SP Campground Rating – Stockade Lake North (Custer, SD)

Amazingly enough we have internet access out here in the boonies (thank you Verizon) so I’m able to complete the campground review of State Park we were in for the last part of our stay at Custer, SD. 

Link to campground here: Stockade Lake North, Custer State Park

1. Site Quality = 4.5/5
   Overall the sites here are very nice. The majority are large, level dirt sites with electrical hook-up, fire-pit, bench and ample space between campers (there’s a few non-electric and paved pull-ins too). You can easily get the biggest rigs in here. This is a forest area and most sites have good shade.
2. Facilities = 4/5
   Good selection of facilities here. There’s vault toilets, flush toilets and free showers. There’s also potable water and a playground and large grassy area on-site. The only reason I gave it a ding was there was a heavy, musty odor in the women’s bathrooms while we were there which was not altogether pleasant. Also, there’s no dump station. But, overall the facilities were good for a State Park location.
3. Location = 4/5
   This campground is right at the beginning of Custer State Park so you have direct access to the Park, and you can walk to Stockade Lake from your site. It’s also only ~6 miles from the town of Custer. The only reason it doesn’t get a 5 is that there’s no hiking trails straight from the campground (although you can bush-whack the surrounding forest).
4. Pet Friendliness = 5/5
   They’re very pet friendly here and lots of space for pooch to hang out and walk in the forest.

Overall Rating = 4.4
BONUS ALERT = Custer wildlife at your doorstep

Summary: This is the first Custer State Park campground as you enter the park and is one of their larger ones set beautifully in a forested area near Stockade Lake. Overall it’s a great area. Large, level sites with electrical hook-up available, good shade and privacy between campers. There’s also a ton of activities on-site including a playground (on a large grassy area), movies about Custer SP at night and free canoeing on the lake once a week. On the negative side there’s no hiking trails right from the park, but you are within walking distance of the Lake and driving distance of everything in Custer SP. The other negative is that because it’s so popular, it’s almost always completely booked out. We talked to people who’d booked 8 months ahead for their site and we got one of the very last pull-in sites (non-electric) when we booked a month and a half ago. Overall a great campground, but beware to book way ahead if you’re coming in summer.

 Extra Info: Verizon wireless worked flawlessly. AT&T phones were OK. Sites cost $18/night for non-electric, $22/night for electric. Potable water on-site, but no dump station (you can dump for $4 at Sinclair gas station in Custer) . You do want to reserve ahead of time.

View of our non-electric pull-in site (#8)

Typical back-in site...large, dirt and level

Fire-pit and bench. Most sites have a nice forest view.

Looking up the road into the campground

Playground and grassy area in the middle of the campground

Movie viewing area

Heading East & Last of The Black Hills, SD

We’ll we’re off East and further “out there” so not sure we’ll have blog access for a few days (we’ll see). In the meantime it’s time to say a last goodbye to the Black Hills of SD and our 2 weeks here. 

The Pahá Sápa, so named by the Sioux Indians for their dark Ponderosa Pines, are a sacred and rich hills wrapped in controversial history. Originally traditional hunting grounds, the hills were assigned to the Lakota at the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868. However, peace was not to be. In 1874 General Custer discovered gold in the region and the draw was irresistible. Within 2 years 10,000 prospectors filled the area and a year later the US government seized back the land. It was the beginning of the massive Gold Rush the age of migration to the West. 

All this history is wrapped in the hills and there for you to experience, and we’ve been under, over and across to see it. Jewel Cave, the 2nd longest cave in the world (151 miles) lies ~12 miles West of Custer, and the area is flanked by another monster Wind Cave in the south. Marking the north is Mount Rushmore where the road leads all the way to historical Deadwood. Closer to Custer is the remarkable private undertaking of Crazy Horse, which will eventually be the largest mountain carving in the world and displays a wealth of Indian culture and history. And, of course there’s the hills, the berries, the wildlife and the hiking. 

Well worth a visit. As they say “we be back…” 

Sunrise at Stockade Lake in Custer State Park

Wildflowers in Custer

Hiking Hellhole Canyon w/ Paul & Polly in the East

The stunning Jewel Cave

The Crazy Horse Monument. It will eventually be 563 feet (172 m) high and will depict Crazy Horse on his mount pointing to the land of his people

The Black Hills as seen from the top of Lovers Leap

A Walk on the Wild-side – Custer, SD

Oh, give me a home
Where the buffalo roam…. 

“Home on the Range” was a poem first published in 1873 that eventually became the State song of Kansas. Knowing nothing to that effect before this post, however, your hapless author found herself merrily humming the tune as we were travelling the Wildlife Loop in Custer Park a few days back. It just seemed to fit. The open hills, the wild prarie-land, and herds of buffalo roaming the plains. And just to top it off a few white-tailed deer, a lone Pronghorn, a couple of asses (the wild burro kind, not of the backside genus), prarie-dogs and mule deer. Yes, it’s truly a land where the wildlife roam. 

Custer State Park encompasses ~71,000 acres of pine forest, plains and granite hills in East South Dakota, and it’s a stunning spot. There’s 1,500 buffalo that call it home and it’s quite the sight to see these shaggy 2,000 lb creatures walking the plains. They’re more formally known as North American Bison and were nearly extinct by the 1890′s. The local indians used all parts of the buffalo, and the white man followed suit. Only in the past 10-15 years have their numbers revived, and the buffalo are now a booming industry.  But, there’s nothing quite like seeing the animal in the wild, and for that I’ll happily drive round singing my tune…. 

The majestic buffalo

Wild burro's, descended;from a herd;that once hauled people to Harney Peak

White-tailed deer