Bismarck Lake Campground

The pit toilets were… pit toilets, but the site was beautiful and a short walk to the water. Not too crowded and quiet neighbors. Good Verizon service also

Hilly wooded camping, rock out crops, boarded walkways around the lake. Looks like a good place to fish.

This was a great forest service campground with 6 1st come 1st serve sites for $28 per night but with the America beautiful pass, It was $14. Great cell phone reception, water, pit toilet, is pit toilet and trash. Camp host at entrance an after October 3rd, reserved sites are closed with a gate.

This is one of the prettier campgrounds in the black hills. Most of the sites are well separated. We stayed in #6, which is close to #7. But the views are worth it. The table and tent pad are down the hill a bit from parking which is right next to the toilet. I had nice neighbors and it appeared that it was just the 2 sites using the vault toilet, so that was not too bad. Camp hosts was nice. Lots of water taps. Toilets was pretty clean for end of season.

Quiet, spread out tent spots. Rv spots little closer together. Great camp hosts, everything was very clean including the bathrooms and water fill stations. Right next to Lake bismark and very close to all the attractions in the black hills. Had Verizon phone service. Only about 15 min. Drive from the town of custer too. Beautiful campground/are definitely plan on going again.

Only stayed one night, but wish we had stayed longer! Great big spots with rocks to climb for the kids (like having your own personal playground). No views of the lake it self, but a short walk to enjoy the views (had the most fantastic sun in the evening). A lot of people were fishing, but we only saw turtles. No hook-up or water.

Very nice flat gravel back insights with heavy duty Picton tables short walk to the lake all the reserve sites was booked up for a long time. But there is first come first serve so happy for me

We loved this campground, all sites give you a little privacy and it was so quiet. The lake was beautiful, so bring your kayaks. There is a hiking trail around the lake and several benches to just sit and take in the sunsets. Very clean!

We had the place to ourselves, not another person in the campground for two days albeit it was cold and started snowing pretty heavily. Would definitely go back next time we are headed out West.

This campground is beautiful. We had a lovely two weeks here in mid-July. The sites are wooded and spaced far apart. The lake is within walking distance of all sites. No electric or water hook-ups. Several sites are same-day reservations only, but we had no trouble reserving one, just had to arrive first thing in the morning...Custer is a 7-minute drive away with plenty of coffee shops, restaurants, and shopping. Highly recommend a stay here.

August 23-25, 2019 Beautiful park and most of all it is located within Custer State Park. No showers or flush toilets, but we understand that you can shower at Legion Lake if you have a State Park Pass. There is a $2 per DAY pet fee collected when you arrive. We had Antenna TV reception. Elevation 5,249 ft. Mice were looking for somewhere warm to stay for the winter. We saw a few. We surrounded our RV and truck with rope lights at night. Either they worked or we got lucky.

This campsite was by far the most beautiful we’ve ever stayed at. Our campsite was overlooking the lake and right beside a very clean bathroom. Luckily, the campsite next to us was empty or we wouldn’t have any privacy. The bugs were minimal in early June. There was a path down to the lake from our site or a path to a bench to overlook the lake. The firepits were hard to keep fires going in, due to being so deep without much airflow at the bottom. But we managed. There are no showers at this campsite but we had a water spout on our site. The toilets are vault toilets. We didn’t see any snakes or other wildlife. We would definitely recommend staying here and try to get a site overlooking the lake. Absolutely beautiful!

**Campground Review: **

I chose this campground when I was looking up a quieter campground near Custer State Park. And it turned out to be the perfect spot for what we needed. It was centrally located in the Black Hills. About 10 mins down the road from the town of Custer. We camped in site 4 which was a lovely site literally just up the hill from the lake. It was a 2 min walk to the bathroom in either direction. The site was a bit rocky and hard to find a good place to put a tent but would be perfect for an RV. We were able to place a couple tents and hammocks to sleep in but if we had a larger tent we wouldn’t have found a spot in our site for a tent. The lake was perfect. 

There is a boat ramp to be able to put in kayaks, paddle-boards, or any other non motorized vessels. The lake is the perfect size to paddle away and feel like you have escaped society for a few minutes. The campground was secluded enough to where you didn’t see and hear all the other campers. The bathrooms were well taken care of and the camp hosts were lovely and very accommodating. 

The site was$26 a night with a$2 per pet per night fee. You can buy firewood from the camp hosts for $5 a bundle. 

Gear Review: 

As a Dyrt Ranger, we sometimes get the chance to review gear. This trip we were able to test out Eclipse Sun Sleeves. We do a lot of fishing and we are constantly worried about keeping our arms protected without getting sunscreen into the water supply or being over heated. These sleeves worked out perfectly for both of those reasons! 

https://eclipseglove.com/collections/all-eclipse-sun-products/products/sun-sleeves 

They stayed upright and didn’t roll down while moving around. The material was lightweight and quickdry. The fingers are halfway covered so it made it easy to maneuver with rods in hand. UPF 50+, reliably blocks 98%+ of UVA and UVB rays, chemical-free, and hypoallergenic. We were both able to wear the same size sleeves and they didn’t stretch out the whole weekend.

Really nice forest service site with a beautiful lake, trout, trails and solitude.

Go! Great little hide out. Shade everywhere, beautiful lake. No mosquitoes. Don't be discouraged by the no showers, when you pay to get into Custer State Park you're able to use their showers.

This National Forest campground is directly across the 2-lane "highway" from Custer State Park, a beautiful park with several campgrounds, vintage lodges and cabins, lovely small lakes and plenty of opportunities to see wildlife (we saw bison -- of course! -- mountain goats, wild burros, deer, and turtles).  Bismarck Lake campground is small and quiet (except for generators until 10 pm --- grrrr!) with several really beautiful sites.  There is water and the vault toilets were super clean.  We were in Site 2, one of the worst (right next to the campground road with a slope down to the picnic table/fire pit), but it was still pretty nice.  The best sites are 4, 5 and 8 which all have lake views; 6 and 7 which are next to each other on a large rock outcrop, with graded sites for tents -- they are close together though; and 21 (20 on one map) which is in a meadow all by itself (the Recreation.gov and Forest Service maps of the campground have numbered the sites differently; both show site 8 on the wrong side of the road).  There is a good graded path down to the lake, a sweet bridge over the dammed part of it, and a boardwalk around one side of it.  The lake is gorgeous -- so beautiful at dusk.  Across the highway in Custer State Park is Stockade Lake, which has its own little beach and a playground.  Stockade Lake South Campground has free showers (you have to pay a $20-per-car one-time fee  to get into and use any/all the facilities in Custer State Park -- totally worth it as there is so much to do!).  Mt. Rushmore is just over a half-hour away; the Badlands are about 1 1/2 hours.  Custer is a pretty cute little town (as opposed to Keystone, near Mt. Rushmore, which is a true tourist trap) with a good little grocery store (Lynn's DakotaMart) and an Ace Hardware, as well as a GREAT pie shop/bakery/cafe.

Beautiful camp sites. They are mostly gravel so pack a nice sleeping pad or blow up mattress. The pit toilets were very clean and the water spouts were plentiful. Many of the sites have natural rock formations as natural boundaries of the site. Many tent camp sites have raised platforms to pitch your tent. There is a small trail around the lake that was lovely in the evenings. The lake is very quiet and great for fishing or kayaking.