Camping near Badlands/Mount Rushmore

We are planning a cross country National Parks trip and we can not figure out where to stay when we go to the Mount Rushmore area. We will be camping; are there any good central locations? We want to see Mount Rushmore, Crazy horse and the Badlands. Thanks for any suggestions!

Camping near Badlands/Mount Rushmore

There are a lot of great places to camp in the Black Hills and you can find out more about them on the website guide@campsd.org or www.campsd.org. Hill City seems to be popular. One we used this summer (we stayed in a travel trailer but there are camp sites with electric hookups and showers/restrooms within several feet) is Lake Park Campground and Cottages (www.lakeparkcampground.com). This is just off Hwy 44 on the west side of Rapid City. It is beautiful, quiet, and yet from within one block to just a mile from a park, lake, golf course, grocery, restaurants, fish hatchery, the Stavkirke, and within 20 minutes of some of the tourist stops on Hwy 16 going South to Mount Rushmore, the road into the Badlands, and maybe 45 minutes to Custer State Park. When are you taking this trip?

Camping near Badlands/Mount Rushmore

We are going at the end of June. I thought this would be too early to book, but we are finding that places are already completely booked for next summer!

What kind of camping are you looking to do? RV? Tent?

Many of the South Dakota state park campgrounds have showers and flush toilets. Check out the Custer State Park campgrounds. http://www.sdgfp.info/Parks/Regions/Custer/

The Black Hills National Forest campgrounds are generally more primitive. Horse Thief Lake is very close to Mount Rushmore.

There are many non-government campgrounds. http://www.blackhillscampgrounds.com/

A little more information:

Camping is generally better closer to Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills than near the Badlands. The Badlands are known for extreme weather and few trees. If you%26#39;re planning to spend a day or less in the Badlands, I wouldn%26#39;t camp there for more than one night.

You might try the Palmer Gulch Campground very close to Mt. Rushmore. We drove by a few times and it looked pretty nice. We had friends camp there this summer and seemed to really enjoy the pool, horses, etc.

Thank you for all the great advice!

When you try to camp and find all the campgrounds full, try Wind Cave National Park campground. One of the older maintenance workers there said he had never seen it full.

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