Grizzly Bear Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $26From, per site
- Sites
- 18All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
This campground lies beneath a canopy of oak and Ponderosa pine on the banks of Grizzly Creek. The site has retained much of its original Civilian Conservation Corps character, and offers visitors recreation and relaxation in Black Hills National Forest. Located along the Iron Mountain Road, it is between Mount Rushmore National Memorial and Custer State Park. A pavillion built by the Civilian Conservation Corps still stands and is available for use by campers. Keep reading
Recreation
Black Hills National Forest offers visitors a multitude of recreational opportunites throughout all seasons. Hiking, fishing, horseback riding, mountain biking, and riding off-highway vehicles are popular in summer and early autumn. The winter landscape is ideal for snowshoeing, skiing and snowmobiling. From a nearby trailhead, visitors can access the Centennial Trail and parts of the Black Elk Wilderness and Norbeck Wildlife Preserve. Trails weave through the wilderness for a primitive, non-motorized recreation experience. 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.
Facilities
Due to tight, sharp turns, towing vehicles is prohibited in this campground. This includes vehicles pulling trailers and fifth-wheels, motorhomes pulling vehicles, and vehicles pulling pop-up campers. Vehicles up to 24 feet maximum are allowed. No overflow parking available. The campground has picnic tables, campfire rings, vault toilets, and drinking water. Electrical hook-ups are not available. Firewood is available for a fee.
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. This campground is located in the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve and is close to the Black Elk Wilderness, South Dakota's only designated wilderness area. This area encompasses the Harney Range, an area long held sacred by American Indians. 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
A short 2 miles away is the fabulous Mount Rushmore National Memorial, which hosts almost 3 million visitors a year. This campground is located on the scenic Iron Mountain Rd. with its famous CCC built Pigtail Bridges and tunnels for breathtaking views of Mt. Rushmore. 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
This campground is NOT open during the off season!
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 serve basis
Everything else this campground posts · 6
This is a tent friendly site but will also handle RV types up to 24' but NOTHING TOWED
A pet fee of $2 per pet per night is required upon check in. Pets must be on a leash, controlled, 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. This fee is payable to the camp host upon arrival
- 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.
Firewood is available for a fee
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
- 18 · 17 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 54 ft
- Paved pads
- 1 of 18
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…has picnic tables, campfire rings, vault toilets, and drinking water. Electrical hook-ups are not…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…campfire rings, vault toilets, and drinking water. Electrical hook-ups are not available. Firewood is…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 44th darkest of 52 in SD
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 3 days ago, 25 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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 · 15
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
rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
20 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 19 mapped sites2 sites share one published coordinate and are left out of the rankings.
All 20 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 20 of the 20 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. 17 of the 20 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 01 | tent only nonelectric | 54 ft | yes | 22 ft | 22 ft | 98 ft | $26 |
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 02 | tent only nonelectric | 32 ft | 22 ft | 39 ft | 76 ft | $26 | |
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 03 | tent only nonelectric | 22 ft | 33 ft | 54 ft | 32 ft | $26 | |
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 04 | tent only nonelectric | 22 ft | 33 ft | 72 ft | 34 ft | $26 | |
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 05 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 39 ft | 55 ft | 46 ft | $26 | |
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 06 | tent only nonelectric | 32 ft | 44 ft | 46 ft | 87 ft | $26 | |
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 07 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 44 ft | 32 ft | 126 ft | $26 | |
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 09 | tent only nonelectric | 39 ft | 27 ft | 36 ft | 312 ft | $26 | |
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 10 | tent only nonelectric | 42 ft | 27 ft | 62 ft | 319 ft | $26 | |
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 11 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 31 ft | 76 ft | 379 ft | ||
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 12 | tent only nonelectric | 35 ft | 31 ft | 105 ft | 370 ft | $26 | |
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 13 | tent only nonelectric | 38 ft | 31 ft | 144 ft | 363 ft | $26 | |
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 14 | day use | 30 ft | 31 ft | 175 ft | 376 ft | $26 | |
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 15 | tent only nonelectric | 28 ft | 96 ft | 216 ft | 164 ft | $26 | |
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 16 | tent only nonelectric | 38 ft | 281 ft | 259 ft | $26 | ||
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 17 | tent only nonelectric | 28 ft | 281 ft | 259 ft | $26 | ||
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 18 | tent only nonelectric | 38 ft | 100 ft | 153 ft | 105 ft | $26 | |
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 19 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 29 ft | 13 ft | 168 ft | $26 | |
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 20 | tent only nonelectric | 28 ft | 29 ft | 34 ft | 144 ft | $26 | |
| GRIZZLY CREEK | Site 8 (Host Site) | host pad | 45 ft | 68 ft | 132 ft |
The agency files 2 more records here that aren’t sites for the night: 1 it files as day use and 1 it names a host pad. 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
Horsethief Lake CampgroundNorbeck Wildlife Preserve National Game Refuge · 2.6 mi
Iron Creek Horse Camp5.0 mi
Willow Creek Horse CampNorbeck Wildlife Preserve National Game Refuge · 5.1 mi
Sheridan Lake South CampgroundBlack Hills National Forest · 6.1 mi
Sheridan LakeBlack Hills National Forest · 6.9 mi
Sheridan North Cove Grp CGBlack Hills National Forest · 7.2 miFrom Keystone, South Dakota, take Route 16A west 1.9 miles to campground on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Keystone, SD
Typical weather
Typical October night 37°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 18°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
Grizzly Bear Campground 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 →