Custer City, SD KOA Campground

soren wrote:

JoeGood988 wrote:
Stay away in August as over a million motorcycles will invade the area. Prices skyrocket everywhere, 100 mile radius.

We have been spending at least a week, or two in the Black Hills, most years, since 1994. I personally attempt to avoid being there during rally week, but to advise avoiding the entire area for a whole month is a bit extreme. As for "skyrocketing prices everywhere", um, no. Campgrounds can be expensive and full in the Sturgis area during rally week. Custer is sixty miles away, and I have never seen, or heard of any business there trying to gouge anybody based on it being rally week. With the exception of high priced lodging of all types, near Sturgis, it's been our experience that we have never seen any gouging of any sort in South Dakota, in connection with the rally. As for the claim of an excess of a million attendees this year, I'm going to take a shot at this being a bit of wishful thinking by organizers. Last year's numbers were around 400k. It seems hard to believe that that number will increase by 250%, or more, based on it being the 75th anniversary. Not only did the last milestone year (70th) only result in a small bump over the previous year, attendance overall is down by roughly a third, in the last few years, when compared to the high numbers seen in the early 2000s.

How's about $675 a night for a hotel room in Sturgis during rally week? That's what I was quoted last fall, a month after the 2014 rally. I'd call that price gouging. And they got it, no rooms available at the moment at any price, that I could find when calling around in the last week of December.

You can get a piece of grass at the Buffalo Chip or similar campground for cheap, but hope you don't like to sleep much....

I found a basic no-frills dorm-style room at a location 20 miles away. Only $400 for the week PRIOR to rally week, $700 for the week of. Those are sold out.

For a non-rally camper, I'd stay way away from there from around July 20 to after the rally in August. Things should be back to normal by then.

Also, the First Annual 3-wheeler rally is in Deadwood from July 16-19 I think. They aren't the camper type, but it will bring some bikers in even earlier than the "week before" crowd.