Best Campgrounds near Spearfish, SD

Did a one nighter here. Not much shade. Very open and close to others. AMAZING view of Devils Tower, without a doubt.

We had just fallen asleep then woken by the sounds of a large bear roaring very close to us. We sat up terrified and kept hearing the roaring… after 5-7 minutes peering out of the top of the tent trying to figure out where it was… we finally realized IT WAS A MAN SNORING!?! NO JOKE! Finally fell back asleep couple hours later woken by what sounded like a shot… heard some hustle and bustle went back to sleep…

Woke up in the morning to find a GIANT tree branch broke off and landed in the middle of the grounds thankfully missing people and cars.

Bathroom was great! Clean and lit. Grounds were clean and convenient. No shade. No fire pits. Could hear everyone doing everything

We followed both our GPS and the instructions provided in the housing office email. Since we arrived on a Saturday, we called ahead to check on bringing our 40’ fifth wheel through the main gate. The visitor’s center said it should be fine, but also noted the commercial gate is open until 1:00 PM on Saturdays. Following the email's directions, we entered through the commercial gate without any issues. The airmen who checked us in mentioned that we could have gone through the front gate as well—they're able to adjust the barriers for larger rigs. We proceeded to the housing office to check in and pick up our package, as no one was staffing the office at the time, we found our welcome packet on a board just inside the entry door. We were in back-in site#6 with full hookups. The back-in was straightforward. Utilities are positioned toward the front-middle of the site, and we had no trouble connecting. Water pressure was strong, so we used a pressure reducer. We got 4 bars on Verizon and 2 bars on T-Mobile. The campground Wi-Fi was slow, with speed test results of 2.46 Mbps down and 0.71 Mbps up—barely usable. We relied on our T-Mobile home internet router instead. In this part of the FamCamp, there are trees, but satellite access should still be possible with a movable antenna. We really appreciated the size of our yard and the generous site spacing in this older section. The newer area has fewer trees and the sites are more closely packed. The base itself is small, so don’t expect a large BX or Commissary. Overall, Ellsworth is one of the nicer FamCamps we’ve stayed at to include overflow and tent sites. However, the price and limited truck gate hours on weekends plus the uncertainty about the front gate’s outbound barriers make it a bit of a hassle for large rigs—something to consider when planning your arrival and departure.

May 10th stopped in to tent camp on motorcycle. Yes it is old as is Deadwood. 15 tent sites up the hill in the far back all in a row. They flattened out places for table and tents (except for T13). Has steel fire pit and wooden table, a few were missing a table this early in the season. To me it looks like all the sites have at least one level spot for a small tent and most had more space. My site T12 could fit both a large and small tents. The men's bathhouse was decent, they are updating the 4 showers with new tile etc. The grounds keeper guy was super helpful, the owners were gone after 5:00. Late check-in was easy. $32 for tent site if cash. It is a hike down the hill to the bathroom and pool. No spigot up here in these parts. I left at 8:45am and never saw an owner or host.

Nice area easy to access, better road coming in from Peacefull Pines Rd right off I90 which turns into Deadwood Ave with no potholes. Pet Friendly. Courteous Staff are helpfull. Relatively new management with lots of improvements in process. Discounts for long term.  Starlink Wifi. Clean spacious bathrooms. Good water pressure. Some cabins with AC and full mini frig and microwave, no water in cabins but several water posts nearby. Cabins are 1 room and really comfortable Queen beds.  Picnic table outside with covered porch, some with swing bench or chair.  

There is a kids park with some climbing structures a swing and grassy area,