South Dakota Camping Logistics

[CiK01]

Never hunted South Dakota before. Wondering what the area is like for camping in the Black Hills area. Do you have to stay in campgrounds or is dispersed camping ok? Taking my family there this summer and might be returning in November. The kids want to see Mount Rushmore. The wife wants to see its beauty. And I want to see all that and some deer.

 

[slick]

Should have no problem finding deer. High density of whitetails. I would recommend not to go during Sturgis. The Hills get crazy with traffic and motorcycles, and campers, etc. You can disperse camp, and there are quite a few roads through the hills from logging operations. BH Natl Forest has one of the highest densities of roads. I would recommend the southern hills, towards Wind Cave for dispersed camping, but Spearfish Canyon is some of the more remarkable country, that and the Needles. Its pretty country, but gets hit by every one from east of the Mississippi.

 

[KurtR]

You cant have fires unless it is in a fire pit in a approved camp ground. I second the dont go during sturgis it is crazy busy on top of being crazy busy most of the time the rest of the year

 

[Rich M]

See if you can swing by Devil's Tower too - very neat place.

Tons of whitetails in the Black Hills area - we drove thru at first light and saw hundreds...

 

[CiK01]

Reading that Sturgis is around August. We are planning for June. Should be free and clear. Thanks for the recommendations.

 

[530Chukar]

Hunted it this past season in mid November. We chose to go with the vacation rentals. They were very reasonably priced and a lot of them were hunter friendly. It’s the slow time of year so we could extend our trip as needed. It was pretty nice being two minutes from prime rib and drinks in Deadwood every night. Didn’t see any campers in the black hills.


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[Jpugs]

Hunted SD this past October. Feel free to PM me.

 

[Dooger]

Dispersed camping on Forest Service, but you need to get a map from the NF Office. You can’t camp just anywhere. There’s specific areas like the map below. You can camp along the roads where the dots are. I had a hard time finding a level, brushless spot for a 14x16 wall tent and the employees freaked when I said I had a wood stove. A lot of the areas where the dots are didn’t have a place to park either; lots of cliffs . I believe you have to camp within 100 feet of the road.

 

[CiK01]

Dispersed camping on Forest Service, but you need to get a map from the NF Office. You can’t camp just anywhere. There’s specific areas like the map below. You can camp along the roads where the dots are. I had a hard time finding a level, brushless spot for a 14x16 wall tent and the employees freaked when I said I had a wood stove. A lot of the areas where the dots are didn’t have a place to park either; lots of cliffs . I believe you have to camp within 100 feet of the road. View attachment 93357

Helpful! Thanks! I will have to see if that map is available online.

I will be truck camping or, at most, pitching a tipi next to the truck. I hope to not have issues with space......I only need a sliver.


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[Jxferg7]

Hunted SD this past October. Feel free to PM me.

Any experience rafting any of the rivers out West? Thinking about October this year.

 

[Jpugs]

No experience rafting the river. When I was grabbing my archery tag, One of the wardens was telling me it’s becoming more popular

 

[rhusby28]

If you are looking to camp I would look for a forest service or a private campground. The private campground I stayed at had campsites, cabins, shower house with laundry, and even provided firewood for a small fee.

 

[KurtR]

Any experience rafting any of the rivers out West? Thinking about October this year.

What river? Or are you talking farther west than Sodak

 

[Jxferg7]

What river? Or are you talking farther west than Sodak

No I live in Pierre now and have East river Archery areas to go. This year hoping to head out west Archery and have seen posts of guys using the rivers with rafts to get always from crowds to access public that may be locked by private all around. Assuming they were referencing the Cheyenne.

 

[KurtR]

I just looked and there looks to be little benefit to floating on the cheyene hell in a dry year you can almost jump across it in most places.