Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Watertown, SD

Dog-Friendly Camping Reviews near Watertown, SD

81 Reviews of 39 Watertown Campgrounds

• 

  Lisa H.

  Guide

  Jun. 29, 2016

  Big Stone Lake State Park Campground

  Hike, Swim, Fish & Camp

  Beautiful campground! We rode in to the park on bicycles from Watertown, SD and enjoyed a very relaxing evening at the campground. The hiking trails were very enjoyable and the swimming beach looked very nice. We will return with our kids to this campground!

• 

  Kyle B.

  Guide

  Jun. 6, 2018

  Big Stone Lake State Park Campground

  Border View

  We were able to grab a quite corner spot with a great view of the lake looking over to South Dakota. There are canoe rentals an ok trail system and a great swimming beach.

• J

  John M.

  Scout

  Jun. 1, 2019

  Hartford Beach State Park Campground

  This place is trimmed to the 9s

  Very friendly staff, very well kept. The showers & other facilities we're cleaned every morning. Maybe more. It is clean At 21.00 it is a bargain. The sites all have electricity, picnic tables & fire ring. Lots of firewood available for donations. Nice place on South Dakota side of Big Stone lake.

• M

  Morgan W.

  Scout

  May. 18, 2020

  Joy Ranch

  Peaceful, Quite and beautiful

  Joy Ranch campground is a hidden campground outside Watertown SD. If you are wanting to enjoy a peaceful weekend with your family, Cowboy Campground is the place for you!

• 

  Corinna B.

  Legend

  Jul. 17, 2018

  Ingalls Homestead

  Magical Must-See for Kids & All Little House on the Prairie Fans

  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.

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• 

  Bran P.

  Legend

  Sep. 26, 2016

  Stokes-Thomas Lake Campground

  Fine place to stay

  Located on Lake Kampeska near Watertown off I-29 in eastern SD. We stayed on site 1 which is a long pull thru with a distant view of the sizeable lake. There are about 70 non-reservable sites all with W/E (50A), a couple of playgrounds, one dumpstation, a boat launch and an impressive Veterans Memorial. The roads are paved while the sites are dirt/gravel.

  A few large trash bins spread throughout the cg with bins for drink cans for Disabled American Veterans.

• 

  Bob K.

  Scout

  Oct. 6, 2019

  Sandy Shore Recreation Area

  On the shores of Kampeska

  Camp host greeted us upon arrival and helped put water on. We stayed 2 nights, in town for a wedding. Most of the sites were flooded with only 3 available, we were the only TT along with the camp host. Showers were clean and ADA. The beach was mere feet out the rear of the trailer. Watertown is close with plenty to do if one needs to wander.

• J

  Janet K.

  Guide

  Aug. 20, 2023

  Campground 2 — Oakwood Lakes State Park

  Clean pleasant campground

  Camped in the more open area (72E in campground 2). Large grassy sites with fire pit and picnic table. Clean bathrooms with hot showers. Nice path around lake for walking the dog. Lots of families having a good time! Very pleasant evening.

• G

  Glenda W.

  Traveler

  Jul. 15, 2018

  Memorial Park

  No contact from host

  We 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.

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