Bear Butte State Park Campground

We have camped at Bear Butte State Park several times and have started to notice that this campground possibly has permanent residents who somehow work the system to stay there. Several of the camping rigs are a patchwork of different colors of paint. One ancient patchwork looking van had a window air conditioner out the back end of it and a very loud truck pulled up, spent the night, and left again in the morning, like the van was their home. They ran the generator until just about midnight and because the campground is small, you could hear this one generator all the way around the loop. An ancient travel trailer was parked next to a small pickup that had a flatbed trailer attached, which they obviously could not haul both at the same time. Another patchwork looking truck with another ancient travel trailer has occupied the same prime spot next to the lake every single time we have camped there. The price of a night is cheap and I have never found it to be full so I suppose these folks are harmless, but the vibe is on the creepy side now. I will be on the search for another campsite to use when I need a campsite in the Black Hills while passing through.

As far as the facilities go, the pit toilet smelled pretty ripe. I've camped many places where the pit toilets smell freshly cleaned and this was not one of them. The floor was covered in what had to be several months' worth of dead flies and the TP was nearly out. There was a camp host on site and only half the sites had people camping in them, so I would think it should be fairly easy to keep a non-busy pit toilet in better shape than it was in.

My last complaint would be the bright light in the middle of the campground. No lights near the pit toilet but there is one that is on a fairly high pole right in the middle. This could be an amazing dark sky park if they would cut the bright light! If light is required, why not put it where it is useful near the pit toilet?

The campground is very clean including the pit toilets. The only negative is at the time of my stay there were cattle across the road which means flies.  They are the small ones that don't bite but are annoying. There are also mosquitos though they are barely noticeable. 

Everyone I met there, including the camp host, was friendly.

Small, primitive campground. Lots of trailers came in. Some didn't follow the quiet hours and had generators on late and early. Most sites are reasonably spread out. Half a dozen have a shelter over the table.

This campground is cute & quiet! There are15 spots, one being the host spot that was available to stay at & had electric hook ups. For a state park, the sites are well spaced. Each site has a nice metal picnic table and fire ring. Some sites also have a shade awning over the picnic table. Sites are first come first serve and are $11.67/night. There are 2 vault toilets which were extremely clean during my stay. There is a drinking water spigot near the bathrooms as well as trash services. Beautiful lake you can walk completely around. Seems like a good spot to go fishing/kayaking/SUP/boating. As you pull onto the dirt road, you’ll pass a first small campground area which is mainly for tents. If you continue down the dirt road another 1/4 mile, you’ll come across the larger campground that accommodates vans/trailers/RVs. They are all back in sites, no pull through. You also do not need to pay the $8 day pass fee to enter into the campground so that was nice. Park trucks drove through daily. Spoke to Fred, extremely nice and helpful. Town is about 10 minutes away if you need to restock on anything.

Tent spots are $11.67 although when I originally researched the campground people were saying $7.00/night. The lake is right at the campground and depending on where you pick your spot, you can have a view of the lake. The butte can be seen from pretty much every tent spot. Decent sized campground overall. Outhouses were clean and campground host was really nice.

Just outside of Sturgis at the base of Bear Butte lies this small lake. Great for fishing, paddle boarding, kite surfing, access to the Centennial Trail, and minutes from the Black Hills.