Best Tent Camping near Chamberlain, SD

It’s sometimes hard finding a spot off the highway when venturing West that offers a nice view and a little seclusion before you head into the Badlands / Blackhills area. We’ll not anymore! This took approximately 10 minutes to arrive from the highway exit and offered a pit toilet, river access, and fire rings / tables at some sites.

Ample parking for all types of vehicles I shared the lot with about 6 others on a Tuesday night. Everyone was respectful and friendly. Bathrooms were pretty kept up as well.

Not a lot of privacy as it’s mostly a large gravel lot, but some sites offer a bit of tree cover.

Dirt road was graded but would be bumpy in a car or RV, but still manageable.

There are two spots here for camping. One spot with primitive "sites" in an open grassy field with no sites that has some firepits (2-3) with no cooking grates, two picnic tables that can be moved and two under a roof on cement. The other spot (see separate dyrt listing) has electric sites that are supposedly $20 per dyrt but I didn't see nor look at how to get those spots (5-6 of them). They were actually looking all full. We set up in the grassy area with unfortunately a big trash bin in the way (hopefully someone moves it to a different spot). People before us had left trash in the firepit (no cooking grate) anyway even though the big bin was 20 ft away. 

The restrooms are over by the electric sites and were disgusting. It seems bored locals come and trash the place as they had signs about keeping poop in the pits and not on the walls. I was happy we had bikes to get over to the restrooms and we did use the one that wasn't utterly disgusting once for a #2.

When we woke were in the midst of tons of wind again but some electric site folks had left so we packed up and drove over to one of those sites which are up by some trees and got out of the wind to cook some breakfast and food for the drive. The trees also provided some kindling to get the fire started.

Overall, OK stay, best for just pitching a tent late and hitting the road early though unless some improvements are made like more firepits and trees in grassy area or you can cook and be totally self contained.

This is a great open camp area around the lake. There is a vaulted toilet, fishing docks, dumpster, picnic tables, and for a $20 per day fee there is shore power. To get the power unlocked do you have to call the city at this number, (605) 869-2263. The state limit is five days. You can get pretty windy here, but there is a good wind block along the row of parking for the camping with power. Great views, quiet spot. Very accessible with big rigs. Little to no shade. Most spots are somewhat level, but if you’re camping outside of the electrical hook up area, there is an angle to the terrain, so be prepared to level as needed.

I stayed here with my family over the 4th of July weekend (2021). This is basically the only time of year this campground consistently fills up. There were 2 open spots when we arrived Friday afternoon (in the main camping area, anyway; there are other electric-only sites near the tennis court that we did not look into). As it is first-come, first-served, the spots left had a good deal of side-slope to them, so while we were still able to get leveled, our steps were higher up than usual and made it hard for little ones to get in and out. Another con is the shower house was not air-conditioned, so at that time in July it was like a brick oven in there. Finally, I did notice a few sites had an old charcoal grill and there were a couple of random picnic tables around, but ours did not have any type of grill, fire ring, or picnic table.

Everything else is positive. The value is FANTASTIC: for $15/night you get full hookups, with plenty of space between the sites, which are in a very quiet area of a quiet town. It is easy walking distance to the rest of the city park (playground, picnic shelter, tennis courts, baseball field, and pool). The campsites are located at the bottom of the large sledding hill, which you can walk up and get some great views of the town and surrounding countryside.

Would highly recommend as a weekend getaway or quick overnight stay if you're in the area! The rural town has all basic amenities covered - grocery store, gas station, bar, etc, so it is a great way to get away and slow down your pace a bit, while not being completely cut off if you need a few supplies.

This CG is tucked away on the north shore of Lake Sharpe, near the Big Bend dam. Most sites have a view of the lake. Most are back-in, with a couple of pull through. Unfortunately, the pull through have the driver's side facing the lake unless you turn around and go against the one way sign. We did this because we had the entire CG to ourselves. Nobody here but us.

The CG needs some love. Though maintained by the COE, it looks like locals use the area as party central, and don't clear out their trash.

The sites are gravel, and reasonably level. Most have a fire pit and picnic table, though ours had neither. This didn't bother us. Lots of flies, and we had a wasp nest nearby. Though they hung around, they weren't aggressive, and we were able to sit outside and enjoy the gorgeous fall weather.