Blue Bell Campground

This State Park is AMAZING. It is really big and absolutely gorgeous with a ton of wildlife to see. We stayed in the Blue Bell campground. (We drove around most of the park during our stay and can say with certainty that the Blue Bell campground is the best of them all. All of the other campgrounds looked like parking lots and were really close to the main road.) We were in spot #3 and had plenty of space to ourselves as the campsites are pretty spread out. Our site had water and electric only. There is not a dump station in this campground. To get to a dump station, you have to drive to the other end of the park. That worked for us since we were headed that direction for out next stop. It might be a bit of a bummer for others. There was a general store just down the road from the campground that had laundry (2 washers/2 dryers).

Got horses. There is French Creek Horse Camp about 3 miles further in but you are required to have your horse/trailer.

Verizon 3 bars LTE 37.75/6.23 mbps Down/Up

Custer State Park has national park level beauty. South Dakota must have snatched up this area before the Feds could get a hold of it.

Blue Bell has gas, a store, a laundry, and a lodge with a really nice restaurant. There are also small cabins for rent. Pretty French Creek meanders around the area. There are nice shower stalls in the bathroom with plenty of hot water (no quarters needed).

See our blog (in blog tab) for more photos and area info.

We had a great time here. It's a grassy tree filled campground. From time to time buffalo are know to roam through the campground, so watch the young'ns!

If you hike off trail or in taller grasses you stand a great risk of getting many tics. I went off trail fallowing some wild turkeys and then later in the middle of the night I fell something and discovered I had two ticks attached to me. It was a pain getting one of them off. That is the only downside to the park that I can see and you can avoid this problem if you are careful.

We had a couple great meals at the nearby (walk to) restaurant.

The park is chocked full of wild animals that you can get pretty close to. You are also near Rushmore and Crazy Horse monuments.

Our time here was wonderful. We would definitely go back.

When we made our reservation to stay in Custer State Park back in February there was only one site available in the Blue Bell campground for the (admittedly high season) dates we wanted in July, so we had no choice in location. Our site was in the center of the wooded campground, but the spacing between sites is good enough to provide privacy. The only downside is the close proximity to the horse stables and the associated flies. The park rangers presenting the evening programs were young, energetic and passionate about the outdoors - great to see. Custer State Park, and the surrounding Black Hills is some of the most beautiful country in the US, so it's no surprise that it is an attractive destination. Even so the are is not overcrowded and we really enjoyed exploring - one day we hope to return.

This is a simple campground with a great intimate feel to it. Sparse pine trees are around and no mosquitos exist here! Maybe a fly from time to time, but that's it. This site is on the inner circle just up from the bathrooms and showers. The amphitheater is also near this site which makes it fun to listen to the talk while sitting by your camp fire.

The camp hosts, Jane and Paul, are exceptional and they take pride in their hosting. The bathroom and showers were the nicest we experienced on a 2 week trip that visited 6 campgrounds. The 30A power was a nice luxury.

The sites/pads themselves are not all flat and do require some adjustments if you are planning to sleep in a trailer or rig. Bring blocks to help level out your rig and remember to chock those wheels before you unhitch.

Blue Bell lodge and camp store are within walking distance and a nice treat when something is needed like coffee or a meal cooked for you rather you cooking it yourself.

Location is on the way to Wind Cave, which we recommend. It is off the beaten path a bit, but a nice reprieve from the rest of the park.

Blue Bell was a great spot as far as location. It was an easy trek to Sylvan Lake or Wind Cave NP. Small single-pump gas station and store just outside of CG. Laundry facilities behind gas station.

The site we had was definitely the best in the entire CG and if you're staying here, do your best to get site 24. It has nice views and the kids enjoyed playing around in the woods behind the site. It's also huge! The downside, as was true throughout the CG, was how unlevel it was. I needed 4 or 5 leveling blocks under each wheel on one side! My Father-in-law had so much trouble on his site (I think site 30E) that he could barely unhook his 5th wheel hitch because of how out of level it was.

The site next to me, site 22, was nearly impossible to back a 30' trailer into because of the trees and the angles necessary to maneuver. My neighbor had to pull up an embankment across from the site just to get in.

Sites are electric only and there were only a couple spigots in the park. No dump station. Bathrooms were nice. It's not the nicest CG, and it has horribly out of level sites, but it is in a good location and is one of the best offerings in the area. FYI, if you're heading towards Devils Tower, there's a rest stop near the pull off that you can dump your RV for free.

Such a beautiful campground! This was our second campsite at Custer State Park, and we really loved it! Sites were spacious, beautiful scenery and off of the main artery through the park. Restaurant and little store within walking distance.

This campground was one of the best we have ever stayed. The sites are far apart and interspaced among the trees. At night, it is VERY quiet. We saw deer and wild turkeys roaming through the site in the mornings. There was only electric hookup, but the showers and bathroom facility were close by and very clean. The camp hosts were exceptional! They stopped by from time-to-time to check on us and to make sure we were pleased with our stay. One thing to note is that there is no dump site in the area. The closest one is about 12 miles away. Verizon signal was good and we were able to stream video. Overall, we'd stay here again in a heartbeat.

The other reviewers described the campground perfectly! We loved it for those reasons and for the fact that it’s central to the sites around the State Park. We drove from our spot up through the Needles highway and all the tunnels (in our toad - Chevy Spark). Then continued on to Mt Rushmore and around and down Iron Mountain Rd. Continued along Wildlife Loop Rd and finally got into a buffalo jam!

We stayed in site 18 with amazing views and decent privacy for being a well populated campground. No one was in the cabins so it was even quieter. We stayed before they officially opened and they had water on. If the campground were full it would be a lot louder and the privacy might be limited but if you're traveling in at an off-time, you should be okay.
T-Mobile service on and iPhone 6 and iPhone 11 both had one bar but LTE at our site and better service if you drove around. I ran video calls streaming off my phone to my laptop with no problem. If you’ve got a booster you’d probably be fine.
We had no problems getting level.
Nicely grated spot with a clean picnic table.
They are also waiving park fees right now so it was very affordable.