Bismark Lake
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $30From, per site
- Sites
- 2221 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Bismarck Lake Campground is set amidst a scattering of aspen groves and Ponderosa pine on the southeast edge of Bismarck Lake at 5,000 feet. This is a great place for visitors seeking recreation and relaxation in the Black Hills National Forest. Acess to this campground is through Custer State Park near the West Highway 16A entrance. Sites in the campground are widely spaced and open up to views of lakes, providing adequate privacy for visitors. Keep reading
Recreation
The forest offers accessible recreation for all ages and abilities. Visitors can take advantage of opportunities for hiking, fishing, horseback riding, mountain biking, and riding off-highway vehicles (OHVs) on moderate terrain. At the campground, a short foot trail traverses the forested shoreline, offering opportunities for birding in early morning or picnicking in the afternoon. For those seeking higher elevations, a day-long trek to the summit of nearby Black Elk Peak is worth the effort. Black Elk Peak is the highest natural point in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. Most of the summit is bare granite and offers expansive views of the surrounding area. An old stone tower (Harney Lookout Tower) at the top, once used as a fire lookout, is still open to hikers. Adjacent to the campground is Bismarck Lake, an ideal spot for fishing and boating. The lake supports populations of rainbow and brown trout, a variety of sunfish, smallmouth bass, northern pike, and catfish.
Facilities
Bismarck Lake Campground has sites able to accommodate tents, trailers, and RVs. Access to the lake is within walking distance and there is a beautiful boardwalk and with fishing piers along the waters edge. The campground has picnic tables, campfire rings, vault toilets, and drinking water; however, electrical hook-ups are not available.
Natural Features
Located in western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming, Black Hills National Forest encompasses nearly 1.25 million acres of rugged rock formations, canyons and gulches, open grassland parks, tumbling streams, deep blue lakes, and unique caves. Derived from the Lakota language, the words "Paha Sapa," meaning "hills that are black," honor the dark, pine-covered hills rising several thousand feet above the surrounding prairie. Wildlife in the area abounds. Bighorn sheep navigate mountainous terrain, while elk, deer and pronghorn gather in forests and prairies. Bald eagles, hawks, osprey, peregrine falcon, and hundreds of other bird species can be found in the forest, especially along streams, lakes and rivers.
Nearby Attractions
Possible day trips include Custer State Park with its many buffalo and other wildlife, Crazy Horse Monument and Wind Cave National Park as well as Jewel Cave which is the second longest cave in the world at 159.29 miles. It features sparkling calcite crystals and other rare formations, as well as some of the largest concentrations of passageways in the world. Bismarck Lake Campground is within a couple of miles of the start of the beautiful Needles Highway scenic drive . Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (661) 702-1420.
Charges & Cancellations
No refunds will be given for weather or related events.
What the agency tells you
FYI: During the off season (from 10/01 until 5/15) the USFS operates this campground. Their information is listed below: Late September – Mid May Black Hills National Forest / Hell Canyon Ranger District 1019 North 5th Street, Custer, SD 57730 Phone 605.673.9200 www.fs.usda.gov/r02/blackhills Daily Fee is $15.00 per First Come First Served campsite of which there are 5 available. Self-Pay at all open campgrounds. The stay limit is 14 days in a 28 day period. Sites are located outside of campground gate. Parking Spur Length is 45 ft. Drinking water is NOT available. Each site has a picnic table and a fire ring. Vault toilets are also available. Garbage and Trash "Pack It In Pack It Out" at all times. Please note that roads are not maintained during the off-season. Sites are open until weather prohibits access or closed on the date noted above. The information listed below is pertinent during the open season from May 15th to September 30th.
These campsites are non-electric sites. Generators may run from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. only.
Non-reservable sites may be available on a first come-first served basis
Everything else this campground posts · 7
A pet fee of $2 per pet per night is required upon check in. Pets must be leashed, under control and attended at all times.
- The Senior and Access discounts are only honored for the site that houses the card holder. - If multiple sites are reserved on one card, the rest of the camping fee will be collected upon arrival unless another card holder occupies the site.
In accordance with standard industry practices, ExplorUS will be assessing an additional vehicle fee of $5.00 per night on the second vehicle in each single family campsite, and on the third and fourth vehicle in any double family campsite, provided these vehicles are not joined to the first vehicle by a hitch and towed onto the site. In the case of motorcycles, the first two are considered to be one vehicle and the third and fourth are also considered to be one vehicle. No additional vehicle fees are collected for bicycles. This fee is payable to the camp host upon arrival
Drinking water is available but you CANNOT hook up for filling.
