Mt. Rushmore

We have stayed twice ant Rafter J. It’s a great campground and the location is prime.

You may find everything already booked up. With the Bike rally at Sturgis the first two weeks of August, people avoid the area from late July till after the rally and this crowds the bookings the remainder of the summer.

In any case, the Black Hills is a relatively small area. I stayed at Spearfish City Campground on the north end of the BH and rented a car (no toad) and zipped all over the place seeing stuff. Its nice to be able to stay in the middle of things, but it may not be possible to get a site. There are also some Forest Service campgrounds such as Roubaix Lake Campground on US385 between Deadwood and Hill City, and there are others, such as Pactolan Reservoir Campground

My trip report on my hurried visit to the Black Hills and the Badlands and the eclipse, last August, HERE.

Charles

Kavoom wrote:
Big Pine campground Custer http://www.bigpinecampground.com 43 a night Full. Big thumbs up from us.

We recommend this campground as well....

We personally like Big Pine Campground in customer. Plenty of space, quiet, nice owners, good price and the bathrooms were super clean.

Now if you need a pool and lots of extras, this may not be the place for you.

Dean

Mt. Rushmore KOA at Palmer Gulch Resort.

Place is amazing. Office looks like a grand hotel. They have 3 pools, a stable with about 50 horses for rides, ice cream parlor, laundromats, enterprise car rental, covered wagon rides, and on and on...........

Is definitely close to custer, mt. rushmore and crazy horse.

Definitely want to see Devils Tower, Needles State Park, Deadwood and the Badlands.

Enjoy your trip. We had a great time.

bigdon68

Rafter J was a great CG. Of course it was very expensive.
The site we were at was a back in across the field from the office.
Nice!!!
Here is a quick video we made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kFHmAwWMts&feature=youtu.be

I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend Rafter J. It was beautiful, quiet, clean, well maintained, a lot of shaded spots, nice pool, and it's on the edge of Black Hills National Forest so we had our morning coffee overlooking hills and trees.
Also, we liked that Hill City is as "tourist trap-y" as Keystone. More laid back.

https://www.rafterj.com/

Thom02099 wrote:

Stumps wrote:

TazFord wrote:
What would be other things to see or do besides Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse for that area with 10 available days from end of June to after July 4

the Mammoth Dig site is pretty cool

otherwise we usually take several days and explore Badlands National Park. very peaceful.

Another thing to consider, if you do go out to the Badlands NP...stop by Wall Drug! It's one of those locations, like the 4 Corners Monument, that many say is a rip off. However, I found it very entertaining, and certainly different. Just one more thing to cross off a bucket list. And I got a great Black Hills Gold ring at one of the jewelry vendors there.

Agreed, Wall Drug is SUCH a tourist trap, but a lot of fun!! Badlands was very cool!!

We don't much care for the commercial RV parks that stack 'em in like sardines, so we stayed at Legion Lake Campground in Custer SP, but not sure the status after the big fire there in Dec. It was a beautiful park with lots of room between sites, and very convenient to everything in the area.

Needles Hwy is a must drive in your toad/TV.

We were there last August. Beautiful part of the country!!

Mark

TazFord wrote:
Just curious, is there anything in the area that would require making reservations (besides rv park).

They actually don't take phone reservations but if you're going during rush hours I'd definitely stop by Black Hills Burgers and Buns well before I was hungry as the wait can be over an hour, worth it though.

craig7h wrote:
A couple years ago we stayed at Ft. Welikit in the city of Custer. To me it was a great park.

Agreed! However, do NOT try to approach from the North, they are NOT kidding about the road being impassable to RVs! Hood tunnel is 10' 7" officially but I'm not sure it maintains that height through the whole opening.