Sylvan Lake Campground

The best state park campground in South Dakota. Quiet and relaxing. Lots of space between sites. RV pads are paved and for the most part level. They only have electrical connections. There are several water fill up locations around the campground. Easy hike to the Sylvan Lake store, lodge, and lake. Shower house is newer. Highly recommend.

We enjoyed our 2 nights at the campground. Our site (23)was small & tight but our 19’ trailer just made the turn. The electric was good & needed as the wooded site didn’t help our solar.
The campground is close to the lake, the Needles Hwy & Custer. The drives are wonderful. The bathhouse was clean but small & showers were clean.
No Dump Station! It was miles away at another campground in the park.

Our site was a bit tight with the location of the trailer and the fire ring. We did not use the facilities, but potable water was conveniently located for filling jugs. There was a nice walking trail to the lake and the campground was right on the Needles Hwy. We had to go "around" a bit to get our camper into location due to Needles restrictions, but not a big deal. The smell of pine was so enjoyable, we really loved this location, highly recommend, I think the lake and the campground were far superior to the others we saw for ambience. No convenient dump stations, but not an issue. Cell service was hit or miss.

This is one of our favorite campgrounds, for its wooded sites, small number of sites, and closeness to Sylvan Lake. We reserved a year in advance for site 34. Beware of site 34! We arrived on the Monday of Labor Day, during the beginning of a snowfall. After many attempts to back into the site, we had to abandon the effort. The host said it is a very difficult site because of its odd angling, and offered us site number 2, which he keeps out of the reservable pool so he can offer it to folks whose reserved site doesn’t work for them. We were grateful.
If you are interested in a guided fly fishing trip in the Black Hills, we arranged a half-day trip through Dakota Anglers in Rapid City. The guide met us in nearby Hill City, and provided an excellent and informative trip. We each caught several very large brown trout, rainbows, and brookies. We used some of what we learned to fish in Sylvan Lake, catching fish every time and bringing back to camp a couple dozen rainbows. We mostly fished from shore, and from our canoe a couple times. They rent canoes at the gift shop at the lake, and a trip on the lake is phenomenally beautiful.
The campground is far from the wildlife loop, but we drove it three times, often combining it with also needing to go into Custer city on errands. We saw the most wildlife the days we drove it early morning, starting on the drive at 7:30. We saw hundreds of bison, with a couple of traffic jams.
Needles Highway was also a spectacular morning drive, driving down Hwy 89, across on 16A, and starting the Needles drive going north on 89. Put the morning light at the most dramatic angle. Try for a blue sky day as the colors are spectacular.
There is a good laundromat in Custer, and the burgers & milkshakes at Black Hills Burger & Bun are excellent (take-out re covid).
The campground sites are all electric hookups, and the bathrooms (flush toilets) were spotless. We didn’t use their showers because of covid concerns. There were water spigots around the campground. We used the dump station at Game Lodge Campground for free. We also filled our water tank there.
For us, this is the best campground in Custer SP because of Sylvan Lake, with its fishing, canoeing, hiking, and drop dead beauty. Before we left, we reserved eleven days next May; it will be great to see the baby wildlife.
We had no cell coverage (AT&T).

We stayed at site 23. Easy enough for our T@B 400 but probably not very easy to get a bigger trailer in. Clean bathrooms with no-pay showers. No cell service but if you hike a couple of minutes up the trail behind the campsite you get great views and cell service. There is a trail from the campground down to the lake. We had dinner at the lodge - OK but I wouldn’t bother going again. No view of the lake from the Lodge which was a big disappointment. This campground is about 1/2 mile from the top of Needles Highway - maybe that explains the constant helicopters.

This is one of our favorite places to camp. Sitting at 6,145 ft in elevation, you feel like you are on a beautiful wooded mountain top without the large uphill climbs to get there. Granted, its a little windy, not much of a shoulder and it's best to come in on HWY 89 (Due to low and narrow road tunnels on Highway 87 (Needles Highway), large RVs and trucks should use Highway 89. The junction of Highway16A and Highway 89 is located on the east side of the City of Custer, SD.) Be on the look out for wildlife on the sides of the road. The campground has 38 sites and some of those are primitive only. It's best to make reservations to secure a spot. It is close to the lake where there are multiple hiking trails, rock climbing, swimming, fishing and a camp/gift store that has most of the comforts of any small convenience store. Cell service with US Cellular was decent. The flush toilets & separate shower stalls were great! They were clean & had a good supply of hot water. Our site was tight, but we were able to make it work just fine.