Best Tent Camping in South Dakota

Sage Creek is a free and primitive campground in the Badlands National Park. It is absolutely beautiful and surrounded by grassland. The only amenities are vault toilets-there is no water at the site, but you can fill up at the outside faucet at the visitor center before heading down the road to the campsite. There are 12 miles of gravel roads (some great pull offs along this road for pictures) to get to the site, so low clearance vehicles may want to watch out when it rains. The early morning is awesome at this campsite, its quiet, the sun is rising over the hills and sometimes wildlife can be seen munching away.

The bison frequently roam through this site and I urge all campers to stay a safe distance from the bison as they are wild and unpredictable.

The only complaint I really have about this site, is more of a concern. In recent years there has been a problem with over crowding at the site, for example, more people staying than allowed, people driving and camping outside the designated campgrounds, being loud, crowding other campers, etc. While we were there, we saw a truck barrel over a prairie dog town, parents allowing their children to throw things at the prairie dogs or stick things into the animal's dens and an argument over a campsite. I just hope that those who choose to camp here keep the park rules and the leave no trace principles in mind. This is a beautiful place and a joy to visit the quiet grasslands.

South Dakota charges a day use fee ($6) plus a fee for tent camping ($17); I opted to pay for an Annual Pass of $30 since I plan on doing more SD camping this year. The park had East and West areas, the tent sites (4) are only in the West side. As typical, the more scenic lakeside camping is for RV's, with flushing toilets and showers, but the trade off for privacy and seclusion at the tent site was worth it. Picnic tables have built in sun covers which were really great and with winds I didn't experience any bugs or mosquitoes. There is no tree cover so I enjoyed the night sky. The staff is friendly and helpful. There was only one trail, Otto Stream (no stream, no otters), which is about 1.5m trail thru restored prairie.

This was a very pleasant surprise. I normally do not go to campsites (that is put in for context) but was passing through on a business trip and needed a place with electric hookups. After a Harvest Host disaster I found this. Like I said, very pleasantly surprised. While there were a lot of campers who seemed to be setting up elaborate sites with everything you would need to live there for a year (laundry lines, flag poles, pens for their dog), I was able to get a spot that backed right up to the beautiful river and had plenty of space on all sides. The campsite was surprisingly quiet for how large it was. The sunset paddle boarding on the river was a real treat. Kinda cool to say you SUP'd from South Dakota to Nebraska with a beer on the board. 

Bathrooms were clean and had showers. Garbage and recycling on premises. AT&T signal was strong.

Leave no trace.

This is the only campground in Wind Cave NP and has four loops with just over 60 sites. Loop A is for tents only and is the only loop with designated tent pads. Loop D has group sites that are reservable.

Some sites are in or near trees, but many are in grassy areas with little to no shade.

Each loop has restrooms with flush toilets and running water. There are water faucets for every couple of sites, however at the time there were a few that were not working.

Each site has a fire ring and picnic table.

There is a shed at the entrance where firewood/kindling are available for a donation.

There were lots of wildlife in/around the campground: mule deer, pronghorn, prairie dogs, and bison.

Just south of the campground is the visitors center where tickets for the cave tours can be purchased.

This campground is centrally located for visiting Jewel Cave, Badlands NP, Mt. Rushmore, and exploring the Black Hills region.

My only complaint is that many of the sites (on loops B-D) are more for RVs just to park and don't have much space for tents. As a result, several sites can only accommodate small tents because there's not much space with a fire ring and picnic table too.

Comanche Park is just outside Custer, South Dakota. It’s open seasonally but it looks like a few spots are before the gate. The campground was pretty empty during the week but the host said it was full on the weekend- consider making a reservation. The sites are large without much vegetation between them. We were far enough apart that it still felt private. A picnic table and fire pit are standard. Vault toilets are spread throughout. There is water available but I would consider your options. The host said they get bottled water when I asked about the quality. 

The draw to this campground is that it’s close to Custer State Park. We arrived midday, set up and still had time to drive the wildlife scenic highway and the scenic drive out of Custer towards Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. We were feet from a bison herd and arms length away from donkeys. Returning in time to make dinner was great. Tomorrow we’ll leave early and do another drive and hike in Custer State Park. 

Comanche Park is a good campground to use as a base when you explore the area.

Our family stayed in a walk-in primitive tent site located on a woodsy hill at the top of Custer. Campsites have a decent amount of privacy, but you are still aware of your neighbors. Portable toilets were available at the bottom of the hill near the parking lot with shower facilities a short walk away. Showers and laundry facilities were well maintained. Sylvan Lake is beautiful and provides a full day of activities without having to drive anywhere else in the park. Our family enjoyed hiking, paddle boating, and swimming with gorgeous scenery all around.

Campground is basic. Only 2 (very clean) vault toilets, no water or electricity. I got there a little before 3pm on mother's day; it was full by 8. Only a handful of sites have sun covers over the picnic tables. You will be very close to other campers. Most are respectful. I would just recommend getting there before dark to keep from disturbing everyone. Prairie dogs galore in the center and on the periphery of the campground. My dog was fascinated by them. As noted by others, you will most likely be serenaded by coyotes and have morning visits from the bison. I also heard wild turkeys off in the woods.

We arrived at Horse Thief Lake late on a Wednesday afternoon. Actually VERY late. It was around 7:00 pm on June 7, 2017. We were on a road trip and didn't have a firm schedule. We arrived without a reservation and were thrilled that they had three or four walk-ups available.

This campground serves both RVs and tent campers. The walk-up are was beautiful and quiet. We were in site 34, which is the closest to the road that circles through the campground, but it was above our site and we never noticed traffic.

It was early in June so many sites had reservations on them for the weekend, the walk-in area was less than half full. The sites are far enough away from each other that we were not bothered by any other campers.

The site had a great pad and nice wooden picnic table with a great fire ring. The fire ring was great in the morning as it was still pretty cool in early June.

Firewood was sold at the campground by the hosts for $5 a bundle. The hosts were very kind and kept the campground immaculate.

The vault restrooms were very clean, but there were MANY flies by the afternoon outside of the restroom.

We had some HEAVY rains while camping here and the people in the site closest to the lake, and near the top of the hill (amazingly) were flooded out and had to dry everything in the morning and move to another site.

We had no problem with critters bothering our camp. There are no bear boxes and the camp hosts told us they had never heard a report of bears being in their campground.

This was a great base camp for us. It is only 2 miles to Rushmore and we went to Custer's campground (and drove though TONS of animals including buffalo, prong horns and others, the Crazy Horse memorial and the Iron Road.