

I'm not trying to discourage you, just wanting to make you aware of the shortcomings. We love the location and stay there days at a time to explore. We haven't been there in the bus yet, but will make it there next year.

There are electric sites there and they tend to be larger. The only problem with booking in advance is you don't really know how wide the site is or how level it is. Choose carefully using google maps.