Best RV Parks & Resorts near Aurora, SD

We stayed here for one night on the way to the Black Hills in South Dakota. The campground is in the far south western corner of Minnesota about 30 minutes for Sioux Falls South Dakota. The site is in the middle of grasslands and cornfields. They have very organized park staff that have an efficient check in process. The campground has some nice ponds and bike routes. It’s located next to a bison range and tours are available. Unfortunately the camp sites are packed in on top of each other with no privacy. You have a lot of local large RV users using loud generators and playing music until after midnight. They have good facilities with showers and dump stations. During our stay, the water in the camp tested positive for bacteria and the camp was giving out free drinking water. Since you don’t have many options in the area, this may be a good choice. The overcrowding was our main issue.

Such a nice campground. Nice big shady trees and manicured lawns. They sell campfire wood for 6$ a bundle on site so we had some great campfires going. They have nice long paved trails for walking and biking. We got to walk our dogs on it to avoid tick contact from the grassy trails. There was a cool suspension bridge that was fun to walk on. The showers were very nice and hot without a lot of traffic. 

There is no sewage hookup or water hook ups. They do that 50/30 amp sites available. There is a dump station right at the entrance to dump when you leave and it also has a separate fresh water station if you want to fill up right when you get there so youre not traveling with a bunch of water in your tank. 

It was a great campground and the falls were close by and palisades state park was also in the area with a nice hike. 

There is an extra $8 car fee per night that you have to pay on top of any camping fees. If you are staying longer than 5 days it better to just get the annual parking pass for $32, which would cover parking for all state parks and recreation areas in SD. 

They have great discounts if you are a veteran and south dakota resident.

Stayed at Blue Mounds on one of the hottest weekends this summer! We booked site 12 initially based off of reviews from the Dyrt suggesting riverside sites. Site 11 and 12 were NOT good. There's a dumpster in the middle of the two sites, absolutely no privacy, and no shade. Thankfully, there is good cell service (and free wifi!), and we looked up what other sites were open. 13 was open! And boy did we luck out with this. Even though it's just adjacent, 13 had a nice little secluded area for our tent, and a *private* riverside walk out to the cliffs overlooking the river! No direct river access- it's about a 15 foot drop to the river. The moonrise from this site was gorgeous. Had a spooky visit from the Starlink satellites. We drove in the morning to the bison area and saw about 12 of them roaming near the fence.  Bathrooms were decent. Close by to Luverne for any last minute needs while camping.

We happened upon this park during the 50th anniversary of the park so there were lots of park events happening. This is a very clean and well maintained park. We tent camp so much of my observations are geared for the tent camper. We stayed at site 34E, a long but narrow and slanted site. We were lucky to find some awkward somewhat flat place for our two tents. This site would be just fine for RV camping but I’d steer clear for tent camping. I’d estimate that 50% of the sites are flat and suitable for tents.
Here are some key take aways from our 3 night stay in late July 2022. -clean and well maintained park

• fair wireless service for Verizon
• well placed and clean shower / restroom houses
• nice playgrounds
• great options on the park for paddle boarding, kayaking, water play as well as additional options at near by Devil’s Gultch and Split Rock parks.
• Very well shaded park
• Grocery store less than 10 min away.
• Mosquitos weren’t a problem during out stay with a little bug spray prevention.
• Nice aluminum picnic tables at all sites. Standard fire pits with grilling attachments.
• employees will enforce local approved fire wood use Negatives:
• lots of biting flies
• if you like private sites this isn’t for you The interesting:
• this is easily the most heavily staffed state park I’ve ever stayed at. If you like a constant park employee presence you’ll like it. I found it to be excessive however. During a 30 min time period we counted 8 employee vehicles to two park visitors driving by. It seemed to create unnecessary road traffic and noise at times. Park employees walk the park on foot in the dark at the 11pm to enforce quite time. There aren’t going to be any site reservation mix ups there either. Park employees constantly check sites and make sure reservations are correct. The camp host was very nice and makes the round frequently.

Although an envelope system is in use and we were told we didn't need one, reservation slips made out by the park (ON ORANGE) take precedence over the white slips (which are the duplicate layer of your registration form). After we came, found a pull- through spot open that night, filled and posted our form, we we left - and returned to a filled spot- THAT camper reserved by phone just hours earlier (perhaps while we were selecting). Fortunately we saw another spot where we could still stay hooked up. This is a really pleasant (under big oaks) electric only sites campground. 2 handicap shower/bathrooms. Picnic tables and fire rings. Little free library.

This Recreation Area is large and  located off the Sioux River, which was slow flowing when I visited. It’s not the most picturesque river I’ve seen, so if you’re looking for that look further. However, because it was slow moving it made for a nice round trip paddle. 

Easy access from 90W, not much road noise and close to the town of Brandon for supplies. 

There’s a fantastic disc golf course complete with a creaky suspension foot bridge that spans the fiver. 

Great hiking and biking trails too. I hiked the Valley of the Giants trail, which earns its name because of the many old, “giant” oaks in this river bottom area. It’s an easy hike with one slight incline/decline, but the loop was curtailed by a giant felled oak tree.  The path was completely covered and no matter which way I tried I couldn’t see the trail it had become so overgrown. Sadly it seems that this has been the fate of several the the Giants, perhaps due to the river flooding.

The campground has gravel pads. My site backed up to the river but there was a bushy berm and the bike/walking bath between the site and the river. No problem to access the river though because there are little paths worn through the bushes. Lots of trees for shade and good space between sites. There’s electric but no water at site. Fill up by the restrooms or before you come. Picnic table and fire ring with grill connected. Fire ring is on a cement pad. I’d never seen that before. 

There are also  cabins for rent and when I was there the restrooms looked clean and functional.  Picnic shelter and gazebo are on site as well as the Bergeson’s Homestead. It’s always nice to see history being preserved like this! When I’m passing through this area again, I’ll revisit this recreation area.