Trip to SD

Does anyone have any recommendations for a campground in the Mt. Rushmore area?

My wife and I are planning a trip to Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills of SD the last couple of weeks of August. We haven’t made reservations yet but it looks like we will try to stay at the Rafter J Bar Ranch Campground near Hill City. We definitely want full hookups.

On the way up we’re going to overnight near Mitchell, SD so that we can see the Corn Palace. We might spend and extra day there and try our luck fishing in Lake Mitchell.

Richard,

When we went out 3 ears ago, we stayed at the KOA's along I-90. Mitchell KOA, Bad Lands/White River KOA, and finally at Mt. Rushmore KOA. All 3 were very nice, Mt Rushmore is a resort, nice big pull thru sites.

My parents stayed at the Mt. Rushmore KOA last year in their 37' class A. They liked it.

Mount Rushmore is a big resort and very packed in like sardines IMO. We like Rafter J Bar and Horsethief campgrounds right outside Hillcity. Going there next weekend and I will try to take some pics. We are staying at rafter J this year. Both are within minutes of Mt Rushmore and custer state park. Highly recommend either, with rafter J my first choice. I have alot more details if interested.

http://www.rafterj.com/


http://www.horsethief.com/

Next time we head back to the Rushmore area, we're staying at the Rafter J. I've never heard anything but excellent about that place!

TC

We love it!! If you stay try to get into the ranch camp area and ask for a site that backs up to the national forest. It is easier to back into and the bathrooms are right across the road. It is also nice to be able to jump over the national forest fence and go on hikes up the fire trails. The island area isn't to bad either.

Oldelmer1, I have a love/hate relationship with KOA's. I love that they are usually clean and well kept parks, but I hate that most have campsites that are very close together.
Having said that, we will probably stay at the KOA when we stop in Mitchell, SD. Thanks for the suggestion, it is appreciated.

It looks like we'll shoot for Rafter J when we visit the Mount Rushmore area and thanks for the suggestion of ranch camp area Carpe Diem.

Richard,
Ask them to send you a map of the actual sites. I tried to scan mine into the computer, but it isn't working. I usually stay on site #133, but 132-136 will accomodate my rig just fine. These are in the ranch camp I was referring to. The first year I was there they put me in site #140 and I made it work, but it was really tight as evident by the scrapes on the trees left by others. Here are a few pics of some of our trips.


Site #140

site #133

site #133

Panning for gold in one of many creeks

Bike riding on the 110 mile Mickelson trail with its many train tunnels

Needles highway with its many tunnels in custer state park. Just a few minutes from Rafter J bar.


Enjoy our black hills when you come....we sure do!
Fishing Deerfield lake

Richard Mondavi wrote:Oldelmer1, I have a love/hate relationship with KOA's. I love that they are usually clean and well kept parks, but I hate that most have campsites that are very close together.
Having said that, we will probably stay at the KOA when we stop in Mitchell, SD. Thanks for the suggestion, it is appreciated.

richard,
Here is a picture of the site we had in Mt. Rushmore KOA. I agree, we have the love/hate too



[img]http://www.wildcatcamperforum.com/[/img]


and here is one from Mitchell KOA

[img]http://www.wildcatcamperforum.com/[/img]

Carpe, BIG difference between 140 and 133. But...140 comes with bikini clad babes!!


TC

Thanks for posting all those photos of the Rafter J area Carpe Diem. They gave me the urge to hookup and leave now. It looks like your girls will grow up to have a real appreciation of nature.


Oldelmer1, those photos of the campsites at the two KOA's look spacious compare to most of the KOA's we've stayed at.

This is more like the KOA's we've seen, it's the Memphis KOA in Marion, Arkansas. Tight and narrow.

Carpe Diem, great photos, looks like a great place to set up camp. Where were you panning for gold? Were you able to pan in the campgrounds themselves or did you drive to somewhere else?

I started out on a gold prospectors of america claim up by the town of Mystic. It was getting cold and rainy, so we scooped up a couple of five gallon buckets of good looking material and brought it back to the campground to pan out later in the creek that runs past the campground. I had to make it a little exciting for the girls and I threw in a couple chunks of fools gold in the bottom just to see their reaction......it was priceless as they got down to the bottom. Other than that we found a little flour gold and color from our finds. Girls had alot of fun. This year I picked up a tesoro metal detector and we might snoop around a few of the abandoned mines scatter throughout the hills.

Carpe Diem, thanks for the response. We have been thinking about trying a little panning for gold.

Thank you, gave us some good ideas. We are planning to stop there on the way home from Yellowstone.

Carpe, I used to belong to GPAA years ago. Here's a picture of some gold from one of our Wyoming claims. There is almost a 1/2 oz. in the pan.



TC