Best RV Parks & Resorts near Chadron, NE

Factoid: When I stayed here I learned that the Nebraska National Forest is manmade! It is the largest hand planted forest in the US. it felt like a green oasis in the “desert" of Western Nebraska!

I spent 3 days hiking in this Forest and enjoyed every minute on each trail. This area has such differing geography. I’d begin the hike in the Forest, climb up to the ridge and catch views all the way into the vast, flat Buffalo National Grasslands area. 

My home base was in Chadron State Park where I camped. The park itself has 6 miles of hiking trails which connect with several other trails in the Nebraska National Forest. The video is a section of the Black Hills Overlook Trail in the National Forest. A definite must! There was evidence of old wildfires on the western slopes, but otherwise the lodgepole pine trees were beautiful. Steamboat Butte Trail is another good hike.

Chadron State Park is located in the Nebraska National Forest off Hwy 385 south of the town of Chadron which has a Walmart for supplies.The park has pretty much everything: a fishing pond, A trading post for basic camp supplies and some food, swimming pool, seasonal horseback trail rides, archery range, tennis court, disc golf, sand volleyball, horseshoe pits, softball field, playground, AC/heated cabins, group camping with a group lodge,  and campsites with 30 amp HU, no water so fill up at the bathrooms and there’s a dump station on site. 

The site I was in was level, but there was no shade. Shade trees are sparse in the area where I was camped. It was quiet and the stars were great at night, and made for a good home base from which to hike in the Nebraska National Forest.

This is a full hookup (electric/water/sewer) campground, appears to be recently updated. Concrete pad, fairly level. Picnic table and grill in each site. Few trees, mixture of shade and non shade sites. Decent amount of space between sites. Bathrooms and showers are available near the partial hookup campground. Good Verizon cell coverage. Campground is on site of old Fort Robinson. The old barracks and post buildings are available to reserve and stay in. This area is prime for equestrians with many trails to explore on horseback. Numerous trails aren’t quite as friendly for hiking on foot because of tall grass. There are a couple of scenic roads (1 unpaved/washboardy; 1 paved on canyon road) to drive and see local landscape. On site attractions: History museum, restaurant serving breakfast/lunch/dinner, indoor swimming pool, horse stables, general store, small library. Historical markers paying homage to Levi Robinson (the fort’s namesake) and the site on which Crazy Horse was killed.

We stopped at this campground because we were tired of driving and wanted to get out of the heat, plus the 50% Passport America discount which brought the cost to $20/night for an RV site with power (30 and 50 amp) and water. There is a dump station on site as well, but getting to it can be tricky as there are low hanging branches around it. 

This place is pretty run down, but nice and simple and friendly. Definitely not worth the full price of $40/night. The back in sites are along the creek and are nice and green and shaded. 

The pull through sites are up on a sparse dirt lot along the main road, in full blazing sun. Highly recommend a back in site over one of the pull throughs. They do take reservations here, but there were several open sites for us to choose from on a Monday in late September. 

The campground is an odd setup, and may be difficult for larger rigs to navigate. The back in sites are all in one stretch, with the office at the end of it. So you drive to the end, check in and look for open sites via self registration at the office, then you have to turn around and drive back out to your site, and awkwardly back in against the angle (or drive up to the pull through area and loop back down).  Recommend maybe parking at the pull through area and walking to the office so you can avoid the awkward turnarounds. 

There are toilets and free showers here, but no laundry. They also offer teepee and tent sites, as well as “glamping” sites. We met a very friendly employee on the way in (Tim or Tom?) who said he makes a great breakfast in the morning. Good cell reception for all three carriers.

We're in the midst of a week in our 26' travel trailer along this beautiful 1.5 mile-long dirt Forest Service road 714-A, directly above Chadron State Park. We're guessing that most folks who stay in the State Park campground below are unaware that dispersed camping is indeed permitted within 300 feet of the center line of this road, for even though the popular State Park campground remains closed for another day due to a delayed COVID-19 opening, and is booked solid thereafter, there's absolutely no one else camping up here!

