If you want to explore the beauty of Lake Preston, glamping is an excellent option. Camping has always been a favorite form of travel for many, but Lake Preston, SD glamping is a new and unique way to do it. The Dyrt makes it easy to find glamping for your Lake Preston adventure.
Camp on the Open Prairie Camping at Ingalls Homestead is a unique way to experience the prairie. All sights are located on the land Charles Ingalls homesteaded. With just a handful of sites - 4 covered wagons, 1 bunkhouse, 4 RV sites, and tent camping - the prairie doesn't feel crowded.
Open: Year-round. Between Oct. 1 and April 30, showers, flush toilets and other water systems may be closed. Please contact the park directly for current status. Vault toilets usually remain open.
Park Size: 103 campsites, 5 camping cabins, and group lodge
Directions: 6 miles southwest of Lake Preston off US Hwy 14
Nearest Town: Lake Preston
$24 - $42 / night
Legend
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.
Guide
This campground has both electric standard sites for campers and tent sites. Two shower houses and multiple vault toilets throughout the campground for accessibility. Walking trails in grass or gravel. Three walkways down to the water’s edge with one being a large swimming area. Boating is permitted as well. Be sure to use bug spray as mosquitoes were all over- maybe due to wet weather. This is a natural lake formed by farmland that flooded in the 1980s.
TravelerLove that there are only 4 sites. We stayed here with family and had 3 of the sites. Beautiful land! Our suggestion if you stay here is, pull in the parking lot and back up the driveway to the camp sites. Unless you have a small vehicle and camper, it is tricky to get turned around if it is full. $20pp to tour the property for the whole time you are staying. Check out the dugout, house, barn, schoolhouse, church and garage.
TravelerWe had a wonderful experience dry camping here. There are only a few sites with water and electric. There are no dedicated sites and they asked us to park our pop-up at the far end/bottom of the parking lot next to the grass. It was quite level and the tent campers next to us were very nice. A few other tents were further out in the field. The bathrooms are simple, but very clean. Little Horse on the Prairie fans, you MUST stay here!
GuideWe have traveled in a RV for 6 years and been to 48 states (3 or 4 times each), visited 300 plus small towns and I can say this was one of my favorite camp spots. There are only 4 RV lots, and they are pretty close together, but we stayed before season, so we had the place practically to ourselves. For $30, we had W&E, fire pit (firewood not sold), picnic table and free access to the homestead. Bathrooms were so clean and smelled like cedar wood. There is a dump station but be fore warned it's on a slope, so emptying your tanks completely will be a challenge. Also a sign says grey water only, this is not true, you can dump your black water too. Since we were off season, during the day, they had school trips daily, so there were a lot of children, having fun playing right behind our rig. But it was only for a short period of time during the afternoon. There's a museum right next to the sites, which is always open. There's also is a tower you can climb to get some really great views. Several houses and buildings are on the property you can explore and hay rides are available. They also have a nice country store where you can by your souvenirs. If your a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, like me, this is a must stop, if only for a night! I also want to mention that the camp hosts and gal that ran the store, couldn't have been nicer.
LegendA 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.
ScoutFriendly folks and simple camping. Lots of things for the kids to do and play just like its 1880.
GuideGreat place to spend the night. Only a few campsites. Workers are great. Dirt road going to it.
Only “issue” is the Grey water dump is on a slight hill, with the ground washed away, and people sometimes park around it.
Legend
A very utilitarian campground in Arlington, SD. Best feature aside from the shade is there is a laundrymat in the same lot! Electric, shade and a shrub row separates you from the road. This would be an ideal spot to stop overnight or stay at to attend a local event or visit relatives in the area. Stop by the Municipal Bldg\ Firehall at 202 W Elm St to pay your fee , after hours use the drop box.
Guide
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.
TravelerWe had a reservation and told them we would be coming in late due to a family reservation in another campground. The woman I spoke with said that wasn't a problem and that, if the office was closed, she'd be in the house next door. The office WAS closed so I knocked on the door. No answer. I called and left a message that we had arrived and needed help finding our site. No return call. We finally found our site only to discover a truck parked in front of the pull through. Once the owner was found and moved the truck, we had to make a sharp turn between two trees on either side of the drive. We didn't even unhook as we had to be out at noon the next day. The next morning, we discovered the site had dead birds with flies buzzing around them, dog poop that hadn't been cleaned up, and cigarette butts on the ground. The dead birds had been there a while as had the evidence of dogs (we have a dog we always clean up after and follow leash rules). The park is nothing special but it is on the lake and may have some decent fishing access. The neighbors on one side had a dog off leash and it came over to check out our on-leash dog. Rules are not enforced and the hosts apparently don't check on things. We never did hear from them. The campground is a winding ways from I29 but we have Google maps so it wasn't a problem finding it. It just wasn't very convenient at all. We were not impressed with the service or lack of.
