Comanche Park
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $26From, per site
- Sites
- 3420 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Situated in an open Ponderosa pine forest 6.5 miles west of Custer, South Dakota, Comanche Park Campground is a campground for visitors seeking recreation and relaxation in the southern Black Hills National Forest. The campsites are spacious. Towering pine trees provide shade. This is the closest campground to Jewel Cave National Monument. Keep reading
Recreation
The forest offers highly accessible recreation for all ages. Visitors can take advantage of opportunities for hiking, fishing, horseback riding, mountain biking, and riding off-highway vehicles (OHVs) on moderate terrain. For those seeking higher elevations, a 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 at the top, once used as a fire lookout, is still open to hikers.
Facilities
Comanche Park Campground has sites able to accommodate tents, trailers, and RVs. The campground is equipped with picnic tables, campfire rings, and vault toilets; 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. Nearby Jewel Cave 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. 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. 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/blackhills0 Please note: Construction is pending, which may cause limited access. 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. Parking Spur Length is 25 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.
There is NO WATER available at this campground. Please bring all water needed for the duration of your stay.
These campsites are non-electric sites. Generators may run from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. only.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Non-reservable sites may be available on a first come-first served basis
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.
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.
- 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.
During the off season, fewer sites may be available.
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 34
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 71 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with picnic tables, campfire rings, and vault toilets; however, electrical hook-ups are not available.…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 28th darkest of 52 in SD
- Bortle 3
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:46 UTC
recreation.gov lists 20 of the 34 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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 · 13
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, $26 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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:46 UTC · rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
35 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 19 mapped sitesAll 35 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 34 of the 35 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.
| COMA | 007 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 177 ft | 2,339 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 008 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 99 ft | 2,198 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 009 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | $26 | ||
| COMA | 010 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 65 ft | 2,105 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 011 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 65 ft | 2,140 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 012 | standard nonelectric | 62 ft | 106 ft | 2,025 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 017 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 63 ft | 2,355 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 019 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 109 ft | 2,414 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 020 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 109 ft | 2,492 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 021 | standard nonelectric | 71 ft | 106 ft | 1,974 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 022 | standard nonelectric | 41 ft | 57 ft | 1,998 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 023 | standard nonelectric | 51 ft | 57 ft | 1,964 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 025 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 108 ft | 2,038 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 026 | standard nonelectric | 71 ft | 19 ft | 2,206 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 027 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 19 ft | 2,202 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 029 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 112 ft | 2,356 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 031 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 78 ft | 2,379 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 032 | standard nonelectric | 51 ft | 62 ft | 2,371 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 033 | standard nonelectric | 67 ft | 62 ft | 2,318 ft | $26 |
| COMA | 034 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 63 ft | 2,363 ft | $26 |
| MANAGEMENT | 001 | type not stated | 2,847 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 002 | type not stated | 2,839 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 003 | type not stated | 2,862 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 004 | type not stated | 2,838 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 005 | type not stated | 2,789 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 006 | type not stated | 2,432 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 013 | type not stated | 2,017 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 014 | type not stated | 2,081 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 015 | type not stated | 2,147 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 016 | type not stated | 2,272 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 018 | type not stated | 2,298 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 024 | type not stated | 2,046 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 028 | type not stated | 2,334 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 030 | type not stated | 2,286 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | XXX | unnamed record | 45 ft | $26 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It types it MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 35 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Bismark Lake9.8 mi
Oreville CampgroundBlack Hills National Forest · 11 mi
Iron Creek Horse Camp13 mi
Willow Creek Horse CampNorbeck Wildlife Preserve National Game Refuge · 14 mi
Horsethief Lake CampgroundNorbeck Wildlife Preserve National Game Refuge · 16 miIn Custer, SD, at the intersection of Mt. Rushmore Rd (State Rt.89/US Rt.16 and 5th St (State Rt. 89/US Rt. 385), take Rt.16 west 5.8 miles to 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 32°F, day 54°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 15°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
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Comanche Park 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 →