You actually have to drive through the State Park to access FR-714-A, and the park does not lock their gate overnight so access remains unrestricted. The road is in excellent shape and negotiable by any trailer or motorhome, but is only a single lane wide. We're 700 feet of elevation above the plains below, with stunning views stretching off to the horizon. Much of this area has burned in the past, but the area where we're camping is lush and grassy with some stately pines around. This isn't the Nebraska that you know!

Cell service on Verizon is a solid 3+ bars - 54ms ping, 13.6 Mbps down, 3.5 Mbps up. The Verizon tower is visible about 5 miles to the south of our campsite.

There are numerous hiking trails that depart from either end of FR-714-A, including some in the State Park. Fresh water, an RV dump and a camp store are all located within the park, along with an archery range, sledding hill, fishing pond, playgrounds, picnic areas and more.

One star is deducted only because:

• There are only a couple of sites that would work with a vehicle, for there's a well-hidden drainage ditch dug on each side of the road; and
• There's a bit of daytime traffic due to people accessing the hiking trailhead at the end of the road. Vehicles are forced to camp right along the road, as any side spurs visible on satellite imagery have been marked "No motor vehicles" by the Forest Service. For tent campers, though, it's a short walk right to the rim of Pine Ridge for even more spectacular views.

The phone number provided is for the Nebraska National Forest Pine Hill Ranger District in Chadron, in whose jurisdiction this road resides.

We were told through an email from the campground(CG) that there was road construction in town with length restrictions. Between the CG instructions and looking at Google Maps, we found an easy route around the construction and arrived with no issues. Check-in was quick and easy. There’s a$3.50 CG fee along with tax. This is a small CG so finding pull-through site 5 with FHUs was not an issue. There was however a tree on our door side that was a potential problem for our slide-out, but the camp host came by and made a suggestion to place our 39’ 5th wheel at the back of the site so slides etc. did not get involved with the tree. The site was plenty long enough for our RV and F450. The water and electric are towards the back and there are two sewer connections, one in the middle and the other at the back that’s handy. Currently, there is no WiFi or cable television. There are essentially no OTA channels but we had a clear shot of the southern sky for satellite. We got 2 bars each on Verizon and T-Mobile. The sites here are very close together. The back-ins do provide a little more site spacing but in the big scheme of things not enough to make a difference. There is no formal dog park but plenty of areas to walk your dog to include an off-leash area on the other side of the small lake. You can also fish(catch& release) in the lake if you purchase a CG license. There’s a flock of wild turkeys that wander around the campground plus mule deer here and there.

I found this campground on Google Maps and it looked pretty intriguing. It’s a very remote campground a half mile down from the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument Visitor Center. It looks like a boondock site, but they have 30/50 amp hookups and water as well as a dump site. We spent 4 nights here.

The surface is gravel and we had to do some leveling when we parked. There are hookups for 8 RVs but it would best accommodate 3 - 4 big rigs. I called to make sure they had a spot and talked to the owner, Donna Skavdahl who was very nice and told us there was plenty of space. There was only one other camper when we arrived and a couple others came and went while we were there.

We had a great time one evening sitting around our propane fire pit talking with some other campers. This is a very interesting area being on a huge 16,000 acre ranch which raises cattle, corn and alfalfa. This campground is in a field with some interesting rock formations behind. The skies are very dark at night. The Skavdahl’s built the campground for the 2017 solar eclipse and have kept it going ever since.

You can hike in the hills and area all around the campground but watch out for snakes!

We rode our bikes to Agate Fossil Beds and took the Fossil Hills Trail. It’s a great place to visit and the Visitor Center has a very interesting display of beautiful items which Chief Red Cloud gave to James H. Cook.

We will definitely stay here again if we are out this way!

Chadron State Park is such a beautiful area. The scenic drives are amazing. The campground is a nice campground. The sites are a little close together and it was challenging to back our 38' camper into our site, but once we were in we had a great time. Everyone was friendly and campground and restrooms and showers were clean. The sites were Electric only. Each site had a fire ring and picnic table. We were able to get cell service most of the time.

The park had tennis courts, a pond for fishing and paddle boats, a swimming pool, horse riding, and hiking trails. We stayed here a night than moved on to Fort Robinson and will definitely come again.