Campers or Glampers?

This post is for RV, tent, and simple cabin campers, looking for glamping campgrounds in the Black Hills. If you are looking for a post on luxury cabin glamping, check out our Broken Bow, Oklahoma post!

We have been accused of not really being campers. I guess that all depends on your definition of camping. I mean, we love getting away from suburbia and getting lost in the serenity of nature. However, we do not rough it. We travel with a 29-foot travel trailer that “sleeps” twice as many people as we have, including a bunk house with four twin beds for our two kids. For those that refuse to accept our camper status because we don’t tent camp sans water, electric, and sewage, then you can call us “glampers.” That is just fine with us.

Glamping Black Hills Style Introduction

Our most recent glamping trip consisted of a 17-day U.S. Midwest adventure that took us through the Black Hills of South Dakota; Kansas City, Kansas; Ponca State Park in Nebraska; and Branson, Missouri. This post is dedicated to the South Dakota portion of the trip and will give you itinerary inspiration for planning your own glamping trip through the beautiful Black Hills.

Glamping Black Hills Style: Belle Fourche (pronounced Belle Foosh)

Black Hills Glamping Accommodations #1

We arrived at the no frills Riverside Campground in late afternoon. This camp site was very basic, but half the price of any other campground in the area and easy access to all of the activities we had planned to enjoy. They do not offer cabin camping, but campers can reserve a tent site. The Riverwalk that leads into town and the wild bunnies that roam the grounds were the highlights of this quiet campground.

What We Did

Fourth of July Parade

Belle Fourche is serious about their patriotism. In addition to watching fireworks every night from our campground, we walked to town for their annual 4^th of July parade. This small-town parade was like no other I have ever seen, and being from Louisiana, the Mardi Gras parade capital of the U.S., I have experienced my share of parades.

Belle Fourche’s parade was a cross between a water fight and a high school class reunion. The parade convoy had your typical local school bands, beauty queens, politicians, and first responders, but it also offered some entertainment I had not witnessed during bigger city parades. For example, several vehicles carried groups of graduating classes dating back to 1961, and many large impressive pieces of John Deere equipment rolled through. In addition, the parade throws were very unique. I have never been to a parade where they not only threw firecrackers, but also doused spectators with water using balloons, buckets, and hoses! It was a welcome refreshment from the hot morning sun.

Town Carnival

As a part of Belle Fourche’s 4^th of July celebrations, the town hosts a carnival all weekend. We enjoyed the last hour of the carnival with a few thrill rides.

Black Hills Rodeo Round Up

Belle Fourche’s annual 4^th of July events also include the Black Hills Rodeo Round Up. It was exciting to see cowboys from our home states, Texas and Louisiana, competing so far away from home. As a rodeo bonus to the traditional events, Cowboy Kenny Bartram performed his motocross freestyle stunts. The night ended with another spectacular firework show.

Center of the United States

One morning we followed the Riverwalk from the Riverside campground into town. Our walk landed us smack dab in the middle of the nation, literally. Belle Fourche boast their position as the geographical center of the United States. Complete with a large decorative pedestal and flags from every state, this spot makes for the perfect photo opportunity. It creates a moment to reflect on the diversity of the country and the vein of patriotism that connects us all.

Hermann Park

Riverside Campground has a playground, but it is pretty basic, so we took a walk to the beautiful Hermann Park for some playtime.

Deadwood

Deadwood is only about a 30–40-minute drive south of Belle Fourche. This old west town offers historic hotels and the historic cemetery where notable figures of the Wild West such as Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and Seth Bullock are buried. Deadwood also offers casinos, souvenir shops, restaurants, and free cowboy reenactments that portray stories of those that settled the area during the 1876 gold rush. My daughter even sat with the Deadwood Alive gunslinger actors and played a card game in between shows.

Sturgis

The next day we went south again to check out Sturgis, a town famous for its motorcycle rallies. Considering that it was a Sunday afternoon and not a rally weekend, things we pretty slow. We picked up a few t-shirts from the Harley store and moved on to the city of Spearfish.

