West Whitlock Recreation Area

This is managed by the South Dakota Fish, Game and Wildlife and it was awesome! Used largely by boating and fishing folks.

PROs

• We had 50A electric and there is dump and water at the entrance;
• The sites are very well spaced apart from each other with a large number of large shade trees;
• The majority of our stay was during the week and it was SO quiet with very small number of other campers;
• There is a nicely laid out nature walk, much of it along the Missouri RIver and some of it in a tree shaded canopy. We not only walked but was able to ride our Ebikes along the wide dirt trail;
• Nice small beach area if one wants to swim in the Missouri;
• Large staff of state workers constantly taking care of the grounds as well as the shower facilities;
• Ranger Amy was a wealth of information, was able to answer all our questions about the area;
• went to a Friday night feed at the 'Bait Store' and Ranger Amy was the cook, the offering was roast beef/gravy, mashed potatoes and carrots which was excellent. Lots of the locals came in for the dinner as well.
• Best park Wi-Fi yet, it was hot!

CONS:

• It is hard to come up with anything to note. The shower facilities are aged and the hot water took about 7+ minutes to arrive but once that was figured out, no issues. They were cleaned numerous times a day;
• closest town (small) was 20 miles away but did have a small grocery market and a post office.
• the only over the air TV was PBS but because the Wi-Fi was so good, we streamed news and anything else we needed.

Last stayed here in August 2016, as with many of the SD state rec. areas, it’s a bit off the beaten path, but well worth the effort to get to. This place is very well kept and clean, the staff is ,as always friendly and helpful. We’ve found this to be true at every SD Rec. area. The cell reception was excellent and there is a more than adequate wi-fi signal here also. They are spacious and level sites , but none of the rec. areas we’ve been to have full hook ups, only electricity. Plenty of trees for shade bathrooms and showers ar adequate and clean.