Best Tent Camping near Black Hills National Forest

Horsethief Lake Campground in Black Hills National Forest was surprisingly peaceful and serene though it is close to Mount Rushmore. The traffic to and from the monument doesn’t disturb the “atmosphere”.

There’s a trailhead “Black Elk Wilderness” nearby that takes you into the woods. The lake below is a popular fishing spot.

Primitive sites with shade and good size area to set up in. Requisite picnic table and fire pit.

A lot to do in the area or just sit back and enjoy the scenery. There’s an ADA parking pad with cement walk/roll way to enjoy the lake.

This campground was a relatively small loop with primitive amenities. The host was friendly, but make sure you follow all the rules. His camper is on the right when you enter and that's where you check in. We were able to visit several places while camping here because it is very close to Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, Wind Cave National Park and the The Black Hills National Forest. The campground offers many trees for shade and for hanging hammocks, a picnic table, firepit with grill, vault toilet (extremely foul odor in the summer), clean water spout, and firewood for sale. We even had access to Grizzly Creek at our site on the left, which was a nice place to cool off in July. We would stay here again, the only negative is that you can hear helicopter tours throughout the day.

This is the only campground in Wind Cave NP and has four loops with just over 60 sites. Loop A is for tents only and is the only loop with designated tent pads. Loop D has group sites that are reservable.

Some sites are in or near trees, but many are in grassy areas with little to no shade.

Each loop has restrooms with flush toilets and running water. There are water faucets for every couple of sites, however at the time there were a few that were not working.

Each site has a fire ring and picnic table.

There is a shed at the entrance where firewood/kindling are available for a donation.

There were lots of wildlife in/around the campground: mule deer, pronghorn, prairie dogs, and bison.

Just south of the campground is the visitors center where tickets for the cave tours can be purchased.

This campground is centrally located for visiting Jewel Cave, Badlands NP, Mt. Rushmore, and exploring the Black Hills region.

My only complaint is that many of the sites (on loops B-D) are more for RVs just to park and don't have much space for tents. As a result, several sites can only accommodate small tents because there's not much space with a fire ring and picnic table too.

Our family stayed in a walk-in primitive tent site located on a woodsy hill at the top of Custer. Campsites have a decent amount of privacy, but you are still aware of your neighbors. Portable toilets were available at the bottom of the hill near the parking lot with shower facilities a short walk away. Showers and laundry facilities were well maintained. Sylvan Lake is beautiful and provides a full day of activities without having to drive anywhere else in the park. Our family enjoyed hiking, paddle boating, and swimming with gorgeous scenery all around.

Comanche Park is just outside Custer, South Dakota. It’s open seasonally but it looks like a few spots are before the gate. The campground was pretty empty during the week but the host said it was full on the weekend- consider making a reservation. The sites are large without much vegetation between them. We were far enough apart that it still felt private. A picnic table and fire pit are standard. Vault toilets are spread throughout. There is water available but I would consider your options. The host said they get bottled water when I asked about the quality. 

The draw to this campground is that it’s close to Custer State Park. We arrived midday, set up and still had time to drive the wildlife scenic highway and the scenic drive out of Custer towards Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. We were feet from a bison herd and arms length away from donkeys. Returning in time to make dinner was great. Tomorrow we’ll leave early and do another drive and hike in Custer State Park. 

Comanche Park is a good campground to use as a base when you explore the area.

Campground Review:

The Stockade Lake North Campground is located just inside the west entrance to Custer State Park in Custer, South Dakota. This prime camping location is 15 minutes from Mount Rushmore, Wind Cave National Park, and just minutes from historic Custer, the Gordon Stockade, and a scenic jaunt to the State Park Wildlife Loop.

The sites at this campground are reservation-only, even on same-day arrival. In order to secure a campground, campers need to call the reservation number. However, once the reservation is made, campers can proceed to their campsite without having to worry about checking in with on-site staff, and no hassle with hanging a tag on the campsite post.

The campground is open for camping from the beginning of May to late September, weather permitting. There are 42 campsites available, many with electricity and several pull-through sites, but no full hook-ups. There are both vault and flush toilets, a shower house, and drinking water available. There is also a nice little playground in the center of the campground and an adjoining amphitheater where they may show informational films in the summer. Campsites here are well-spread among the trees, offering relative privacy and quiet space, with enough room to hang a hammock or two!