Spearfish Canyon

The Spearfish Canyon Scenic Bypass was the highlight of our day. Along the route there are several waterfalls and great views. Spearfish Canyon is also the location of several scenic shots from the Kevin Costner movie, Dances with Wolves.

Glamping Black Hills Style: Hill City

Black Hills Glamping Accommodations #2

After a long weekend in Belle Fourche, it was time to move on to our next glamping location in Hill City, the Mount Rushmore KOA Resort at Palmer Gulch. This campground was the complete opposite of our no frills stay in Belle Fourche. The registration “office” is more similar to a hotel lobby check-in than to any campground I have seen before. If you are looking for something more upscale than RV sites, they also offer lodges, suites, and comfy cabins. Overall, I would consider this place the definition of RV glamping kid style. Amenities include a waterslide, pool, hot tub, basketball court, inflatables, numerous outdoor recreation games, a stable of horses for trail rides, restaurants, taproom, winery, live music, golf cart rental, and scheduled activities throughout the day.

Know before you go:

⛺️ This park is crowded and the restroom facilities are less than desirable.

⛺️ The GPS will have you turn early onto narrow gravel roads that are difficult to travel with an RV. Continue straight to access the actual paved entrance off Highway 244.

⛺️ WiFi and cell service are virtually nonexistent down in the gulch. Most glampers would find this unacceptable. My husband has to work during portions of our trip, so WiFi is a must for us. Luckily, six miles down the road is the Hill City Library. They have high speed internet and even a private room available to reserve. We also took advantage of the libraries WiFi to download movies from our Netflix account to our devices. If you take advantage of their services, consider leaving a donation to the library in the box on the front desk.

⛺️ Other accommodation options: In addition to the Mount Rushmore location, there is a Rapid City/Black Hills KOA Holiday situated in the larger Rapid City area with some uniques amenities of their own. Or, if you are looking for an extreme luxury camping experience check out Under Canvas Mount Rushmore or The Buffalo Ridge Camp Resort.

What We Did

We chose this KOA because of its close proximity to the attractions we wanted to visit during our exploration of the far southwest portion of the state. Below is a list of those attractions:

Mount Rushmore

Our entire 17-day Midwest trip was born from our desire to visit Mt Rushmore. We debated whether or not we should go during the day or in the evening. Many people do both, but we did not have the time. At night, spectators can see Mount Rushmore’s evening lighting ceremony. A recording of American the Beautiful is played followed by lighting the mountain. I have heard the lighting is quite magnificent, but we opted for a day time visit so that we could see the monument more clearly.

Crazy Horse Memorial

We found the Crazy Horse monument and museum to be extremely fascinating. The history behind the mountain carving and the future plans for the massive sculpture are both incredibly interesting.

Custer State Park

This is one of the largest state parks I have ever seen. It spans 71,000 acres in the Black Hills and has five beautiful lakes. I was super excited for the scenic drives through the park. Based on photographs, I was expecting to see interesting wildlife around every corner including buffalo surrounding our car. Sadly, the buffalo were not out that day and the only wildlife we saw was a group of very tame and friendly donkeys. The donkeys were cute and the scenery of the Black Hills National Forest was absolutely gorgeous, still making the two-hour drive worth it.

Note: For more natural wonders travel south of Custer State Park to Wind Cave National Park and Hot Springs, SD.

Leaving the Black Hills

The Black Hills stretch 5,000 square feet and enveloped us throughout our entire trip. It did not seem to matter where we went, we always had a stunning view.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to the Black Hills and begin traveling east. On our way out of the state we stopped at Wall Drug, the South Dakota souvenir mega center. Unfortunately, we only had about an hour to spend shopping in Wall, South Dakota. If we would have had more time, this would have been a great opportunity to hike Badlands National Park!

However, we did not stay the night, but moved a little farther east to rest at the Michell KOA Journey just a few minutes away from our final and most corniest South Dakota attraction, the World’s Only Corn Palace.

In summary, our South Dakota vacation was the perfect destination for magnificent scenery and lessons in our nation’s rich history.

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