ScoutClose to beach, fishing dock and close to playground for kids!
GuideWe had a great time at the lake our campsite was in view of the water beautiful Town beautiful atmosphere very green the one and only thing I would say is that there is a rocky very Rocky Lake other than that time spent was a week and it was really good
TravelerOverall this park is average the sites are level and grassy limited shade sites tho, showers and bathrooms are close by and it’s quiet except the occasional train. It’s walking distance from the dirt track. Dumpsters close and trash barrels at each site which they empty often. Mostly weekenders here or people passing thru few seasonal workers.
Guide
We only stayed 2 nights here but could have stayed much longer. This RV campground is perfect. The attention to detail you see in this park is not something we have seen a lot during our travels. The gravel roadways to each campsite are groomed perfectly level. Art, sculptures and flower pots are everywhere. Not a thing out of place. The Wifi was really fast…the best we have seen in over 1 yr and full time camping. The office and store have ice and a wonderful selection of goodies, The park is surrounded by corn and soybean fields and is quiet. This is a real gem of a campground. Not a thing wrong with it. We highly recommend. We had over 50Mbps on our Verzion and ATT hot spot as well as the RV park's Wifi system. This place is smoked hot for internet connectivity. This park is Big Rig friendly with very large pull throughs
ScoutDid one night here in July. Owners were so nice--recommended local farmers market, gave us some fresh baked cookies, lovely little lending library, let us choose among 6 sites for our Sprinter Camper Van. Everything was very clean even the dog run had nice toys. This is the way little local campground should be across the U.S.
GuideThis is just off the highway, but you wouldn’t know it when you’re in the rig. Super quiet and the owners were so sweet. They spaced us out with a beautiful pull through and plenty of room. They also gave us treats for the pups and cookies for us. Nice little thoughtful dog park with water and toys. Sunflowers right there for you to enjoy. The flies were definitely out, so had to manage getting in and out of the rig quickly as a few got in.
We’d definitely stay again.
RangerWell maintained campground. Roads were watered down so no dust while RV were rolling through. Bathrooms were spotless and showers were nice and hot. Totally would stay here again.
ScoutFriendly place, clean, well taken care of. Has a nice coin laundry. Quiet, dark, shaded, with plenty of space. Awesome!
GuideThis campground was a nice and easy stop on our way from Michigan to Mt Rushmore/ Badlands. The sites were level enough that we didn’t even half to unhook our trailer for our quick overnight stay. The only issue I will say is that our site was next to the “Stinky Waste” Water Lagoon and it did stink pretty bad when they started up the pump in the morning.
Not sure about the bathhouse since we didn't have to use them.
TravelerThis is a great little place right off of the highway. Facilities are clean and well maintained. There is a nice little playground for the kids. Staff was friendly and helpful. It is close to the Porter Sculpture Park which is also an amazing place to visit If you stop here.
GuideA beautiful park. Nice grassy spaces between each site. Stunning sunsets and amazing dawns.
TravelerSuper nice people. Gave us some cookies from a local bakery, and were helpful on places to eat. Bath house very nice. There was an odor of fertilizer coming from the fields, but it was tolerable and likely seasonal. The let me keep my motorcycle under the gazebo when it rained. Would definitely stay here again.
TravelerThe caretakers were Extremely nice nice and kept the place very clean. Mostly an RV park but a few nice tent sites also. Not a bad stop to break up the trip. If you’re looking for quiet in the woods, this is not it because it’s right on the road with traffic. During the late night it is very quiet. I would definitely come back.
LegendThe super nice and informative couple who own the campground (CG) checked us in and then we were escorted to pull through site 41 with FHUs. The site was more than long enough for our 39’ 5th Wheel and F-450 truck. WiFi was average but there were not many RVs in the park for our 3 nights stay, and we got 4 bars on Verizon. They do not have cable and not being too far from Sioux Falls, we got a good amount of OTA channels. The CG was well taken care of and very clean. We did experience flies this time of year and they were aggressive about getting inside our RV. I had some insect fogger and that worked well spraying before entering our rig. There is no formal dog park, but plenty of area around the CG to walk. The town of Salem down the road has your basic amenities and we enjoyed playing a round of golf on their 9 hole course that is decently priced. Well run little CG that we would definitely stay at again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular glamping campsite near Lake Preston, SD?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular glamping campground near Lake Preston, SD is Ingalls Homestead with a 5-star rating from 7 reviews.
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TheDyrt.com has all 7 glamping camping locations near Lake Preston, SD, with real photos and reviews from campers.
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