Elkhorn Ridge RV Resort & Cabins

On the historic Frawley Ranch—a property with more than 140 years of pioneering heritage and National Historic Registry status—in Spearfish at the northern gateway to the Black Hills, Elkhorn Ridge RV Resort and Cabins has built the most comprehensively appointed RV resort in the Black Hills on grounds that bring tangible western history to the camping experience. One hundred eighty-five paved, level full-hookup RV sites including 110 pull-throughs, 36 fully furnished cabin rentals, a heated pool, two hot tubs, lighted tennis courts, a championship-caliber golf course, and the Miller Creek Pub round out a property that uses the Frawley Ranch's historical character as the foundation for a resort that serves Spearfish Canyon's fall foliage visitors as genuinely as it serves the August Sturgis Motorcycle Rally crowd. One hundred eighty-five paved and level full-hookup RV sites with 20/30/50-amp electric, city water, and sewer service—110 pull-through and 75 back-in configurations—provide the utility infrastructure for rigs of any length and configuration, and each site includes a fire pit and picnic table. Two shower houses, full laundry, free Wi-Fi, cable TV, a fenced dog park with separate areas for small and large dogs, a heated outdoor pool, two hot tubs, kiddy pool, lighted tennis, volleyball and basketball courts, and horseshoe pits provide the resort amenity suite. Thirty-six fully furnished cabins sleeping 4-6 guests extend accommodation options for guests without RVs. Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway, one of the most celebrated scenic drives in the Northern Plains, enters the Black Hills limestone canyon system just south of the resort and winds 19 miles through canyon walls rising 1,000 feet above Spearfish Creek—a corridor of waterfalls including Roughlock Falls and Bridal Veil Falls, ponderosa pine and spruce forest, and the creek-bottom cottonwood and ash groves that create the brilliant gold display drawing the fall foliage crowd to Spearfish Canyon each October. The canyon's hiking, fly fishing for wild brook and brown trout in Spearfish Creek, and the wildlife viewing that the protected corridor concentrates make it the most complete natural experience within 15 minutes of any campground in the Black Hills. Deadwood, 14 miles south through the ponderosa pine hills of Lawrence County, provides the Black Hills' most historically layered entertainment destination in its gaming parlors, Wild Bill Hickok's grave at Mount Moriah Cemetery, and the Deadwood History Center's interpretation of the gold rush era. Sturgis, 20 miles east at the base of Bear Butte's volcanic prominence, becomes the center of the motorcycle world each August during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally—a gathering of 500,000-plus riders that transforms the Black Hills' entire accommodation economy for one intense week annually. Devils Tower National Monument, America's first national monument, rises 50 miles east in Wyoming in the igneous intrusion that has drawn climbers, geologists, and spiritual pilgrims since 1906. The Black Hills' four-season climate delivers the spring melt-off and wildflower season on the canyon meadows, a warm dry summer with the long daylight hours that the Dakota latitude provides, the October foliage peak in Spearfish Canyon when cottonwood and ash turn gold against the limestone walls, and a winter snowmobile and cross-country ski season that keeps the resort area active through the cold months. The Sturgis Rally in August and October foliage weekends represent the two peak demand periods when reservations become critical months in advance. The resort's historic Frawley Ranch character and Spearfish Canyon proximity make it the Black Hills base camp that rewards the guest who wants more than monument circuit access—who wants a campground address with its own story.