Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Lake Oahe

This was our first stop on our way thru South Dakota. Not a lot of shade at spots. Few trees and little to no privacy but good spacing of sites. The bathrooms are updated, clean and well maintained. This is an ideal campground for those with a boat for fishing or playing on Lake Oahe (which was beautiful by the way). Be out on the water all day and then relax at the campground at night.

The full name of this place is Fischers Lilly Park, operated by the city of Fort Pierre. To correct the previous review, these sites are water/electric (20/30/50A) only, although there is a free dump station on site. These sites are right on the river, and contrary to the previous reviewer we found some of them near the entrance to be exceedingly spacious, including ours #12. There are 12 sites total, and ours was immaculate. Cell signal on Verizon was a solid 3 bars.

The location right on the banks of the Missouri River can't be beat, and it's the perfect location for exploring all that the Pierre area has to offer: the state capitol complex, the museums, even walleye fishing in the river or nearby Lake Oahe. We spent Memorial Day weekend here and loved it -- my wife was wishing that we could stay longer. Even on the holiday weekend the campground was wonderfully quiet and serene.

Many thanks to the City of Fort Pierre for making this location available.

 Driving down muddy, rural roads brought up thoughts of this year’s extra snow and rain totals. It’s nice to immerse yourself in the results to open viewpoints. 

Michael met me and walked me over to the camp area- after letting his 3 dogs greet me. He has a large gravel lot with an electric hookup. He spent time leveling it off so set up was a breeze. Nobody was staying in the guest house so we were able to use a bathroom that reminds me of a fancy hotel. 

Looking around you find yourself surrounded by farm life. An old barn houses a group of cats. Hay is in this one for their horses to add to their diet. The land goes forever and life slows down. 

Michael walked over with his dogs and invited me to walk the property line. This ended up being a couple hours of education and conversation. Michael has worked with government programs to make portions of this retired farm natural grasslands. He planted rows of cedars, plums, chokecherry and pear to attract pheasants- deer appreciate it too. He showed me his endless battle with wormwood crowding out the native species. Water formed a lake where there never is one and almost flooded out their neighbor. Lazy Sy is elevated but they are still fighting the water off this year. My dog found companionship with the farm dogs and we felt welcome and right at home. 

Besides walking around the farm, we stopped in town right on the Missouri River. There are a number of restaurants and stores as well as a few State Recreation Areas to explore. 

Our stay was very comfortable and easy. Welcomed into another lifestyle, conversation bridged the gap quickly. You will love this simple slowdown of life.

Please note that this is NOT the designated Sage Creek campground but the wilderness area that allows for very primitive tent camping. You park off of Rim Road where there is a small lot and a place to register (whether you're day-hiking or staying over night). You hike down into the high prarie and keep wide eye out for bison ( there are over 600 in the badlands!). Make sure that when you do come across wildlife, especially bison, that you give them ample space, do not appear aggressive and definitely don't try to pet them. You must hike in with your food and plenty of water, because the water in Sage Creek is not able to be filtered. It is very easy to spend hours and days exploring the beautiful land and jagged rock, but you must be prepared. From what we saw and what we researched, rarely do people go out and backpack and camp in this wilderness area. I would recommend this to only those who have enough experience backpacking and who know how to prepare themselves, as you will not be near any people or amenities.

Nice little fishing spot. Dogs allowed we day camped here and enjoyed it alot. There was not a ton of traffic.

This campground sits on a hight overlooking Pierre, the capital, and the Missouri river. Beautiful at night. Campsites are close together with full hookups. Many amenities are offered on site such as horse shoes, Egg grills, mice playground dog walk, showers, laundry, and cable TV in the clubhouse

Up a hill is this campground. You can see the town and river down below. We visited in March and it was soooo cold. Didn’t come out of camper except to walk dogs. The grounds were kept up and clean. We did not meet any staff. When we came in our water hookup was frozen so they moved us to a spot where the had a heated cover on water pipe. Didn’t have any issues after.

Excellent stay ,very clean ,very well maitaned ,great staff

Enjoyed my stay here. Site was close to water so pup could swim a few times during the day. Staff was very helpful. When I made reservation a couple of months ago, there were only a few sites to choose from. On arrival, campground was maybe 25% full. Free shower was a nice treat. All sites are electric.

Great sites with room to breathe. Beautiful treed area. Staff is awesome. Clean bathrooms.

Stayed here one night on the way to My Rushmore. Checkin super easy and she made a great dinner recommendation for the best burger in Custer. Campground was peaceful, set in the trees, and we saw hot air balloons over head in the morning with some friendly wild turkeys walking through. Overall, awesome with clean bathroom shower. Will stay again for sure.

Nice place with very friendly and helpful staff. The camp was very full when we were there but oddly very quiet. The breeze blowing through the pine trees was very peaceful and relaxing. We would definitely stay here again!

Had a peaceful and relaxing time staying at Little Bend RV park. The views of the Missouri River are absolutely stunning. You can also access the river via a 10 minute drive down to the docks and there is a restaurant very close by.

We stayed for a 3 days and would recommend for anyone looking to get away for a few days, weekend or longer.

Management is very friendly!

Nice little campground mainly geared towards fishing. Heavy early morning traffic due to this being the only access to the lake for miles. Clean and well taken care of. Free showers that are well cared for with very hot water. Will be back!

Hard to register without appropriate forms (the post was out of envelopes). Odd amount $16.91 for 1 night made for necessary change. Wish they’d make it whole dollars like Federal campgrounds. Several spots to choose from - all first come first serve. It just might be a gem!

Really nice area, with well marked campsites. Vault style restrooms. Four dollar gate fee, and $13.79 per night camp fee. A little warm in August, but a great breeze.

We loved this campground!! It'd be great for tent or RV camping. The sites are really spread out and the facilities are super clean. Almost every site had its own bathroom too. Pretty views of the river from almost all sites!

We think we were the only people here last night. There were a couple other trailers, but no cars with them.

Our site was beautiful, right next to the river.

Bathrooms and showers were clean. Showers were hot and free.

The store was open and sold us beer.

Verizon coverage was good.

Close to Tr 12. Small town of mobridge has groceries and gas