Bismarck Lake Campground

Arrived off season on October 5th to find half of park closed (Labor Day to Memorial Day). Beautiful campsites. Vault toilet clean and serviceable. Water shut off. Not a problem since State Park is across the highway. We chose site 20 for the view and there are no neighboring sites. However we van camp and the parking for this site is uphill from the picnic table and fire ring. The area is full of aspens and are brilliant yellow. Great central location for Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore and all the other places to visit! America The Beautiful pass for $5 per night.

Would not chose site 6-7 again. Have to park along the road. Hard to get 28’ motorhome leveled in these two sites. These are great tent sites with pads, picnic tables and fire pits. Close to lake. Small campground with 17 reserved sites. A few first come first serve if you are lucky to snag one. Super nice hosts. This campground is just out side of Custer state park West entrance. Can hear highway noise but not to bad. Coyotes heard in the distance late at night. Occasional elk and deer sighting. Vault toilets. No electricity. Potable water at spigots but not to hook camper to. Lake is perfect for fishing for trout and kayaking. Lots of rock outcroppings.

We pulled into one of the first-come, first-serve campsites and were lucky to get the last spot! This place is quite popular later in the week and throughout the weekend, and more spots become available Sunday afternoon through Tuesday.

While not technically part of Custer State Park (it’s National Forest land), you are right inside the park on 16A, which makes this a wonderful bar camp to explore Custer State Park, Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and all of the scenic drives!

No hook-ups, but clean toilets and water spigots to collect water from. As others have mentioned, you cannot hook your hose up, so you’d need a water jug and 12v water pump to pump it into your unit. Sure 18 was plenty large for our 29 ft travel trailer and F250, but a few of the sites are also better suited for smaller rigs or tent campers.

The only reason I gave it four stars was because it’s ($28 + $2 for pet) per night with no hook ups, but we absolutely loved it there!

There are several beautiful lakes around and tons of great hikes/drives.

Perfect spot I'm glad we stopped to check for a campsite they did have first come first serve. all the other spots reserved And booked out for a long time In middle of June. May even decide to spend an extra night. No electrical no showers. Lotta trees and some cool rock structures a little walk to the lake. And some heavy duty picnic tables

- site 22 was first come first serve and easy to level, no hookups
- $2/dog extra on top of nightly fee
- sites 4 & 5 were reservable spots that appear to have the best views of the lake
- 1 bar AT&T but able to use campendium and text. Calls weren't easy but it was Sturgis biker week while I was there so VERY busy
- plenty of area to walk the dogs

(Stayed 9/10/20) Opted for the USFS CG instead of one of the many Custer State Park campgrounds. The sites were all very nice and most could fit TT and larger RVs. Our site was very well maintained, level, and had a peak of the small lake. Easy walk to little Bismarck Lake where we tried our hand at fishing (no luck!). Quiet, peaceful nights.

The CG was booked every night although some spots that were reserved stayed empty the first couple of nights, probably because it had snowed the day before we arrived and then rained over night our first night. Full up on the weekends but still quiet.

Easy walk to Stockade Lake in Custer SP. Also, easy ride to the Mickelson Bike Trail spur that runs into Custer.

While an entrance fee to Custer SP is not required if you camp at Bismarck Lake, you do need to pay a fee to access any of the Custer SP amenities like the lakes and also the Wildlife Loop.

We had no issue getting our 42' 5th wheel into this area. You can make a reservation, check to see if there is availability on any of the reserved spots, or come to one of the five first come first serve spots. We opted for the first come first serve for which 4 of them were great for our size rig. We had a spot right next to the vault toilet and dumpster, but there wasn't any smell. There are picnic tables and fire pits at every site. There's a beautiful lake for kayaking and fishing. There's potable water, but you cannot hook a hose up to it to fill up. The vault toilets are very clean, but there's no dump station. There is a $2 fee per dog per night.

The Verizon service was good enough for streaming and video calls. Overall the campground is quiet and the camp hosts were friendly. They sell firewood for $5 a bundle as well.