Mount Rushmore KOA at Palmer Gulch

We spent $130 for a premium site with patio on a Wednesday night the second week of June. After taking us past ample empty, quiet locations, our premium patio site (nicest the park has) was directly across from the “fun zone”. A massive area for kids to enjoy their adventure.

We checked in as a couple with no kids. I would have thought some attention to this gap in placement would have been recognized. Additionally, the most expensive sites in a park should be directly across from the loudest spot in the entire park.

WiFi in the park is lousy at best.

If you are taking a trip to Mount Rushmore, may I suggest you stay at least one night at the Palmer Gulch Resort? I’ve now stayed there on two occasions and found it to be an exceptional spot with amenities not found at your typical campground. Check-in is easy and stressless, due to the GIANT pull in area. They then guide you to your spot and will even help you park if you ask.

I wrote a complete review with photos on my blog at:

http://odysseycamper.com/odysseycamper/review-of-mt-rushmore-resort-and-lodge-at-palmer-gulch/

My blog covers travel in a Honda Odyssey minivan camper conversion.

Situated behind Mount Rushmore, it makes a great base to visit other area attractions. They have restaurants, horseback riding, a pancake breakfast, two pools, a coffee shop and wine bar...the list goes on and on.

I highly recommend staying here if your trip plans include the Mount Rushmore area!

First off, this KOA is huge and is geared to families - I would not recommend staying here if you don’t have kids. We don’t have kids, but we knew what we were getting into before we made our reservation as we had stayed here before.

What I disliked about this park and why I gave it a 2 star is that we have a 39 foot fifth wheel and the spot they put us in was not made for our RV. I knew we were in trouble when the guy who was supposed to escort us to our space gasped when we told him our space number and his eyes got real big. Then he said “wow, I can’t believe they put you in that spot” as he looked our very large rig up and down.

At first he was not even going to escort us to our space, which I thought was pretty lousy since the woman inside had said we would get an escort. Then when he looked over our rig and realized where they had put us, he thought better of it and escorted us there.

We were literally with the tents and small RVs. The space was a pull-through, so getting into the spot, although tight because the escort left his golf cart on the side of the road once he got close to the site and then moved another customer’s pop up camper to the other side of the road since the woman was having issues getting it into her space, was not the issue. The issues was how to get OUT of the space. We had a tree on one side of us, a tent site in front of us to the right and another small camper to the front of us on the left. We had no way to get out except to hope that the site to the left of us was empty so we could back up our RV and pull through that site (which is thankfully what happened).

We spent five nights there wondering why they put us where they did (and it was a busy weekend - but still, be aware of what you are doing when you place someone in a site) and how we were going to get out of our space.

In addition, there is NO internet access and the WIFI was terrible - too many kids on it and we could never connect to it. So five days with no internet access - which kind of sucked!

The only good thing about this KOA fwas that there was air by the dump station - something I think that more RV parks should have for their customers.

This place is great IF you know what you are getting yourself in for. Huge place and crowded with tiny spots. But you do not come for quiet and getting back to nature. There are non-stop activities for kids with the last activity scheduled for 9:45p. A movie started at 8p. And the pool, playground, golf and other places close between 9 and 10p. Kids run non stop and bikes are ridden everywhere. It is a dream for kids but adults need to be very careful driving because kids have the right of way and will run or bike in the road. We have a 35 ft trailer and they assigned us a 37 ft spot and expected us to park the truck on the grass by moving the picnic table. They were very nice an upgraded us to a larger spot at cost but I recommend you report the size of your rv to match the site size you want. There are tons of pull thru sites but most of the back in sites had the most space so well worth considering. All the employees were friendly and helpful and made us feel welcome. Would love to come back and would have stayed longer if they weren’t booked.

(Review based on my experience in 2013)

I've been to a few KOA's before and this has to be the biggest and busiest I've been to. If you're into the big huge socialized type of camping this is the place to be. There were so many amenities there, it didn't feel like camping. There are tons of activities including rental bikes/carts, horseback riding, a huge playground, pools, you name it. They even have their own little fishing pond there as well. It's basically a KOA Resort. It's incredibly close to Mount Rushmore, which is the reason we chose this site. The hosts and support staff are very friendly and well coordinated. As mentioned every amenity is available at this location. The sites are decent sized considering how many sites are available.

This is a great place to be if you're into this type of over socialized camping or need a break from dry camping or boondocking. If you're more into being in the secluded woods with minimal population, this is definitely not a place you want to be. Depending on your type of camping, this can be an oasis or a nightmare. That being said, any experienced camper should already know this.

Our site was right near the main lodge and collection of shops. The spot was level gravel with a concrete patio with a nice fire area and swing.

Unfortunately, being that close to the main building we got to experience lots of traffic, everyone checking into the campground had to drive past our site along with all the delivery trucks (some semis parked in front of our site).

That minor annoyance was compounded by lots of additional minor annoyances to the point that our stay was less satisfactory than we had hoped from the advertising.

Some examples: water slide is across the street from the pool and splash pad, meaning parents have to sit around at the bottom of the slide while the kids go - and if multiple kids, split up the group to go to splash pad/pool. The water in the water slide is very cold, along with with the splash pad water - a worker told us at the splash pad that the water was 55 degrees. And probably the biggest annoyance was that there was absolutely no connectivity of any kind anywhere near our campsite. No cell coverage and the "three wifi hotspots" around the campground never worked for anything - if any of devices would even connect.

Certainly, there were plenty of amenities that worked and convenient food options with the breakfast tent, the cafe and the restaurant on-site. The power, water, sewer and cable tv worked fine (although the cable was fairly limited - we didn't watch much). However, for the price and the little details, we did not feel that we got our money's worth and will not be returning.