We stayed at Hidden Lake Campground and Resort in Hot Springs, South Dakota. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A campground with a nice mini lake (a large pond, really).

Dates:

• Check in: 2023-09-17
• Check out: 2023-09-24
• 7 nights

Weather:

• Mostly sunny, some drizzle
• High temps ranging between 60-83°F, lows around 50-59°F
• Negligible wind most days, gusts up to 33 MPH one day

Noise:

• Occasional road noise
• No train noise
• Negligible neighbor noise

Site:

• #9, pull-through, gravel
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
• Fairly level
• Gravel driveway about 83 feet long by about 10 feet wide
• Grass on passenger side about 10 feet wide
• Grass between driver side and next site about 30 feet wide
• No trees on these sites, some on other sites
• Picnic table, fire pit
• Not very clean site; several small bits of trash

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, inconveniently located at the rear of the site
• 57 PSI water, inconveniently located at the rear of the site
• Good sewer connection, somewhat conveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 97-107 Mbps down, 21 Mbps up, 55 ms ping
• AT&T: 130 Mbps down, 16-25 Mbps up, 47-81 ms ping
• Verizon: 17-22 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up, 37 ms ping
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: none (an “unplugged” campground)

Amenities:

• Lake with swimming and board rental
• Garbage bins
• Package delivery to office

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Lovely pond, close to Wind Cave NP

This is a nice family-run park in the southern Black Hills and is close to everything you’d want to do there. The town of Hot Springs is cute and has everything you could want; just be sure to heed the detour advice the campground sends you, and don’t try to drive your rig down the main street. There is a bit of a hill to get up to the campground, with a sharp turn at the top. It’s not a big deal, but be careful of oncoming traffic.

We had a pull-through site, which was long enough for our rig and tow vehicle but pretty narrow. The “missing” site between us and the next one on the driver’s side was useful as there is still a power pedestal that we had to hook up to after a town-wide power cut did something to ours. I would’ve liked one of the back-in sites, but they’re too short for a 40′ motorhome. We camped at Hidden Lake Campground and Resort in a Motorhome.

The campground map:

An intereactive map:

Our site:

The power and water were at the rear of the site, rather inconvenient:

There were wild rabbits that liked to hang out around our site:

And some wild turkeys in the campground:

After visiting the Wind Cave National Park, 15 minutes north of the campground, we added its sticker to our coach:

The town had a power cut; it took us a while to notice; we just noticed when it was getting warm, and our ACs weren’t coming on (most other stuff runs fine on batteries):

Unfortunately, our solar system was not working either — but good thing we noticed now, since we’ll be without hookups for 10 days soon, when we attend the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. So I’ll fix it before then (and yes, I’ll have a blog post about that soon):

When the power came back on several hours later, my Power Watchdog reported that the power pedestal had a fault, under voltage on line 2 (only 44 volts):

Fortunately, there was a spare power pedestal next to our site, where there used to be a site, but now has trees (presumably because it was super narrow). So I plugged in to that one:

The office:

They have several signs around the campground with lists of rules; really welcoming and friendly:

The lake:

Craft available for hire (really should be included for guests; I think these remained unused):

Path around lake:

Cabins:

Games:

Landscaping:

Other sites:

A nice enough campground, despite the power issues and somewhat unfriendly signs. We’d stay here again.

We stayed at Spearfish / Black Hills KOA Holiday in Spearfish, South Dakota. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Another new state, our first visit to South Dakota. A nice campground.

Dates:

• Check in: 2023-08-23
• Check out: 2023-09-03
• 11 nights

Weather:

• Partly cloudy
• High temps ranging between 81-91°F, lows around 57-67°F
• Negligible wind most of the time, gusts up to 30 MPH towards the end

Noise:

• Nearby freeway road noise
• No train noise
• Negligible neighbor noise

Site:

• #69, pull-through, gravel
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach
• A little unlevel
• Gravel driveway about 92 feet long by about 10 feet wide
• Grass between sites about 25 feet wide
• A couple of big trees
• Picnic table and fire pit on grass
• Some trash on the site

