Looking for a rustic and comfortable horse camping experience near Badlands National Park? Whether you own a horse or are joining a tour group, equestrian camping is an adventurous and unique way to experience the city. These scenic and easy-to-reach South Dakota campsites are perfect for your horse camping excursion.
Sage Creek Campground is a primitive campground. There is no charge to stay here and camping is available on a first come first serve basis. The campground rarely fills to capacity.
Just a mile from the iconic Badlands National Park, our hotel and full-service campground offers a great base camp to explore South Dakota’s Badlands, Black Hills, and the historic small town of Interior.
With a variety of rooms, RV sites, and tent sites, we are ideal for couples getaways, family vacations, or traveling groups. We also offer an on-site restaurant, outdoor pool, fire pits, and complimentary WiFi.
Your Badlands getaway awaits. What are you waiting for?
$24 - $174 / night
This small developed campground is a quiet area with picnic tables, fire rings, and a vault toilet. This site is popular for rockhounding. Adjacent to the campground is a barren hill with a layer of exposed rocks, including the occassional agate. Please recreate with respect.
$1 - $100 / night
Traveler
Stayed here one night. No running water. Trash and picnic tables. Two vault toilets are located at each end of the campground. No cell service. It's winter and snowed early the morning I arrived to Badlands, so had the place to myself. Park rangers did rounds a couple of times during the day. Plenty of Buffalo crossing the road, roaming about, hanging out in surrounding hillside trees. Saw a fox, heard the howling wolves at night. Quiet and peaceful this time of year.
Traveler
This location is Sage Creek Basin Overlook and trailhead. It is beautiful up here at higher elevation. 4g and 5g cell service is available here on Tmobile. There are no toilets. The two toilets, one at each end of the campground, are located a few miles away at Sage Creek Campground. A few fellow park tourists stopped to see the views and hike. I spent two nights here.
ScoutEasy to access gravel drive; clean outhouse; can’t believe more people don’t use this spot.
GuideSpent one night here after exploring the park. less than a third full in early november. vault toilets clean-ish. wide open spaces, not really any privacy here. pretty sunrise.
GuideMy boy Palo and I camped in my Outback for a night. It was a great experience. They have the cleans best smelling bathrooms I have venture into.
GuideThis was a free site in the Badlands. It's a dirt road to get there, washboards, but OK.
The cg is in a prairie dog town so we kept the dog close.
It was full on a Saturday night in September, but we got one of the last sites. Very basic campground with a few trails to hike. Views were OK, but nothing great.
Buffalo wandered through camp at dinner time. We basically camped on the road that circles the campground.
Some picnic tables had a shade covering. Pit toilets were clean.
TravelerGreat location to set out to explore the Badlands? Low reception with Verizon in the valley bye still have good contact. Great reception, small hike to the top of the hill.
TravelerFree dispersed camping, with clean vault toilets. no water or power you will have to bring your own. Quiet and tranquil location, Surrounded by prairie dogs as you sit in the valley with low rolling hills around you.
ScoutI really liked this site, they had tables with shade, out house, flat ground, and compared to the dispersed camping wayyy less windy. We did not see bison today but there were prairie dogs
Legend
Close to NP. Level sites. Hookups are a little wonky. Some sites they are on the wrong side. Gravel sites and roads. Nice staff. Would stay here again.
GuideAt first we didn’t love it. It’s hot. No shade. No fires. Some picnic tables have a shade but they were all taken. I guess about 20 sights here I found trails to the creek. Win for me. Up early and holy WOW, buffalo start roaming through camp! 2 came right on through the middle of the campers loop scratching on posts and rolling in dirt behind our tent. Unbelievable. A handful more were roaming around on the other side of the creek. Me may have gotten bitten by prairie dog fleas though and they have a plague. I read the sign in the morning AFTER and we were leaving. I think we will survive. Worth every bite. The toilet house is nice with trash and hand sanitizer. No signal or water or electricity here. Lots of stars at night.
GuideWhat a sweet little spot! This is a 22 site, first come first served campground - no reservations & a 14 day limit. We visited in June & it was BUSY. The sites were all full by 4pm - but there is room to squeeze in extra tents/cars! There are no fires allowed here but there are two bathroom, and plenty of trash cans. The best part though is I can almost promise you’ll get up close & personal with some buffalo. Be respectful!!!
ScoutWe were visiting the badlands and decided to stay at a place close by and this place was perfect! This is no taz Mahal, but considering this is the wild west, the room has everything, all other hotels have. We know, we've been all over. Big room, good bed, good bathroom. Good air conditioning. Good fridge. Good restaurant, wagon wheel down the road. Excellent food,service,and atmosphere. If you're not picky, elite people, this is a great place!
RangerCampground is basic. Only 2 (very clean) vault toilets, no water or electricity. I got there a little before 3pm on mother's day; it was full by 8. Only a handful of sites have sun covers over the picnic tables. You will be very close to other campers. Most are respectful. I would just recommend getting there before dark to keep from disturbing everyone. Prairie dogs galore in the center and on the periphery of the campground. My dog was fascinated by them. As noted by others, you will most likely be serenaded by coyotes and have morning visits from the bison. I also heard wild turkeys off in the woods.
GuideSorry I forgot to get pictures. We stayed here for two days. The campsite allows pets has two toilets at both ends. No running water or electricity. The vibe at the site was great with the other campers. Weather was a bit extreme but we got unlucky picking a week when a huge storm column was coming across the US. The buffalo were all over the campsite. Really recommend if you enjoy camping a little more off grid but still having others to hangout with
ScoutUnblocked Games 76 is one of the original"unblocked games" websites, launched many years ago
GuideIt is a area about the size of a city block that you camp in the middle of and park around. It is popular so try not to show up late. Plenty of tent camping inside the loop. Parking can be and issue. By 9.pm some small RVs came and couldn't find space left to park. Vault toilets, trails, some picnic tables, scenery. Woke up to a buffalo 30 yards from my tent. Other people said they walk right thru camp. Prairie dogs everywhere, so watch your step for holes. I got yelled at by a prairie dog on my hike up the hill lol. Our stay was short but enjoyable.
LegendGreat free campground in the Badlands Wilderness area. Follow Sage Creek Rd and watch for signs for the campground. Made it no problem in a 26’ motorhome, but it is a 12 mile dirt road with a lot of washboard so things get rattled and covered in fine powdery dirt. Totally worth it though because on the way out you get amazing views from the top along the ridge of Badlands plus bison, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, coyotes, and hundreds of prairie dogs along the road on the way.
The campground is a loop that has parallel parking around it and sites are designated by numbered posts. There is a horse camp area to one side and toward the right as you pull in and many people just made up spots not in the loop but behind the bathroom and along near the horse camp, so if you made the long drive out you should have at least somewhere to squeeze in for the night.
There are picnic tables, some which are covered and two pit toilet bathrooms. Also there is garbage and recycling. There is no water here so be sure to bring enough as temps can get quite hot. Some reviews mention the wind being an issue and though it was windy at first it died down and was calm all night.
It was nice when we were there in late Sept. There were plenty of empty spots in late afternoon but filled up through the evening. Bison frequently come through the campground and use the posts to scratch themselves. Don’t be an idiot though (we saw some of that) these are huge wild animals and do not want selfies with you!
There were also a lot of coyotes that came through at night so be aware if you have a pet.
Weak and spotty cell reception with ATT and Verizon and no TMobile.
RangerWild animals everywhere, you're camping on the ground with the prarie dogs, lots of rabbits, birds, and bison coming through the campground as well. Next to the campground is a small walk up a steep hill to get good overlooks, and trails down to the creek with fossils.
TravelerWe had a great stay here while visiting the National Park - literally 2 minutes outside the entrance. The view from our camper was amazing. The hosts were very friendly and having the store was convenient. Bathrooms were newer and very clean.
GuideThis is a great campground just a mile outside of Badlands National Park. I stayed for a week and really enjoyed it. The campground has full hookups and a 24 hour laundry room. It was always quiet and the folks running it were extremely nice and accommodating.
ScoutGot in fairly late, was quite busy but we found a spot. The views and nearby trails are unbelievably beautiful at sunset. Just bare in mind (if you’re camping) that the site is very open so, we were struck by very heavy winds in the night due to a storm.
TravelerIf your looking for a place to crash with no shade and hundreds of Prairie dogs, then this is the place for you.
We showed up about four and every site but one was taken. The site actually stayed busy through the night and most just found a empty spot and racked out.
Overall it’s a nice campsite with a significant number of Prairie dogs and a bathroom that was clean but toilets definitely haven’t been pumped in quite some time.
Pro tip: If I haven’t mentioned Prairie dogs, they have a lot and, they apparently love grapes or anything they can get their little hands on.
GuideOn the drive in and out to Sage Creek, I saw all the major mammals of the park (bison, prairie dogs, deer, bighorn sheep, pronghorn), and there was even two bison grazing at the equestrian site in the morning.
The campground is nice and dark and had a great view of the Milky Way. There is no water at camp, which was made very clear on the park website and map. Sage Creek did have some water flow when I went, so I could have filtered some if I needed more.
My main criticism is that only a handful of the sites had shades for the picnic tables. When I arrived, the campground was less than half full, but none of the remaining sites had a shade. For a park that gets this hot and doesn't really have trees or other shade, I think this should be provided at each site.
Travelerbeautiful, remote, a bison didn't bother anyone, saw a snake, stargazing
TravelerThis park is clean, and just outside of Badlands National Park. The pool was great per our Grand-kids. Liked swimming and seeing Badlands at the same time.
The only problem the sites are short, but big rigs still parked here and intrude onto the road a bit. I had to back out of my pull through site as the rig across from me had his motorcycle parked in front and was partially on the road. But I don't blame the park for this but the camper.
GuideGreat views, prairie dogs were so cool to see running around the camp site. Bison everywhere on the drive in and a few even walking around the camp site. Super close to badlands park entrance. Toilets were clean and covered picnic tables were a huge plus! We got there late on a Wednesday night and still found a spot with ease.
Horse camping near Badlands National Park in South Dakota offers a unique opportunity to explore stunning landscapes while enjoying the company of your equine friends. With a variety of campgrounds catering to horse campers, you can find the perfect spot to set up camp and hit the trails.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular equestrian campsite near Badlands National Park?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular equestrian campground near Badlands National Park is Sage Creek Campground with a 4.4-star rating from 104 reviews.
What is the best site to find equestrian camping near Badlands National Park?
TheDyrt.com has all 5 equestrian camping locations near Badlands National Park, with real photos and reviews from campers.
