Question for anyone familiar with Custer State Park in SD.

We always try to stay at Game lodge Campground near the east entrance to the park. It has 50 amps only at some of the sites and water available near dump station. I wouldn't try to just drop in and get a site - we normally reserve almost as soon as reservations open up for the time we want. Pictures of our sites are available on our blog for site 22E in 2009, site 24E in 2015, site 22E in 2015, and site 17E in 2016. As you may be able to tell, we love this park!

Custer State Park is a first class state park, on a par with national parks re scenery and wildlife.
You need to get reservations as early as you can. as stated, you have to go through the reservation system anyway.
If you try to wing it, you might get lucky if it is a time with nothing special going on, like 4th July, Sturgis bike rally, 2nd week of August, Buffalo Roundup in the park, last week of Sept.
But there are lots of rv parks in the area, so you can probly get away with dropping in if it isn't one of those extra busy times.

When are you going? The time of year does make a difference in crowds and available campgrounds. We stayed at the Sylvan Lake CG at Custer and had to get reservations even in mid-September. The problem was that the sites were VERY close together, a long way from the lake, and the nearest CSP dump station was more than 20 miles away. We won't stay at any of the CSP campgrounds again--would rather pay a little more (not much with the daily pass added) and stay in a private RV park.

We also didn't think much of the Wind Cave NP campground. Again too closely spaced, no privacy, and no hookups.

However, we loved our hilltop campsite with hookups and a great view at Angostura Lake State Recreation Area SE of Hot Springs. A longer drive, but well worth it for the amenities, including a new, clean shower building, big spaces, and lack of crowds. We would go back there in a minute!

There are some nice national forest campgrounds north of Custer. I stayed at Sheridan Lake NF CG and it was nice (other than an excessive amount of campfire smoke). Just another option.

We were there July 1 through July 17. We tried getting a reservation for these weeks back in December 2016 and couldn't. We ended up getting reservations at the Good Sam campground in Custer, SD (Buffalo Ridge Camp Resort) and used it as a base to travel from. My daughter and family drove from Kansas City, MO and we got them a tent site. We also rented on the TP's for a night so the grandkids could get the thrill of sleeping in a MODERN TP! Prices were all very reasonable. They offer 8th night free, and if you are a Good Sam member, you get the 10% discount. So, we got the discount on both campsites, and the TP. Click here.

This campground also has a train the kinds can ride, a very decent swimming pool, and they sponsor the dinner theater at the bottom of the "hill".

There are many local campgrounds in the area, and all were filled to 100% capacity. The folks at Buffalo Ridge said this was the best year they've had in many years. They've been booked solid for months, every day. So YES! Reservations are an absolute MUST!

After driving through the park and seeing the different campgrounds actually inside Custer State Park, we agreed, it would hve been nice to actually get a campsite there. There is one campsite outsie the Pay Pass area. By the way pass to get into the various entrances of the park is now $20 and it's good for 7 days. You put a sticker on your windshield.

Our trip (from Indiana) went like this:
July 1: Home to Peru, IL, KOA
July 2: Peru, IL to Myre-Big State Park in MN.
July 3: Myre-Big to Mitchel SD and the Corn Palace
July 4: Arrived at Custer, set up camp
July 5: Sturges, driving, and Candyland
July 6: Grandkids arrived, Spent time with them while their parents slept.
July 7: Mt. Rushmore and Reptile Garden
July 8: Split. We drove the mountains, Black Hills, and Badlands.
July 9: Driving through Custer SP
July 10: Driving through Custer SP (Buffalo, buffalo, buffalo!)
July 11: Driving through Custer SP Black Hills and side trip into Wyoming. (creeks, rivers, wild animals, valleys, mountains, little towns including Deadwood, what a day!)
July 12: Decided to actually visit the city of Custer Spent the entire day there.
July 13: Headed home. Grand Island KOA in Nebraska
July 14: Decided to drive the rest of the way straight home (came home 2 days early... which was a good thing!)

Bottom line: If you want to get into a campsite, make the reservations as early as possible. And don't just settle for a single campground and if you can't get in to just forget it. There are many, many, many campgrounds in the area, everywhere. And more than likely, you won't be spending much time there anyway. There's just too much to see and do!

FYI, a lot of places, you cannot make reservations until mid April. We found this extremely frustrating, because when we tried, on the first available day at some of the places we wanted, they were already booked! That's how we ended up at Buffalo Ridge. They were like our 10th choice. But they turned out to be the best!

Good luck!

Can you find my wife in this crowd in Sturges?

When we go there we like to stay at Chris's RV Park in Spearfish. It is an hour drive to Custer, which is an awesome park to visit. Spearfish is also convenient to Spearfish Canyon and the waterfalls as well as Deadwood.

When we went to Custer, and were standing at the host site, he told us we had to make a reservation AND pay a reservation fee even tho we were standing right there in the park at an empty site. We drove up to the only section that is first come, and no hookups, and then we still had to call and "reserve the site", and pay the reservation fee.

Custer also requires everyone to buy the day-pass, even if you camp. Custer is a great park, but has a buncha add-on fees, so be prepared for it. If you're camping any other areas in the state, just buy the monthly day-pass and it covers all parks. As I recall it, the day pass was $6 and a month was $15, but am not sure. You might want to open the park website and check current fees.

This was two years ago - not sure if it's still the same ... Custer gets pretty full, so I'd get the ducks in a row ahead of time if you're traveling a distance. You pay the reservation fee regardless - at least when we were there.