Best Tent Camping near Fort Pierre, SD

We stayed here one night while traveling West. It's a beautiful spot in the middle of the SD prairie. The little lake is pretty and the sunset was amazing. For such an out of the way place it's well taken care of. The whole camping area was recently mowed and as others have said it has a very clean vault toilet. There was only one other camper there on the other side of the tree shelter. Bring your own shade. We arrived on a hot windy day, parked against the trees as wind protection and unfolded the awnings for shade. Around sunset some storms rolled by and the wind kicked up something fierce! We closed up the awnings in a panic and hunkered down. The wind howled all night!!!

Fee area:$8.00 daily$36.00 annual purchase on line 

Open: all year(between October 1 and April 30 amenities maybe turned off 

Vault toilets are usually operating

$26.00 electric site $55.00 camping cabins 

archery basketball birding boating fishing hiking hunting swimming volleyball snow activities   boat ramp drinking water fish cleaning station picnic tables showers trash picnic table fire ring/grill

 ADA accessible 

 You will find gravel pads, level with some mature trees and many trees have been planted around the campground There is a new bath house and very clean. Many lake sites and lake views. Since the campground is fairly flat a lot of the sites have water views.

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.

This is a wonderfully maintained city campground. This campground is on the Missouri River. The city of Fort Pierre has put a lot of money into its parks. Campgrounds are really clean and beautiful. The Griffin site has electric at the sites but not water, though there is potable water available. On the upside for Griffin, there is a wonderful tornado shelter/rec room/bathroom with showers. the showers are warm enougg. On the other side of the river, and also a Fort Pierre city park campground is Fisher‘s Lily Park campground. The sites at Fisher Lily Park Campground, are little larger, the view is a little nicer, and there’s water and electric at the sites. But the bathrooms are not as convenient and do not have showers. We stayed Fischer Lily Park campground, but went over to Griffin Park to shower. You really can’t go wrong with either campground. The Price during the season which starts 1 May is now $25. Sites are available first come first served. I added pictures of where the showers are (distal end of campground before the marina)

Reservations:  800-710-2267 or oahe@state.sd.us

Fee: Daily   $8.00   Annual $36.00   Purchase on line

Campsites   Electrical   $23.00 (30-50)

                      Camping cabins   $55.00

                      Modern cabins     $120.00 - $150.00

                      Group lodge          $125.00

This campground is open year round but the campgrounds are close to camping November 15 through the last Friday in March.  Bald eagles are winter roosting and can be easily disturbed.

Disc golf   archery   biking   birding   boating   fishing   gocatching   horseshoes   lawn games   swimming with sand beach

Campground is well maintained, pads are pull through level with mature trees.  Nice showers and toilets.  This is a beautiful wooded site that can handle large RV's including pull throughs and double sites.

Directions:  5 miles north of Fort Pierre on highway 180 located on the south side of dam.

We needed a place to spend the night, and with COVID many areas were closed.  The ones that were full were packed.  This site had everything I wanted, which was simply a place to spend the night.  We parked in the grass, Vault toilet was close by.

People were camping with their rigs right on the beach which was nice. There were a few picnic tables and small pits or grills. There was a vault toilet. Yet$16 a night plus another$8 each day for the entry fee made for a very expensive overnight and Very Primitive camping experience. If you are a local or have an annual pass, you might get off on the fishing and camping your rig on the beach for a week or so, but to pricey for the rest of us.

The full name of this place is Fischers Lilly Park, operated by the city of Fort Pierre. To correct the previous review, these sites are water/electric (20/30/50A) only, although there is a free dump station on site. These sites are right on the river, and contrary to the previous reviewer we found some of them near the entrance to be exceedingly spacious, including ours #12. There are 12 sites total, and ours was immaculate. Cell signal on Verizon was a solid 3 bars.

The location right on the banks of the Missouri River can't be beat, and it's the perfect location for exploring all that the Pierre area has to offer: the state capitol complex, the museums, even walleye fishing in the river or nearby Lake Oahe. We spent Memorial Day weekend here and loved it -- my wife was wishing that we could stay longer. Even on the holiday weekend the campground was wonderfully quiet and serene.

Many thanks to the City of Fort Pierre for making this location available.