Lake Thompson Rec Area

Stayed in site 87 which is in the last circle loop away from the crowd. Electric only site. Be sure to get water before backing into site. Insanely long pad…we have a 33ft travel trailer with truck and both fit with about 20 extra feet to spare. The site had tons of room on each side with plenty of beautiful grass and shade trees.
Internet on Verizon and ATT were both great and had no issues with video meetings.
Only downside is that if you can’t swim or boat in the lake there’s nothing to do besides the Ingalls homestead.
We drove about an hour to Brookings for major stores like wal mart.
Bathrooms and showers were fine. Good water pressure, hot water, and free.

We wanted a place to stay that was close to De Smet to visit the Ingall’s homestead. This was a great place to stay! My kids loved the lake, especially the beach! We would like to stop back and stay longer.
Note: our GPS tried to take us to the opposite side of the lake and not the campground! We twisted and turned on side farming roads until we met a friendly local that pointed us in the correct direction. DO NOT TURN UNLESS IT HAS THE SIGN FOR THE CAMPGROUND!

We’ve had the best luck regarding the weather throughout our travels across the country this summer. That is, until we began to move eastward from the Badlands. Three times now we have faced high winds and dangerous thunderstorms. Our first few hours in Lake Thompson were spent in the restroom, the designated shelter area. Winds were predicted to be ninety miles per hour with damaging two-inch hail. None of that happened except for maybe forty mile per hour winds and a bit of horizontal rain. But the weather did dampen our spirits in preparation for our prairie experience planned for this area.

Laura Ingalls Wilder lived here and there are a few historical homes in De Smet and a farm to visit, a museum, and depot. Ward’s is a nice bakery/restaurant/gift shop where we had a pretty good lunch burger and sweet potato fries. A bar downtown by the name of Wheaties was cool and we were lucky to get the area’s best burger there because the owner is an old biker and open only sporadically. It seems chicken and burgers are the main fares in town. There are no health food stores or specialty groceries. Maynard’ is a run-of-the-mill grocery store and sadly the gas station/convenience store offers the most reliable food service in the area as most establishments seem to lock up by around 4PM. This is a sleepy town, much like myself these days, so it really doesn’t matter. But it might to others.

The “Wash Tub Laundromatt” is also downtown and it is just off Hwy 14. Old but serviceable, your laundry gets clean there at an affordable price. I had it all to myself. There is a soap and bleach dispenser as well as an operable coin changer. There are no bathrooms so be prepared and take care of business before you do your laundry.

Our site #15E overlooks the large Lake Preston. It is close to a restroom which it seems the beachgoers all use. It may be preferable to camp closer to the new restroom facility up on the hill on the other side of the campground in order to enjoy a cleaner shower and bathroom. Our site has electricity and the water fill is below the drinking fountains at the restroom. There is a dump station on the way out of the park. This is a pretty place with many trees and shade.

We enjoyed our two nights at this campground. We felt lucky to have found it at the last minute—very full Saturday night but virtually empty Sunday p.m. Quiet, clean, and well maintained. The lake and nearby slough were high when we visited, with partial road deterioration just outside the entrance. Had to drive through water to get to the campground, but saturation seems to be the name of the game in South Dakota this summer. Being amateur birders, we had a lot of fun sighting pelicans, yellow headed blackbirds, swallows and more. Also saw deer, rabbits, and a muskrat.
Great day spent in DeSmet visiting the Laura Ingalls Wilder historical sites.