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, very conveniently located
• 20 PSI water, very conveniently located
• Loose sewer connection, very conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• Campground Wi-Fi: 60-85 Mbps down, 25-30 ms up, 13 ms ping
• AT&T: 30-40  Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 75 ms ping
• Verizon: 6-10 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
• T-Mobile: 20 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 80 ms ping
• Starlink: not used

Amenities:

• Heated pool
• Garbage pickup from site
• Package delivery to office
• Ice cream social
• Nature path

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Convenient to all the Black Hills has to offer

Friendly, helpful staff. They gave us so much information at check-in that we were more than set for touring the area. We were guided to our site, where they gave us more information about the campground and amenities. They have trash pickup from the site, which is always a nice bonus. Our site had a nice, wide grassy area and trees for shade. I really liked the picket fences to block the view of the hookups; it’s a nice touch. The site was a little unlevel, and there was constant noise from the interstate, but those were only minor annoyances, and we’d stay here again. We camped at Spearfish / Black Hills KOA Holiday in a Motorhome.

Tip for Other Campers: Farmhouse Bistro is nearby and has excellent BLTs, but don’t try walking there on the nature path–there’s no bridge over the creek.

The campground map:

An interactive map:

Our site, #69, and our neighbor, #68, are two of the nicest in the park; the others in this row are also nice and long, but have narrower grass areas (18 feet vs 25 feet). More space between rigs is better:

Utilities:

Adding the South Dakota sticker to our coach:

Entrance:

Office:

Playground:

Dump station:

Swimming pool:

Dog park:

Tent sites:

Cabins:

Other sites:

A path to a nature trail in a corner of the campground:

Our walk was interrupted (several times) by some runners:

We had a tasty lunch at the nearby Farmhouse Bistro:

Tasty BLT and fries:

A nice RV park, other than the road noise (but that wasn’t too bad inside).

We stayed at Medora Campground in Medora, North Dakota. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Our first visit to North Dakota; the first new state since Texas last November.

Dates:

• Check in: 2023-08-19
• Check out: 2023-08-23
• 4 nights

Weather:

• A mix of partly cloudy and rainy
• High temps ranging between 66-90°F, lows around 54-64°F
• Wind gusts up to 25 MPH gusts

Noise:

• No road noise
• Nearby train rumble, no horns
• Negligible neighbor noise

Site:

• #905, pull-through, gravel
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
• Somewhat level
• Gravel driveway about 60 feet long by about 12 feet wide
• Weedy dirt between sites about 6 feet wide
• No trees
• Picnic table and camp grill on dirt

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, conveniently located
• 50 PSI water, conveniently located
• Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 10 Mbps down, 22-33 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
• Verizon: 74-105 Mbps down, 36-54 Mbps up, 60-105 ms ping
• AT&T: 74-81 Mbps down, 13 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
• Campground Wi-Fi: not used
• Starlink: not used

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters
• Near entrance to South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Basic campground near everything

There are two reasons to come to Medora: Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the Medora Musical. This park is pretty basic, but it is close to both and convenient to the interstate. We had a site in the “new” section of the park, and it was pretty much just dirt and weeds. It rained while we were there, so it was mud and weeds. Sites in this section are very narrow and have no shade. If you have a big rig and want 50A FHU, I think it’s probably the best bet, however. The older section looked like the trees might be a bit close for easy navigation. There’s a nice view of the hills surrounding Medora from the campground. Swarms of yellowjackets (it was late August, it happens) kept us inside, even if the weather had been less rainy. We camped at Medora Campground in a Motorhome.

Tip for Other Campers: Make the trek to the North Unit of TRNP; it’s well worth the hour’s drive.

The campground map:

An interactive map:

Our site:

After staying in North Dakota one night, we were able to add a new state on the states map outside our coach (it’s looking a little faded!):

The office, with dedicated check-in lanes:

Group fire pit and games:

Picnic shelter and playground:

Bathrooms:

Covered wagon accommodation:

Other sites:

#Vanlife row:

Tent sites:

Cabins:

Mobile homes:

More covered wagons:

Train in the distance:

Path:

Little Missouri River:

A nice campground, not very busy during the week. We’ll probably stay here again in the future (it’s convenient on the route between the east coast and our home base in Washington state).