Stargazing

Cheyenne RV Resort

42 RV Sites, 6 Cabins, 17 Tent Sites

Cheyenne RV Resort in Cheyenne, WY, offers 42 full-hookup pull-thru RV sites, 6 cabins, and 17 tent sites, with 20, 30, and 50-amp service and room for rigs up to 85 feet. Sites come in two categories, standard and premium pull-thrus, both carrying water, sewer, and electric with site-delivered WiFi and a picnic table, and ADA-accessible sites are available. Every site is a pull-thru and the maximum length is 85 feet — a long coach with a toad pulls straight through. Laundry, a bathhouse with showers, a general store, a snack bar, firewood, propane fills and exchange, a dump station, a clubhouse, and a pet washing station cover the rest. Pets are welcome, with a dog park. An outdoor pool, mini-golf, a pavilion, a playground, a pond, walking trails, volleyball, basketball, and horseshoes fill the grounds, with hiking, biking, swimming, birding, and High Plains stargazing. A state park is nearby. Cheyenne is the state capital at the junction of I-25 and I-80, where the High Plains meet the Laramie Range — and the home of Cheyenne Frontier Days each July. Rates for sites, cabins, and tent spots are on the booking page. Frontier Days week books out a year ahead.

from $34/night

Hidden Lake Campground and Resort

18 RV Sites, 8 Cabins

Hidden Lake Campground and Resort in Hot Springs, South Dakota, offers 18 RV sites and eight cabins on a private lake in the Black Hills' southern tier, with 20, 30, and 50-amp full hookups and rigs accepted to 75 feet. Boat, kayak, and bike rentals sit on a property offering a more intimate alternative to the Hills' larger commercial campgrounds. Eighteen sites carry water, sewer, and electric on 20, 30, and 50-amp in back-in and pull-through configurations, sized to 75 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables. Eight cabins serve guests without a rig. A general store, laundry, propane fills, restrooms, showers, firewood, and WiFi handle the practical side. The private lake anchors the experience. Boat rentals, kayak rentals, and paddle boats put guests on the water, with fishing, swimming, boating, canoeing, kayaking, and paddle boarding from the shoreline. Bike rentals, walking trails, hiking, biking, horseshoes, corn hole, a playground, and planned activities fill the rest, with strong stargazing and birding across the property. Pets are welcome. Hot Springs sits in Fall River County where the Black Hills give way to the high plains. Wind Cave National Park preserves the transition zone's grassland and underground cave ecology just north, with a state park nearby and the full Black Hills circuit within reach — but far enough from the core tourism corridor that the campground stays quiet. Summer is peak across the Black Hills, and the August Sturgis rally tightens availability regionally. With 18 sites and a private lake, reserve well ahead for July and August.

from $38/night

BV Overlook Camp & Lodging

BV Overlook Camp & Lodging sits half a mile from downtown Buena Vista, Colorado, offering full-hookup RV sites with water, sewer, and electric alongside cabins and tiny homes, open all year with sweeping views of the Arkansas River valley and the Collegiate Peaks. Back-in and pull-through sites carry fire pits, picnic tables, and site WiFi. Full-hookup sites carry water, sewer, and electric in back-in and pull-through configurations, with fire pits and picnic tables. Cabins and tiny homes serve guests without a rig, and the property accommodates everything from a 40-foot coach to a campervan. A general store, laundry, propane fills and exchange, dump station, restrooms, showers, and firewood handle the practical side, with WiFi throughout and year-round operation. Check-in is 3pm for accommodations and 1pm for RV sites, with all check-outs at 11am; early check-in and late check-out are sometimes available for a fee but cannot be guaranteed in advance. A recreation center, playground, dog park, walking trails, and community fire pit fill the grounds, with mountain biking, biking, hiking, birding, and stargazing from the property and planned activities through the season. Skiing and boating are nearby. Pets are welcome. Buena Vista sits at the heart of Colorado's adventure corridor, where whitewater rafting, hot springs, high-altitude hiking, and ski touring all converge within a short drive. The Collegiate Peaks rise to the west and the Arkansas River runs below. Summer rafting season is the peak. Reserve well ahead.

from $69/night

Rifle Mountain Park

Rifle Mountain Park north of Rifle, Colorado, offers dry camping sites in a limestone canyon, with fire pits, picnic tables, walking trails, and restrooms. One essential detail before you go: this is a dry camping facility with no potable water, no sewer service, and no electrical hookups. Back-in dry camping sites carry fire pits and picnic tables. There are no hookups of any kind and no potable water on site, so arrive fully self-contained with all the water you will need. Restrooms and firewood are available, along with cabins. This is a city-owned outdoor recreation area rather than a commercial campground, and the facilities are scaled accordingly. Pets are welcome. Walking trails run the canyon, with hiking, picnicking, birding, and stargazing from the site. A creek runs through the park. The climbing is what makes this internationally known. Rifle Mountain Park sits at the base of towering limestone cliffs in Rifle Creek Canyon, where more than 250 bolted sport routes across every difficulty grade have been developed over decades. It is one of the most prolific sport climbing destinations in North America and a genuine pilgrimage site for climbers worldwide — the canyon's steep, pocketed limestone is unlike anything else in the country. For campers who are not climbing, the canyon's hiking, creek fishing, and dramatic walls are reason enough. Climbing season runs spring through fall, with the canyon's shade making it viable in summer heat. Reserve ahead for weekends, and plan your water carefully.

from $20/night

Bearded Buffalo Resort

Two miles from the entrance to Custer State Park in Custer, South Dakota—in the heart of the Black Hills where the granite dome geology, the open-range bison herd of nearly 1,400 animals in Custer State Park, and the concentrated national monument and cave heritage that positions Custer County as the most historically significant single county in South Dakota—Bearded Buffalo Resort provides 35 full hookup RV sites with 30 and 50-amp service, four spacious cabin rentals with full kitchens and private bathrooms, a general store, a turf play area with lawn games, and the Black Hills access that Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Jewel Cave, Wind Cave, and the 1880 Train make available within a radius that no South Dakota campground can match more completely than the Custer area concentration. The two-mile Custer State Park proximity and the four-cabin full-kitchen configuration define the resort's appeal for the family group that wants both the Black Hills outdoor access and the enclosed accommodation comfort. Thirty-five full hookup RV sites with 30 and 50-amp electric, water, and sewer in daily and seasonal configurations serve the RV camping market. Four cabin rentals—each with air conditioning, WiFi, a full kitchen, private bathroom, in-unit washer and dryer, two-vehicle parking, and provided linens and towels—provide the complete domestic setup for families or groups who want the Black Hills base camp in an enclosed space that the South Dakota weather system makes reliably practical from the Dakotas' spring to fall. A general store stocked with supplies and gifts serves the daily practical needs. A turf play area with lawn games provides the outdoor recreation for the youngest visitors. Dog park, pickleball courts, and a fire pit planned as additions will expand the recreation and social gathering options. The pet-friendly policy accommodates the canine travelers. Custer State Park's 71,000 acres contain the most ecologically diverse wildlife habitat in South Dakota's Black Hills managed for public recreation: the nearly 1,400-animal bison herd that roams the park's open-range interior grasslands in the largest publicly owned bison herd in the United States, the Prairie Dog Town that its anthropomorphic inhabitants populate in the specific social complexity that prairie dog colonies maintain in concentrated surface display, and the Needles Highway and Wildlife Loop Road scenic drives that produce the granite spire and wildlife encounter experience within a single state park that most national parks spread across hundreds of miles. Mount Rushmore National Memorial—30 minutes north—provides the presidential sculptural monument that Gutzon Borglum's 14-year carving project produced from 1927 to 1941, with the evening lighting ceremony from Memorial Day through Labor Day that illuminates the 60-foot faces in the context of an outdoor patriotic program. The Crazy Horse Memorial—continuing in construction since 1948 under the Ziolkowski family's direction as the world's largest mountain carving in progress—provides the specific counterpoint to Rushmore's presidential theme in the Lakota warrior's Korczak Ziolkowski-designed monument to Indigenous heritage. Jewel Cave National Monument's 212 miles of mapped passages make it the world's third-longest known cave system, with guided tours of its boxwork calcite crystal formations providing the most geologically specific cave tour in the Black Hills. Bearded Buffalo Resort is open seasonally through the Black Hills' camping calendar. Summer from Memorial Day through Labor Day fills the Custer area to capacity. The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in August draws 700,000-plus riders to the Black Hills region annually—the single largest campground demand event in South Dakota. Reserve the cabin or hookup site well in advance for summer season, plan the Wildlife Loop Road bison drive at dawn, and let Custer County's two-mile park proximity earn the Black Hills concentration that South Dakota's most monument-dense corner genuinely delivers.

Cloud Nine Camping

4 Tent Sites, 6 Onsite RV/Trailers, 1 Tiny House

Cloud Nine Camping in Hermosa, South Dakota, offers RV sites, tent camping, and cabin accommodations across 33 private acres enclosed by Black Hills National Forest on three sides, one mile off the highway between Rapid City and Custer. A general store, community fire pit, dump station, and sports courts serve a campground built around forest quiet rather than resort programming. RV sites and tent sites occupy the wooded acreage, with cabin accommodations for guests traveling without a rig. A dump station serves RV guests, and a general store stocks basics with firewood available on site. Restrooms and WiFi cover the practical needs. This is ponderosa pine country at roughly 4,800 feet, where the trees are large enough to give genuine shade and the national forest boundary begins at the property line. Pets are welcome. The forest setting is the draw. Hiking trails run off the back side of the property directly into national forest land, with walking trails on the grounds and sports courts and volleyball for on-site recreation. The dark, high-elevation sky makes for excellent stargazing, and the surrounding pine forest supports strong bird and wildlife watching. The campground positions itself explicitly as an alternative to the crowded, heavily developed campgrounds nearer the major attractions — guests get forest privacy without the remoteness penalty that adds an hour to every drive. Custer State Park is three miles south, Lakota Lake three miles, Center Lake six, and Mount Rushmore and Keystone seven. Grocery stores are in Hermosa and Hill City, with smaller convenience stores in Keystone. The campground serves the Black Hills summer season, when Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park traffic peaks. Reserve ahead for July and August, and note that the August Sturgis rally tightens availability across the entire region.

from $30/night

Painted Buffalo Resorts

Painted Buffalo Resorts in Hermosa, South Dakota, offers full-hookup RV sites with water, sewer, and electric alongside cabins in the heart of the Black Hills, between Rapid City and Custer. Site WiFi, picnic tables, propane fills and exchange, and a dump station serve a quiet property positioned away from the tourist congestion but within short reach of the Hills' major attractions. Full-hookup back-in sites carry water, sewer, and electric with site WiFi and picnic tables. Cabins blend modern comfort with Black Hills character for guests traveling without a rig. A dump station, propane fills, and propane exchange handle the practical side. Pets are welcome. The property's value is its position and its quiet. A playground serves families, and the surrounding ponderosa pine ridges and granite outcrops at roughly one mile of elevation give the setting its high-plains mountain character. Picnicking areas and exceptional stargazing round out on-site use, with wine and beer tasting nearby. The Black Hills attractions fan out in every direction from Hermosa. Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer State Park's bison herds, and Wind Cave National Park are all a short drive, with both state and national park access close at hand. Positioning between Rapid City's activity and Custer County's wildlife concentration is the point — guests get the whole circuit without staying in the middle of it. Driving directions from Rapid City: take SD-79 south toward Custer, turn right onto SD-40 West, left onto Battle Creek Road, left at the first cross street onto Bender Ridge Road, right onto Box Canyon Road, right onto Outback Trail, then left on Sage Brush Trail. Summer is peak across the Black Hills. Reserve well ahead for July and August.

Twin Bridges Campground

8 RV Sites, 2 Tent Sites

Overnight, Seasonal, and Extended Stay Camping, we are open year-round. Many of our sites are great for stargazing, watching meteors, looking for fireflies, and seeing the birds zip on by. We have 20/30/50amp (shade and partial shade) around our lake, and in the "upper campground," and dry camping (full facilities) along the Arkansas River (Gold Medal fishing) with access for all campers for fishing and floating. We are conveniently located on Hwy 50, in Bighorn Sheep Canyon, and have all sorts of rental options for your outdoor adventure needs. Whether you want to pitch a tent, try out the glamping experience, enjoy the convenience of an RV, or rent one of our fully equipped RVs, we have the perfect spot for you. Adventure awaits with home to the highest mountain peaks in Colorado and 102 miles of Gold Medal Trout fishing.