Trip planning help - Dakotas and Minnesota National Parks

[alesis]

Hello all-
The time of year has come for us to plan our July camping trip. We've been visiting National Parks, and have decided we want to visit Bad Lands, Wind Cave, Theodore Roosevelt and Voyageur National Parks during the first 2 weeks of July (yes we know it's busy then, we've been doing this time frame for 12+ years 🙂 ).

I'm hoping to find a nice campground in between Bad Lands and Wind Cave so we can visit those parks from one base camp. Then I'll need a nice CG near each of the other 2 parks. We'll have 16 days for this trip.

We need full hookups at each CG and prefer to have pools at each as well. Any help is appreciated!

FYI we've been to most of the other National Parks close to these already, so we won't need to check those out.

We're looking for awesome CGs and things to do in those areas. We usually limit day trips to about 1 - 1 1/2 hours from camp. Thanks in advance!

[fanrgs]

We did exactly what you are planning by camping at Angostura Recreation Area, a SD state campground on Angostura Reservoir SE of Hot Springs. We had a beautiful, well-maintained, paved site on top of a hill with great views of the lake and Black Hills out our rear picture window. New restroom building with showers and reasonably priced for a campsite with hookups.

After staying there, we moved to the Sylvan Lake cg, part of Custer SP, to see Mt. Rushmore, Jewel Cave, the buffalo and donkeys, and the Needles Highway. However, if I had known then what I know now, I would not stay at Sylvan Lake again--very tight, small sites and no dump.

PS--When we went to Voyageurs NP, we stayed at Birch Camp located just west of International Falls. For more info on it, see my review on RVParkReviews.com.

[accsys]

Hart Ranch seems to be pretty central to Badlands and Wind Cave and has lots of amenities if that's your thing. We are an old couple with no children with us and much prefer Custer State Park, Gamelodge Campground.

We were disappointed with Voyageurs since we don't have a boat or fishing equipment with us when we travel. We did take the park boat on the park lake tour and enjoyed it. When we visited there it was part of staying a couple of weeks in Gilbert, MN at Sherwood Forest Campground which is a city park and has very basic facilities but you can swim just downhill from the campground at Lake Ore-be-gone which has a nice beach area. It's about an hour and a half from Voyageurs so you may find somewhere closer and more convenient.

[jplante4]

For TRNP (south), we stayed in the Medora Campground just outside the park entrance, and we're really glad we did. The road into the campground in the park was under construction and you had to follow a pilot car for the first 10 miles (we drove through in the toad). Call before you go to see if this is still going on. If so, I would think twice about going to the park's campground.

[TexasShadow]

you can stay in Custer, SD and visit Bad Lands and Wind Cave from there. There are a lot of rv parks in the Custer area. Rafter J is very nice. Beaver Lake campground is good. Custers Gulch, Custer Mountain, French Creek RV park..to name a few of them. But make your reservations as early as you can.
For Teddy Roosevelt Park, you'll need to look in or near Medora I think.

[maddog348]

You are betting on the parks being OPEN and Clean/Habitable by summer ???????