Prevent the spread of invasive species by inspecting and cleaning packs, equipment, and tires before using lake or trails
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing organisms by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
During off season, fewer site may be available.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 22 · 1 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 83 ft
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…has picnic tables, campfire rings, vault toilets, and drinking water; however, electrical hook-ups…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…campfire rings, vault toilets, and drinking water; however, electrical hook-ups are not available.…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Biking
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 36th darkest of 52 in SD
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 2 days ago, 38 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 21 of the 22 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 14
What you actually pay
“In accordance with standard industry practices, ExplorUS will be assessing an additional vehicle fee of $5.00 per night on the second vehicle in each single family campsite, and on the third and fourth vehicle in any…” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $30 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“No refunds will be given for weather or related events.” · this campground’s own terms
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 7
rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
24 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 20 mapped sitesAll 24 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 22 of the 24 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 22 of the 24 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| BISM | 002 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 209 ft | 709 ftBismark Lake | 328 ft | $30 | |
| BISM | 003 | standard nonelectric | 83 ft | 152 ft | 507 ftBismark Lake | 253 ft | $30 | |
| BISM | 004 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 195 ft | 210 ftBismark Lake | 406 ft | $30 | |
| BISM | 005 | standard nonelectric | 63 ft | 42 ft | 175 ftBismark Lake | 369 ft | $30 | |
| BISM | 006 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | yes | 93 ft | 178 ftBismark Lake | 31 ft | $30 |
| BISM | 007 | standard nonelectric | 41 ft | yes | 93 ft | 215 ft | 113 ft | $30 |
| BISM | 008 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 46 ft | 195 ftBismark Lake | 343 ft | $30 | |
| BISM | 009 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 34 ft | 241 ftBismark Lake | 376 ft | $30 | |
| BISM | 010 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 34 ft | 216 ftBismark Lake | 387 ft | $30 | |
| BISM | 011 | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 84 ft | 451 ftBismark Lake | 136 ft | $30 | |
| BISM | 012 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 63 ft | 521 ftBismark Lake | 112 ft | $30 | |
| BISM | 013 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 61 ft | 589 ftBismark Lake | 27 ft | $30 | |
| BISM | 014 | tent only nonelectric | 60 ft | 61 ft | 583 ftBismark Lake | 86 ft | $30 | |
| BISM | 015 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 91 ft | 918 ftBismark Lake | 366 ft | $30 | |
| BISM | 016 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 79 ft | 944 ftBismark Lake | 280 ft | $30 | |
| BISM | 017 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 73 ft | 915 ftBismark Lake | 246 ft | $30 | |
| BISM | 018 | standard nonelectric | 61 ft | 67 ft | 986 ftBismark Lake | 201 ft | $30 | |
| BISM | 019 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 67 ft | 1,010 ftBismark Lake | 144 ft | $30 | |
| BISM | 020 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 237 ft | 1,193 ftBismark Lake | 50 ft | $30 | |
| BISM | 021 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 223 ft | 936 ftBismark Lake | 253 ft | $30 | |
| BISM 001 | Host Site | host pad | 45 ft | $30 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT | 0022 | type not stated | 1,065 ftBismark Lake | 171 ft | $30 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0023 | type not stated | 1,095 ftBismark Lake | 63 ft | $30 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | XXX | unnamed record | 45 ft | $30 |
The agency files 2 more records here that aren’t sites for the night: 1 it names a host pad and 1 it filed without a site name and nothing in its own record decides. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Iron Creek Horse Camp3.3 mi
Horsethief Lake CampgroundNorbeck Wildlife Preserve National Game Refuge · 8.0 mi
Oreville CampgroundBlack Hills National Forest · 8.1 mi
Grizzly Bear CampgroundNorbeck Wildlife Preserve National Game Refuge · 8.1 mi
Willow Creek Horse CampNorbeck Wildlife Preserve National Game Refuge · 8.4 mi
Comanche ParkBlack Hills National Forest · 9.8 miIn Custer, SD, at the intersection of State Rt. 89/US Rt.16A (Mt.Rushmore Rd) and US Rt. 16/US Rt. 385 (5th St.), take US Rt.16A east for 4.8 miles (past Custer State Park entrance) to Bismarck Lake campground sign. Turn left at sign into campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Custer, SD
Typical weather
Typical October night 34°F, day 56°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 16°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Bismark Lake is in South Dakota’s at-large congressional district. Its representative, Dusty Johnson (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →