Best Cabin Camping near Black Hills National Forest

As a Ranger on The Dyrt, I sometimes receive compensation for reviews like this one. We received a coupon code for The Dyrt's online product store in exchange for trying out the new online camping reservation system to make a reservation for Buffalo Ridge Camping Resort. 

We reserved a campsite for Buffalo Ridge Camping Resort through The Dyrt, and it was a breeze to go through the process. We were emailed the reservation information, payment was taken via bank card, and it all made the check-in process very fast upon arrival. We decided to change from a tent site to a log cabin and all the contact information was in the email, so we called and they made the change for us at the office. When we arrived they handed over the key and off we went. 

Buffalo Ridge is conveniently located in Custer, South Dakota. It is at the location of the previous Flintstones Resort(my kids miss that place), and some of the playground equipment from the Flintstones Theme Park were located at the campground. My boys loved playing on the teeter-totters and in the old Flintstones car that were there. Good memories. The resort is sectioned into areas- a tent area, the glamping tipi area, two RV areas, and the cabins. There is a main building where you check in and they have a nice little gift shop with trendy, outdoorsy items and camping needs available. The heated pool is coming… they have broken ground behind the main building! However, since the pool is promised on their website, they partnered with another of the Custer Hospitality’s properties, Comfort Inn, which is across the road, and provide passes to the indoor swimming pool there until their pool is done. My sons were thrilled as the night we stayed at Buffalo Ridge it got down in the 30’s- that would have been a very chilly outdoor swim for June! 

The RV sites are pretty typically spaced, and there are small trees throughout. The tent sites are large, have a fire ring, and some have picnic shelters as well as tables. There are two types of cabins, log (think KOA-style) and rustic. They sleep 4-5 comfortably. Cabins also have fire rings and picnic tables, and there are trash cans right outside the cabin! What a nice touch(you can tell we aren’t in bear country here!). There is a really nice, new laundry and shower facility and a bathroom building with two toilets and a very large outdoor sink for washing dishes. 

The price for this campground is more than reasonable compared with others in the area! We were happy to see both their tent sites and their cabin prices were about$10 below the local competition. All of the staff we encountered were friendly and helpful, and did their best to insure a positive stay. 

The log cabin we stayed in did not have A/C, but they do provide a space heater(which we needed in June, believe it or not), but they are situated near the top of the ridge so get a nice breeze. There were two sets of beds inside, one twin bunk and one full-twin bunk. Five could easily sleep there. There is a nice porch with chairs and a swinging bench as well. Our sons asked if we could stay a second night, they enjoyed it so much! 

Right now (as of June 2019) they are working on installing the outdoor pools, expanding the second RV area(looks almost done), they just paved the east entrance this week, and are putting in more gravel and possibly paving more of the main roads. It is going to be a very nice campground when it is finished, as it already has a great start! There were a ton of RV’s the night we stayed, and they have an employee that leads you to your site using a golf cart, which is always a nice touch. Class A’s fit easily into their sites, as well as RV’s with slides. Plenty of safe room for kids to run around and play as well. All around, we are very pleased to have Buffalo Ridge in our home town and will stay there again just for the fun of it!

For the techies - excellent Wi-Fi service is included all over the campground, and there is a  very good 4G Verizon signal at the campground.

The pros:

• 100+ spaces for campers/motorhomes accommodating all sizes, even the real big diesel pushers.
• They have small cabins to rent, tree houses, and glamping tent/cabins.
• The bathrooms are clean and have private showers.
• There are laundry facilities on site.
• Full hookup sites.
• Two swimming pools.
• Close proximity to Keystone, Custer, Rapid City
• Each gravel pad may require minor leveling but they are pretty good.
• A nice picnic table is located at each site.

The cons: We ended up here because I called 17 other places between Custer and Rapid City and all were full. Many of the sites offered by the competition are nicely spaced out with mature trees surrounding the pads, that’s not the case here.

• The RV area is tight with a sea of RV’s. For us it’s less like camping and more like a townhouse development. It’s not as bad as the parking lot variety, there is grass between the sites and some trees.

On a 3+ week road trip, we stayed at Beaver Lake Campground for 4 nights and used this location as our ‘home base’ for the entire extended area in South Dakota: Badlands NP, Rapid City, Black Hills national forest, Mt. Rushmore, the very large Custer State Park, Wind Cave National Park, and the variety of scenic byways that connect them. It’s about 90 minutes away from the Badlands, but it was worth it to drive back out that direction rather than a.) having to camp at a separate site for only 1 night and b.) having to camp in that environment, which is generally much hotter and more arid than the Custer area within the Black Hills.

The campground is located about 3 miles outside the main drag of Custer, which is a great location for exploring the area. It is large and predominantly an ‘RV’ style campground, though they also have some small cabins that you can rent. They have laundry on site (which is nice when you’re on a road trip), a small camp store with everything that you would need, and the campground hosts are very nice and accommodating. The bathhouses weren’t the greatest (a little dirty and the woman’s shower stall in the bath room near the pool had a broken shower hose which sprayed me in the face when I was showering - quite annoying!), but they were conveniently placed. The pools looked nice, but with so much to do in the area we honestly did not spend any time in the campground during swimming hours so I can’t comment much on them. In general, everyone that we met at the campground seemed extremely nice, our particular camp site was beautiful, large, and well-situated, and the campground had everything that we needed (and more) in a fantastic location. Pretty close to perfect!

Privately owned ranch setting with dispersed tent sites, 4 full RV hook-ups under huge old Willow Trees, 1 one-room camping log cabin for 2-3 people and 1 guestroom for 2 in the owners home.Toilet room with flush toilet and cold water sink, outdoor shower building for camping solar shower bags, hydrants with drinking water and electric outlets.Cabin and house guests may use one of the bathrooms/shower in our home.

Coffee and tea in the mornings is served on our large porch. There you find WiFi and electric outlets for charging your devices.

Free Parking in designated areas close to all the camp sites. Direct access to National Forest all around us.

There is an approved large fire pit for campfires, otherwise no other fires on the ground allowed. We normally have fire wood for sale here.

Crooked Creek is a great option in Hill City. The camp hosts are very welcoming and accommodating and have been coming back to work as seasonal hosts for years (that in itself tells you something.) The campground is well kept with new amenities being added. There are sites with concrete back porches that offer adirondack chairs and fire pits, sites offering furnished wooden decks that overlook the creek, plenty of fish watching and soothing sounds of running water. There are cabins, a Lodge, a fitness center, store, very warm heated pool, playground, a nice concrete and covered stage with seating and propane fire pits that hosts live music thurs-sun. We were able to enjoy listening to CJ and Woody one night with a cold drink in hand, warmth from the fire pit and great company while our kids played on the playground right next to us. Good quality wifi and cell service (hard to find in Hill City), clean bathhouses and a nice walkable campground. Mickelson bike/walking trail is directly behind the campground. There are plans in the works to offer food more regularly (right now, there's a bbg food vendor that comes on some weekends) and an entire new section of camping in the 12 acres they purchased. Some people have complained that the spaces are too tight and they can't get their awnings out because of trees. After driving around Hill City and seeing some of the rv parks calling themselves Resorts, i will gladly take a smaller site that offers some natural shade from the trees. Besides, the wind picks up rather quickly in the area so the awnings have to be watched closely. I wish we had stayed longer.

As a Ranger on The Dyrt, I sometimes receive compensation for reviews like this one. We received a coupon code for The Dyrt's online product store in exchange for trying out the new online camping reservation system to make a reservation for Plenty Star Ranch.

We reserved a campsite for Plenty Star Ranch through The Dyrt, and it was a breeze to go through the process. We were emailed the reservation information, payment was taken via bank card, and it all made the check-in process very fast upon arrival. We needed to change our camping date and all the contact information was in the email, so we called and owner Isa was more than understanding (it was going to storm, then snow, then get really windy for the night we reserved).

This campground is actually a small, working ranch located right next to a bison ranch, which had just had about four bison calves born in the previous week. They were fun to watch run and play in the field next door. Plenty Star Ranch itself allows you to bring your own horses (for a small fee) and there is plenty of room for them to enjoy. There are cabins, campsites, and RV hook-ups, all conveniently located along the rural Highway 385 north of Pringle, SD.

We planned to pitch a tent for the night, but the weather has been pretty harsh in the Black Hills this spring, and temperatures were going to be well below freezing overnight. We are hearty campers and planned to tough it out, but owner Isa insisted that we take one of their two cabins instead and upgraded our stay for no additional cost. My boys (8 and 12) and I stayed in their 3-person cabin which has a queen bed and a pull-out twin. They provided all the linens (though we used our own pillows by choice) and the cabin was nicely heated with electric heat. We definitely stayed much warmer that night than we would have been in a tent! It was super cozy and quiet in the cabin!

The cabin is located about 50 yards from the public bathroom, which is also heated, well-lit, and attached to their garage. Parking is right next to the cabin, making it a breeze to unpack. There is a picnic table on the porch in front of the cabin, where we could cook and eat, as well as a table inside. In the morning I set up my Primus stove and made coffee, which I sat on the porch and enjoyed while watching whitetail deer and Canada geese stroll past. There is a goose nest right on the island in their pond, and I am sure it is neat to watch the goslings grow all summer!

Tent camping sites are located in one of their former pastures, and we saw plenty of level, gravel RV sites with hook-ups around the main living area. There are two shower stalls next to the cabins that are ready for your solar shower bag to be attached (we thought that would be really fun), and in the off-season they allow guests to use their shower inside the main house. We didn't need to take them up on that since we were only staying one night, but they also invited us up in the morning for coffee and cocoa (usually out on the porch, but it was about 35 degrees that next morning- brr!).

Isa and Jack (the owners) are very friendly, and were a lot of fun to chat with, I would definitely return to Plenty Star Ranch for another getaway evening or weekend in the future. They currently have plans to move their smaller 2-person cabin up into the canyon behind the main house and put it completely off-grid. It would be a perfect getaway for a couple, and what a gorgeous setting back in the hills!

If you are looking for a quieter place to camp in the Black Hills, you should definitely consider Plenty Star Ranch, as it is only about 8 minutes south of Custer, but greatly removes you from the hustle and bustle of the tourist towns. It is just minutes from Wind Cave National Park as well, which is a must-do when you are in the area!

One more thing to note: the only cell service in the immediate area of the ranch is AT&T. We knew that going into the weekend, so planned on not having service (we have Verizon), which for us is no big deal - after all, we were camping! :)

We spent five days here in June to explore Mount Rushmore and the surrounding areas. Eight full hookup camper sites and several small cabins. Community fire pit was a plus that I originally wasn’t sure about. We had several great nights by the fire that we didn’t have to take care of making s’mores and new friends for the whole family. Instead of a normal office, they have a great little taproom which we also enjoyed. Open windows allow you to see the community playset while inside. You can connect to their WiFi there. There is no cell service in campsite which I honestly loved. Coin laundry on site and two nice bathroom/shower rooms if you are a big fan of longer than five minute showers. Great owners live on site. With so much to do in South Dakota, we may be making this an annual stop on the way to other destinations.

We camped in April - in our teardrop trailer - and almost had the campground to ourselves!  Very few people and those that were there were very spread out.  Our site was right on the creek and it was a lovely sound for nighttime!  We had easy access to laundry if needed (at the next lodge down the road inside the park) and firewood was available there too for $6/bundle if you wanted it. Generally there is a restaurant during tourist season, but wasn't open yet. This campground - Game Lodge - was the only one in the park open at this time of year.  We went in early April. 

For those concerned about the animals - yes the deer can jump the fence into the campground, but notice I said "fence"...the bison can not get in.  Even with the gate open, there is a large "cattle grate" in the pavement to keep them from coming it.  They love to graze in the grass outside the fence, but can't get in.

All sites had a fire ring (we didn't use ours since it was VERY windy and VERY dry) but it's good size.  There are picnic tables at each site as well. Vault toilets as well as full bathrooms (heated) with showers for free (hot showers). The showers are not on all year long, but only when the frost is out of the ground for the water lines . Water spigots for drinking water are here and there, but again, only on when there is no danger of freeze.

Spaces were clearly marked, tent pads were raised on pea type gravel, cabins looked lovely (appeared to have A/C).