![]() If you need supplies before you arrive or while you camp here, the small town in Hill City has a grocery and several restaurants. The best-case scenario is to arrive early on a weekday to secure a site before many other campers arrive. I do recommend a four-wheel or all-wheel drive vehicle for navigating this road near Mount Rushmore, as you may have to continue down the road until you can find an open spot. The coordinates above will bring you to one of the first camp options along this road, but there are actually several as you continue down the road. This location will actually bring you to a collection of free camping spots located in the heart of South Dakota’s Black Hills National Forest. Nearest Town/City: Hill City, South Dakota.Free Camping in South Dakota’s Black Hills The location is roughly 40 minutes from the Ben Reifel Visitor Center, but it is also close to many natural attractions in Badlands National Park. The great part about this site is that you’ll be able to get up early and get into the park before visitors that are staying at a developed campground further away. There are no pit toilets, RV hookups, or other amenities here, which makes it a true boondocking experience. Keep in mind that RV camping here might be the way to go unless you have a portable cassette toilet in your camping setup. During my stay, I saw tent campers, camper vans, class A, B, and C RVs, and even large travel trailers and 5th wheels. There are two entrances to the dirt road that runs along the overlook and the road provides easy access for all types of RVs. From there, the boondocking area is located roughly 5.3 miles south. Wall offers its own intrigue in the form of the iconic Wall Drug Store, the Wounded Knee Museum, and, if you need it, a developed campground with more amenities. Whether you are coming from east or west, the town of Wall is going to be your last, best stop for any supplies or camping gear you forgot. The entire campsite, which is also known as the Wall Dispersed Camping area, is essentially one giant Badlands overlook with no set number of campsites and no permit required. ![]() ![]() ![]() This boondocking area just outside one of the Badlands National Park entrance stations was one of my favorite free RV camping areas on my entire trip. Kerri and I both agree that the weight of the East has been lifted, and we both feel more relaxed and happier out here. After a single night, and a bit of scouting the following day, we decided to leave our week-long paid-and-reserved site for another dispersed camping spot a few miles out of town.Īnd it was surely the right decision! Peace and quiet, and the place all to ourselves for the week was just what the doctor ordered. It is good to be home. Initially we pulled into a State Park (below image) just south of Medora, ND which happens to be the gateway to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which we had plans to visit. Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado are all icons of the West, and all in Mountain Time zone, and now so am I. It is here, and I think all will agree, that the West begins. We got back on the road the following morning, and a few more hours passed before we reached that magical line Mountain Time zone. It felt so good to just pull down a dirt road and find a place to free-camp, and a view always helps as well. It took another few hours of driving to get to our overnight spot, and our first proper boondocking in months, and even though it was not an exceptional spot, it sure seemed over the top at the time. We are in a bit of a time-crunch so another week buffer is helping ease that stress. We decided to drop the week long stay in Fargo and keep driving West with a single overnight to get us across the state. Originally I thought it would be once we crossed into North Dakota, but Fargo still has very much a Northern and Mid-West feel to it. We finally made it to what I consider “Officially West”.
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