Best RV Parks & Resorts near Bruce, SD

This is a truly magical place, and if you’ve ever read any of the Little House on the Prairie books and are anywhere near De Smet South Dakota, do yourself a favor and swing by.

The Campground

The Ingalls Homestead consists of two main parts. First is the "campground," which is a basically a large grassy slope where you can set up your tent for just $10. It includes hot showers, flush toilets, and a few picnic tables and fire-pits throughout the field. There's also fairly basic RV parking for $30 with electric and water hookups and a dump site as well as some basic but cool covered wagons for $60. We arrived just as the sun was setting, found a lovely spot for our tent, and then paid in the shop the next morning. The bathrooms were clean, the showers were a little strange but also clean and hot (basically a large room cordoned off by several shower curtains).

The Homestead

De Smet is where the Ingalls family lived during the "Long Winter" of 1880-1881, and the Ingalls Homestead is a "family run business" that brings to life many activities from the 1880s such as visiting a one-room schoolhouse, making a corn on the cob doll, going on a covered wagon ride, etc. It's truly hands-on and some of our favorite time was spent hanging out in "Pa's" lean-to barn with the barn kitties and riding horses and ponies. My oldest son also learned how to drive the covered wagon to the schoolhouse down the road (another treat). Each station on the self-guided tour has an activity with incredibly nice and informed hosts. Most of the buildings are based on the original plans and descriptions from the Ingalls family, though no original buildings remain on the site. Visiting the homestead is an additional $15 per person over the age of five, and while you could camp without visiting the homestead, it was definitely worth a half or full-day visit.

A very cool and unique campsite on the grounds of the Laura Ingalls Homestead near De Smet, SD. Unique in that you can camp right on the open prairie and for only $10 a night. Just pick a spot of grass and you’re good to go. There are some picnic tables you can choose to be near or just head out on the frontier. There are also options to camp in a covered wagon as well as a bunkhouse. RV spots are available and include water and electric hookups. Well appointed and clean bathrooms (electricity and flush toilets) are on site with showers.

The other really cool thing about this spot—especially for families—are all of the fun activities at the homestead itself. There’s a one-room school house with tours, a barn with animals, a covered wagon ride where you (or your kids) can lead the horse-drawn wagon, opportunities to learn how to make a jump rope, twist hay, wash clothes—all things the Ingalls family had to do on a farm from long ago.

A night or two in the summer is great though with no shade for the campsites field, it can get warm but evenings on the prairie are gorgeous. All in all, a great spot to set up that is cheap but with nice facilities and staff.

Large spots maintained very well. RV spots have electric. Many spots have shade, some are near the lake, and some with lake views. They have small cabins for rent, as well as paddle boards, kayaks, and canoes. There is a lower park that’s great for families, with activities on the weekends , a large playground, and easy lake access. The other park is mainly spaces, with a large grassy area in the center. They spray regularly for bugs, which is extremely important to me! The area has many geocaches as well!

We were searching for a place to land for the night and after a couple of failed attempts at other places, decided to come here. Sites (many with lake views) are spacious and very reasonably priced ($22 for electric/water and$30 for full hookup). Mid-week was very quiet and peaceful; I imagine that a weekend, especially in the summer might be a different experience. The bathroom was very clean. Didn’t use the shower but were warned by the host that the hot/cold faucets were backward. Awesome sunsets! A nearby veterans memorial is very touching. The only complaint was no recycling bins.

There are many sites for both tent and RV camping along with clean wash houses and located within a 10 minute drive to town. Cost was $22 per day.

We stayed here in Aug 2019 - although it was a short visit, we had a nice time. Wasn’t busy, kids liked playground, walking path, and checking out Mortimer’s cabin. Electric hook-ups.

Passing town of Arlington and found a couple of city parks with electrical hookup and about six sites with picnic tables! On busy truck route but very quiet after dark! Nice town to bike or walk! Grocery store, gas mini mart and Main St all close. No vehicle needed!

We stayed here for one night in September. The park was filled up. All RVs. We stayed next to the lake. Bathrooms were decent.

Nice peaceful campground with large sites nicely spaced apart for privacy. We stayed in #6 (non-electric but there are lots of electric sites.) Cleanest pit toilet ever with many amenities!! Mirror, shelf, hooks, hand sanitizer, garbage can, reading material on wall listing ‘things to do’!! Showers clean too with plenty of warm water. Saw some fireflies, no mosquitoes!! We had a very pleasant one night stay.

2 fire pits. 1 porta-potty. Open area you can camp anywhere. No water, no electric, no dump station, no potable water.

Town is 2 miles away, and they have a free dump station. Town also offers free showers. The laundry mat is available next to showers.

One mile out of town is a paid campground at the Lake Carthage campgrounds.

In town at the city park is a paid campground ss well.

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 park is a nice little stop in a super small town. We came through just to visit the Ingall’s homestead and enjoyed this peace and quiet so much we decided to stay for four days.

It’s self service, so first come first served. We were the only ones here for a day or so and then a few others came, but it never filled up. You just put your cash in a lock box.

All the sites have electrical and there’s water available in a few sites. Splitter on the spout makes it easy for two campers to share the water.

The back in spots have plenty of shade. The pull throughs are in direct sun. But all the spots are freshly graveled and we’ll maintained.

There’s a playground for the kids and clean bathrooms with showers.

The town is super small, so don’t expect to have a touristy experience or anything. But if you’re on your way to the ingall’s homestead, or just need a place to park for a night or two, the spot is great.

Nice pebble beach, playgrounds, and walking areas. Flat camper parking. Power was great and showers were clean. Electric only. There is an area to dump waste on the exit. Stopped on Sunday on the way westward and the place was empty, stopped Friday on the way home and it was packed. Lots of kids and families, and almost every spot was full. Happy to see folks having fun. It was just a little busy for us. On the second time through one of the three bathrooms was very dirty, sad before the weekend- the showers remained clean. On the Friday stop there were a lot of people, some spots had 3-4 cars parked in the grass- it was too bad they allowed that. If one was to go here to find some quiet do so during the week or late weekend. It worked just fine as a quick overnight stop on our route. Lots of families having fun. Slept well. Well groomed area. Pretty views of lake. A little windy.

This state park in eastern SD is a great t place to camp, there are two modern camping areas, a swimming beach several boat launches, handicap accessible fishing dock. There is a a horse trail and trail campsites.