Best Tent Camping near Deadwood, SD

Tent Camping Reviews near Deadwood, SD

1380 Reviews of 20 Deadwood Campgrounds

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  GoWhereYouAreDraw N.

  Legend

  Apr. 30, 2021

  Black Hills National Forest Bear Gulch Campground

  Primitive but comfortable group camping

  A former individual campground now turned group campsite. Eight individual tent sites (each has a picnic table and fire ring) around a central camping area. Vault toilets and a hand pump for drinking water. There is no electrical hookup.

  Vehicles must travel down nine miles of dirt roads to reach the facility. Hill City is the nearest town for additional amenities, and Rapid City is 20 miles away. Nice fishing and kayaking. 3 stars because it's groups only!

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  Sarah H.

  Guide

  Jul. 23, 2016

  Sylvan Lake Campground — Custer State Park

  Primitive Camping in Custer

  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.

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  Art S.

  Legend

  Jun. 24, 2019

  Comanche Park

  Simple campground near amazing places

  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.

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  Tonya Y.

  Guide

  Jun. 25, 2017

  Horsethief Lake Campground

  Cute, Quiet, and Close to Everything

  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.

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  Jessica F.

  Scout

  Aug. 20, 2016

  Bismarck Lake Campground

  Natural and Beautiful

  Beautiful camp sites. They are mostly gravel so pack a nice sleeping pad or blow up mattress. The pit toilets were very clean and the water spouts were plentiful. Many of the sites have natural rock formations as natural boundaries of the site. Many tent camp sites have raised platforms to pitch your tent. There is a small trail around the lake that was lovely in the evenings. The lake is very quiet and great for fishing or kayaking.

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  Casey L.

  Ranger

  May. 24, 2022

  Comanche Park

  Nice Campground Near Highway

  The sites were decent, our fire ring didn’t have any flat spots to put chairs around. The were lots of vault toilets bathrooms, they were a little smelly but not as bad as some. Most of the campground was empty on a May week night. We could hear the cars from the road. The camp host was a nice lady. Convenient to Mount Rushmore and Wind Cave National Park.

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  Alissa V.

  Scout

  Aug. 6, 2020

  Sheridan Lake South Shore Campground

  Can’t wait to go back!

  Great campground with kind hosts and staff. The pit toilet was well maintained. We had lots of space in our site (#21) for our vehicle with rooftop tent, a separate shade tent and table, and large picnic table. We could have for a lot more! People were respectful of quiet hours and felt safe with lots of families, but spread out enough there wasn’t too much noise. We definitely want to try a site on the lake side next time, it’s beautiful over there. The swimming lake was great for bathing. Because of the shade and elevation it never felt too hot, even in late July.

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  Krista K.

  Guide

  Nov. 12, 2021

  Sheridan Lake South Shore Campground

  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

  My sister and I spent 7 days here, tenting. I even brought along my best friend that passed away 2 months prior (her ashes). So close to so many places to visit, which we never did (we loved every minute being disconnected). The weather was mostly perfect, besides some hail and rain a couple nights. We took our paddle boards out almost every day. Our site was right by the lake and right by one of the vaulted toilets. There is no electricity, only potable water, and neither one of us had cell phone service. If you ask me, IT WAS PERFECT!! These sites are FCFS, and the weekend fills up fast. The hosts are awesome and helpful. The toilets were always clean, the cleanest I’ve ever experienced! There are no showers, but there is a campground close by that lets you shower for $5. Might sound expensive, but when you’ve gone 5 days with no shower, it’s so worth it! We had neighbors nearby and everyone was friendly. I have only positive things to say about this place. It was an experience that enlightened my soul. I most definitely will be going back again!

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  Cynthia W.

  Guide

  Jul. 25, 2017

  Grizzly Creek Primitive

  Beautiful but nosy and smelly

  Let me start by saying the campground itself is beautiful! There was plenty of shade and the creek provided nice ambiance. However, don't camp here if you want some peace and quiet! Iron Mountain Road runs right by and it a popular with motorists and motorcyclists. Also, starting a 9am until probably 6pm there are helicopter tours for Mount Rushmore and it flies right over the campground. We used this spot as a jump off point for all our adventures so we weren't bothered too much by the noise as we were gone for much of the day.

  Our only other complaint is that the vault toilets smelled terrible. I know they're not supposed to smell like roses, but we've experienced many other vault toilets that we "pleasant" and we rarely saw a fly. These would have flies swarming as you used the facilities and we could often smell the toilets from our site. I'm not sure if the treatment is different in SD, as we're from CO, but this was out biggest complaint.

  High point is that you're only 5 to 10 minutes from Rushmore and close to Custer State Park and it was an easy jumping point for many other destinations.

  One more note...more of a soapbox speech...the Vermont people next to us were terrible campers and broke all the basic etiquette camping rules. They washed dished in the creek, they bathed at the water pumps and left trash and food all over their site and in the fire pit when they left. This is NOT ok. Camping involves a very high level of respect for nature and if you can't follow leave no trace rules, you shouldn't be out there!

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