Iron Creek Horse Camp
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $30From, per site
- Sites
- 9All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Located 13 miles outside Custer, South Dakota, Iron Creek Horse Camp offers a peaceful setting for guests seeking recreation and relaxation in Southeastern South Dakota's Black Hills National Forest. The camp is adjacent to Iron Creek and surrounded by Ponderosa pine forests. Horse enthusiasts will find this setting ideal for exploring wilderness areas and historical sites. 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. Winter landscapes are ideal for snowshoeing, skiing and snowmobiling. From this campground, visitors can access the Centennial Trail, and parts of the Black Elk Wilderness and Norbeck Wildlife Preserve. Trails weave through the wilderness offering primitive, non-motorized recreational experiences.
Facilities
This campground has 9 equestrian sites and corrals that can accommodate to 2-3 horses. Sites have picnic tables, campfire rings with grills, vault toilets and parking areas. Drinking water and electricity are not available. Water tanks specifically for horses are available. Access roads to Iron Creek Horse Camp are curvy and the sites can accommodate rigs up to 50 feet in length. For larger rigs, please use Willow Creek Horse Camp.
Natural Features
Stretching across northeastern Wyoming and western South Dakota, 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 Black Elk Wilderness lies in the center of the Black Hills National Forest in western South Dakota. The wilderness encompasses the Harney Range, an area long held sacred by American Indians. The wilderness is named after Black Elk, a Oglala Lakota holy man, and is the only wilderness in the Black Hills. 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. Mountain lions, although rarely seen, also call this area home. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (661) 702-1420.
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. Nearby riding trails treat users to beautiful views throughout their many miles.
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 10/31st) the USFS operates this campground. Their information is listed below: 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 Daily Fee is $15.00 per First Come First Served campsite of which there are 9 available. Self-Pay at all open campgrounds. The stay limit is 14 days in a 28 day period. 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.
NOTE: Please respect that this campground is designed and constructed with features specifically for stock camper use and the care of their animals, vehicles, and gear. If you are camping without stock, the Forest encourages you to select an alternate site or visit other campgrounds online for additional options.
There are no discounts at this facility. Senior or Access passes are not valid at this facility.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
No drinking water available at this site
These campsites are non-electric sites. Generators may run from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. only.
Sites will accommodate rigs up to a maximum of 50 feet.
The Black Hills National Forest requires the use of certified weed-free feed
A pet fee of $2 per pet per night 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.
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
- 9 · 9 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…tables, campfire rings with grills, vault toilets and parking areas. Drinking water and electricity…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “Drinking water and electricity are not available.”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 38th darkest of 52 in SD
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 3 days ago, 33 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, $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
10 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 9 mapped sitesAll 10 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. 9 of the 10 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| IRON | 001 | equestrian nonelectric | 40 ft | 22 ft | 169 ft | $30 |
| IRON | 002 | equestrian nonelectric | 50 ft | 22 ft | 187 ft | $30 |
| IRON | 003 | equestrian nonelectric | 50 ft | 69 ft | 124 ft | $30 |
| IRON | 004 | equestrian nonelectric | 50 ft | 34 ft | 149 ft | $30 |
| IRON | 005 | equestrian nonelectric | 50 ft | 34 ft | 138 ft | $30 |
| IRON | 006 | equestrian nonelectric | 50 ft | 37 ft | 99 ft | $30 |
| IRON | 007 | equestrian nonelectric | 50 ft | 37 ft | 94 ft | $30 |
| IRON | 008 | equestrian nonelectric | 50 ft | 36 ft | 113 ft | $30 |
| IRON | 009 | equestrian nonelectric | 50 ft | 36 ft | 99 ft | $30 |
| MANAGEMENT | XXX | unnamed record | 50 ft | $30 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Bismark Lake3.3 mi
Grizzly Bear CampgroundNorbeck Wildlife Preserve National Game Refuge · 5.0 mi
Horsethief Lake CampgroundNorbeck Wildlife Preserve National Game Refuge · 5.3 mi
Willow Creek Horse CampNorbeck Wildlife Preserve National Game Refuge · 6.6 mi
Oreville CampgroundBlack Hills National Forest · 8.0 mi
Sheridan Lake South CampgroundBlack Hills National Forest · 10 miTo access the Iron Creek Horse Camp from Custer, travel east on US Highway 16A for approximately 9 miles. Turn left, or north, onto State Highway 87 and travel approximately 6 miles to FSR 345. Turn right, or north, onto FSR 345. Turn left into the campground.
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
Iron Creek Horse Camp 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 →