South Dakota Advice

We stayed at the KOA at Interior SD which is at the south entrance to Badlands. Great park, at the time, but I think I saw they jacked up their prices sky high maybe to $59/night so you need to decide if that's worth the price. Scanning around I see one CG in Wasta with one review but a good one. There is/was a GS park in Wall but it's closing. A couple other around but with bad reviews.

We did a lot of hiking in Badlands, spent a week that time and have been there a couple of times. Saw Interior VFD put on a fireworks display for the 4th that Moe, Larry and Joe would have been ashamed of...heh. But they had just had record rainfall. Wild flowers everywhere.

Good luck with Custer it's usually hard to get in but this late you might succeed there are a lot of cg in the area tho. No comment on Deadwood never been and don't see that changing.

Last couple of times we went thru we stayed at Hot Springs. Go to at least one of the two caves, you need to get there early to snag a tour

RV Trip Wizard shows all this stuff you may want to look.

Stop at Wall Drug in Wall SD. I have never seen so many billboards for a business in my life so you can't miss it. It's more than just a drug store.

ken56 wrote:
Stop at Wall Drug in Wall SD. I have never seen so many billboards for a business in my life so you can't miss it. It's more than just a drug store.

You must have missed Rock City then. Wall drug is worth a stop, you can get a Buffalo Burger and meet the waitresses from Lithuania

Rafter J and the Gulch are the popular camp grounds in the Custer SP area. If you need civilization, the KOA in Rapid City is alright.

We stayed at Buffalo Ridge Camp Resort in Custer, SD for almost 2 weeks and used that as a home base to travel to all the places you just mentioned. Buffalo Ridge is a Good Sam campground, so if you have a Good Sam membership, you get the discount price, and if I remember right, if you stay 6 nights, they give you the 7th night free. (That might have changed, but who knows).

While there, my daughter and her family also stayed there in a tent, but ended up sleeping in our camper more nights than not. The gradkids had a blast. We also rented one of the TeePees for one night (again the 10% discount) so the kids could sleep in the TeePee.

We were within a comfortable drive of the Bad Lands, Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park, Deadwood, and a bunch of other small towns. We took each day and did something different, and still didn't have time to take it all in. We were gone by 8:00 am and back at the camper about 10:00 pm ever night. Yes... we were exhausted, but OMG... so much fun.

We even went to Sturgess and visited the Full Throttle Saloon and the Camping World (brand new at the time) near Sturgess.

We brought home 2 bottles of wine... Calamity Jane, and Buffalo Bill wine from Red ASS winery and brought them home with us, which we still have, unopened.



We were very pleased to stay at Buffalo Ridge during the entire visit. Buffalo Ridge also has a train you can ride (free if you camp there), and great for the kids. They also have a dinner theater, which we never had time to go see because there was just too much to do everywhere else.

Buffalo Ridge ... click here.

In addition, Buffalo ridge had a pretty good playground for the kids and a swimming pool and a game-recreation room adjoining the swimming pool, office. It has lots of acreage, and of course, full hook-up sites. Sites are a little close, but .... who actually camps there. The place is a ghost town during the day time as everyone is out and about, and in the evening, night everyone returns "homes". In spite of all the campers there, it was very quiet, and no hassles at all.

Shower rooms are individual shower rooms for family style units. They have cabins, the TeePees, and right on the edge of Custer, centrally located to everything.

Did I mention, we actually spent very little time at the campground, except one day we did stay put so the kids could swim all day in the pool, and we REALLY needed a "down day."

(and yes, our 1 ton dually made it through the tunnel on Needles highway.)

Stayed at Chris's Campground in Spearfish a few months ago. Nice campground,
reasonable. Did some nice day trips in the area.

Take a drive to Hot Springs. There is an active dig where they are uncovering wooley mammoths. The site is an indoor working paleontological site/museum

don't miss the buffalo round up at custer state park, do not know the date off hand but real close to your date's.

OP here. Thanks for the responses, keep them coming! We've researched the sights in the area, and have read about the "usual suspects". Any off-the-beaten-path ideas?

rfloyd99 wrote:
OP here. Thanks for the responses, keep them coming! We've researched the sights in the area, and have read about the "usual suspects". Any off-the-beaten-path ideas?

If you're into hiking, there's a great hike to Black Elk Peak, formerly Harney Peak, the highest point in South Dakota, at over 7200 feet. Not overly long or difficult, the views are incredible from the top.