Blue Bell Campground — Custer State Park

I am a solo, female, camping alone. The site-hosts came banging on my car & yelling, and kicked me out in the middle of the night, stating that I canceled my reservation. I did NOT cancel my reservation. I have a credit card receipt for payment of my reservation. The host refused to look at any of my proving evidence that I paid for a site. 15E. They just kept yelling for me to “Get out!” And kicked me out at 9:30 PM, and leaving me stranded/homeless in South Dakota. I do not live in the state and had no idea what to do. They have endangered my safety. Do not stay here! They can kick you out whenever they want.

I had high hopes for this campground, but out of the 3 I stayed at in Custer State Park, Blue Bell was my least favorite. Bathrooms were conveniently located and clean, but there is very little privacy or space between sites and everyone feels very packed in. There was also a lot of construction happening due to the new dump site being added—which will ultimately be a great addition as the only other site in Custer SP is pretty far away, but it was a bit of a bummer to listen to it while it was ongoing. I imagine it should be wrapped up by the end of July if it’s not already.

My other big complaint was the location of the electrical box at my site. While it’s listed as a tent site, it fits small RVs, but the electrical box was SO far away (on the very far site of the tent pad) that I would have needed at least a 50ft cord to reach it. So I ultimately paid for an electric site but got a site without anything. Just a heads up!

What redeemed this site for me was the hike to the river—a bad storm rolled through late in the afternoon, but created an absolutely magical setting for an early evening hike to the river afterward. Go out the back past the cabins toward the horse trails and there’s something of a dirt road that leads to a river—you won’t regret it!

Great campground , clean bath house and level sites. Water near bath house to fill up tanks. Dump station coming to this campground in fall per campground host.