Belvidere East-Exit 170 KOA

We needed an overnight stop to break up our run to the Badlands. This KOA turned out to be perfect spot. I little expensive for a simple FHU, but the park is very clean, grassy, with nice prairie views. Gravel/dirt pads were perfect level, and plenty of grass space between sites. Somewhat older facilities, but bath house was spotless clean, as the laundry. Staff was very friendly and welcoming a guide will take you to your site. Noise from I-90 was negligible, so very quiet at night, and woke to birds singing in the morning. Nice gift shop and café with sandwiches and pizza delivered to your site. The 1880 Town about a quarter mile away was closed (Covid) but looked super interesting. We would have stayed an extra day had it been open.

We stayed for one night during a trip between Salem and Custer. We got site 80, which is in the lower part of the campground with a good view of the reservoir lake on three sides. The site was fairly level and topped with gravel, and the spacing between sites was pretty good for a KOA (though we didn’t have any neighbors on either side of us during our stay).

The Verizon signal was good: I had five bars on my Verizon hotspot with MIMO antenna, with 43Mbps down and 24Mbps up.

The only downside to our campsite was that it rained really hard that evening, and when it was time to walk the dogs before bedtime the site was like a giant puddle: that lower area of the campground gets saturated very quickly. Something to keep in mind if you know you’ll be staying there during a rainstorm.

Hosts were friendly and helped us in during a blizzard. Nice paved pads for setting up while the rest of the ground was snow and soup. The WiFi here was the best of any Campgroud I staid at - but it was fairly empty other than the seasonals and others that were seeking shelter from the blizzard. The biggest surprise was the pizza. After a long day trying to snake our way through the snow and disabled vehicles I wasn’t in the mood to cook. We opted to order a pizza from the campground store. I expected something like a DiGiorno or something. What I got was a really great pizza from the crust to sauce to cook overall.

Class A next to us ran their motor at night but everyone was in survival mode (they had their slides in too) so extremely understandable.

I stopped here overnight and it was just a 1/2 mile off the interstate. Easy in and out. There is a nice pond nearby that my campsite happened to face which was a great view! This is a beautiful and unpopulated part of SD so be sure to bring whatever you need. The camp store was stocked with basics as most KOA's are. I was happy to see the store had a small cafe and coffee. My dog enjoyed the little agility park as well.

Verizon: 38ms ping, 22 Mb down, 11 Mb up

New owners just in the last few weeks. They are trying really hard. Nice couple. Nice staff.

The campground is really old, but the new owners are doing really well at keeping it clean. I don't mind an old campground if it is clean. The bathrooms were clean. The picnic table at our site was repaired. The utility box was new. Our 50 amp power was solid. The water pressure was good. The pool was clean, but a little chilly. The laundry was good, new washing machines but the dryers are old but are in cold shape without rust inside.

They are serving pizza that is made fresh on site. Sure probably a frozen crust, but it didn't taste like a freezer. Plus the fresh ingredients on top of it were great and delivered to the campsite hot.

The entrance road is rough getting to the campground but it is ok once you pass through the gate. BTW the gate closes at 10pm so must be here by then or no go. Friendly and efficient staff that made check-in easy check-in. The sites are pretty level, gravel sites. Some of the best spacing we’ve seen in a campground. We learned that they combined some of the sites from two into one so that explains that. The sites are also staggered so you aren’t looking directly at your neighbor.. There are a few trees but more decorative than for shade. There is grass between the sites which was pretty brown this time of year. Our site only had water and electric. Directv satellite worked fine. Verizon 4g 4 bars; The park is only about ½ m from I90 behind a small hill so there is little to no noise. The WII FI worked, and it worked well – a first in a KOA - and one of the better in any RV park we've been to in 6 years. We would definitely stay here again.