The campground is just a quick walk up from Stockade Lake, where you can fish, swim, put your boat in, view wildlife, and enjoy the small beach and playground. Across the small highway is Bismark Lake, in Black Hills National Forest, which is stocked for fishing, and provided us with a delicious fried trout meal our second night! There is also a pair of osprey that are seen frequently between the two lakes, and are a joy to watch as they fish and soar over the lakes.

We stayed on opening weekend in our small RV with electric on site 32E, and the campground was relatively empty. Our site was a bit unlevel, but very scenic and shady. Only one other site was close to ours, and luckily, no one was in it over that weekend. Sites are all gravel, and each one has an aluminum picnic table and fire ring. Most of the sites appear wide enough to accommodate slide-outs on RV units. Although there are long sites available, we did watch two large rigs struggle to back in their vehicles due to the narrow, curved campground roads. When viewing the reservation map, those sites that appear distanced from others truly are - try to reserve those if you can. Another pro tip: If you need to buy firewood, there is a Lutheran church just west of the state park entrance that offers wood for a donation, and supports their youth programs.

SInce it was the beginning of the camping season, the vault toilets were exceptionally clean and smelled great. We did not use the showers, but they looked to be in great shape.The drinking water was easy to find, and there is even a place to fill the RV tank before heading to your site.

For a video summary of our campground and the backpack, see our YouTube video: https://youtu.be/pElJjB1t4XA.

Product Review:

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, we get products to test from time to time, and since we knew we would be out all day fishing and hiking, we took along the Renogy Solar Backpack (https://www.renogy.com/renogy-solar-backpack). We wanted to be able to keep our electronic devices such as our cameras and phones charged throughout our weekend adventures! This backpack is exciting! It sports a 5.6-watt solar panel and you can connect any usb device with its 5V charging port (maximum 1.2A output).

The weather all weekend was partly cloudy with isolated showers, and yet the backpack was able to charge a battery bank for our electronics 3/4 of the way in about three hours. We believe that if the sun had been out constant all afternoon, we would have easily charged bank one full and a second bank at least half way.

Other highlights of this backpack include the nicely padded strap-side that rests against your back, a slot on the left strap for sunglasses, an expandable water bottle (or other small gear) pocket, and plenty of space inside for jackets and other layers that were shed throughout the day as it got warmer. Thanks to a plethora of inside and outside pockets, we carried water bottles, battery banks, two phones, a tablet, headphones, snacks, a sweatshirt, and a jacket all at the same time with ease and comfort. A smaller laptop would also fit nicely inside the main compartment.

This backpack can be used without the solar panels exposed, with a quick zipper flip-around, and it looks great! IAt only 2.2 lbs, it also carries the inside pack weight very comfortably for a range of sizes, from a 6’ 4” father to 5-foot, 11-year-old son. Both mentioned that they felt the backpack was a nice way to carry their gear for a day of hiking and fishing.

We arrived at Horse Thief Lake late on a Wednesday afternoon. Actually VERY late. It was around 7:00 pm on June 7, 2017. We were on a road trip and didn't have a firm schedule. We arrived without a reservation and were thrilled that they had three or four walk-ups available.

This campground serves both RVs and tent campers. The walk-up are was beautiful and quiet. We were in site 34, which is the closest to the road that circles through the campground, but it was above our site and we never noticed traffic.

It was early in June so many sites had reservations on them for the weekend, the walk-in area was less than half full. The sites are far enough away from each other that we were not bothered by any other campers.

The site had a great pad and nice wooden picnic table with a great fire ring. The fire ring was great in the morning as it was still pretty cool in early June.

Firewood was sold at the campground by the hosts for $5 a bundle. The hosts were very kind and kept the campground immaculate.

The vault restrooms were very clean, but there were MANY flies by the afternoon outside of the restroom.

We had some HEAVY rains while camping here and the people in the site closest to the lake, and near the top of the hill (amazingly) were flooded out and had to dry everything in the morning and move to another site.

We had no problem with critters bothering our camp. There are no bear boxes and the camp hosts told us they had never heard a report of bears being in their campground.

This was a great base camp for us. It is only 2 miles to Rushmore and we went to Custer's campground (and drove though TONS of animals including buffalo, prong horns and others, the Crazy Horse memorial and the Iron Road.