Oreville Campground
1Heads up1 fire 24 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $26From, per site
- Sites
- 2416 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Located 4 miles south of Hill City, South Dakota, Oreville Campground is a delightful setting for guests seeking recreation and relaxation in Black Hills National Forest. The sites are nestled on a hillside among aspen groves, towering ponderosa pines, and grassy areas. Many of the campsites are spacious, offering guests a sense of privacy. The campground is centrally located along Highway 16/385 just north of Crazy Horse Monument with easy access to most Black Hills attractions. Keep reading
Recreation
The forest offers recreation opportunities for all ages and abilities. Guests can take advantage of opportunities for hiking, fishing, horseback riding, mountain biking, and riding off-highway vehicles (OHVs) on moderate terrain. Hundreds of miles of trails and roads offer a variety of terrain for mountain bikers. Hikers and bikers can access the nearby George S. Mickelson Trail, which traverses over 100 miles through the heart of the Black Hills. The majority of the trail follows an abandoned railroad branch line and includes 4 tunnels, over 100 converted railroad bridges, and 15 established trailheads. The trail surface is packed gravel, traversing mountain, meadow, and forest terrain. The trail is named in honor of the former South Dakota governor who crusaded for the trail. 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 at the top(Harney Lookout Tower), once used as a fire lookout, is still open to hikers.
Facilities
Oreville Campground has sites able to accommodate tents, trailers, and RVs. The campground has picnic tables, campfire rings, vault toilets, and drinking water. 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
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. Other possible day trips include Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Custer State Park, Crazy Horse Monument and Wind Cave National Park. 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 closes for the season on October 1st.
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 · 4
A pet fee of $2 per pet per night is required upon check in
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.
- 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 24
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 82 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
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. Natural…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 35th darkest of 52 in SD
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 2 days ago, 37 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 16 of the 24 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 · 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
rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
26 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 14 mapped sitesAll 26 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 22 of the 26 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. 24 of the 26 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.
| MANAGEMENT | 002 | type not stated | 518 ft | 332 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 013 | type not stated | 1,074 ft | 213 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 016 | type not stated | 676 ft | 267 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 017 | type not stated | 747 ft | 147 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 018 | type not stated | 749 ft | 172 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 019 | type not stated | 813 ft | 64 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 020 | type not stated | 871 ft | under 10 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | H1 | type not stated | 487 ft | 404 ft | $26 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | XXX | unnamed record | 99 ft | $26 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | XXX11 | unnamed record | $26 | ||||
| OREV | 003 | standard nonelectric | 49 ft | 40 ft | 554 ft | 274 ft | $26 |
| OREV | 004 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 40 ft | 581 ft | 236 ft | $26 |
| OREV | 005 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 90 ft | 649 ft | 152 ft | $26 |
| OREV | 006 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 91 ft | 776 ft | 79 ft | $26 |
| OREV | 007 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $26 | |||
| OREV | 008 | standard nonelectric | 78 ft | 47 ft | 808 ft | 196 ft | $26 |
| OREV | 009 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | $26 | |||
| OREV | 010 | standard nonelectric | 72 ft | 47 ft | 829 ft | 160 ft | $26 |
| OREV | 011 | standard nonelectric | 71 ft | 108 ft | 942 ft | 261 ft | $26 |
| OREV | 012 | standard nonelectric | 82 ft | 108 ft | 1,050 ft | 333 ft | $26 |
| OREV | 014 | standard nonelectric | 135 ft | 820 ft | 266 ft | $26 | |
| OREV | 015 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 135 ft | 705 ft | 381 ft | $26 |
| OREV | 021 | standard nonelectric | 51 ft | 54 ft | 904 ft | 118 ft | $26 |
| OREV | 022 | standard nonelectric | 51 ft | 54 ft | 926 ft | 98 ft | $26 |
| OREV | 023 | standard nonelectric | 78 ft | 34 ft | 953 ft | 196 ft | $26 |
| OREV | 024 | standard nonelectric | 61 ft | 34 ft | 981 ft | 213 ft | $26 |
The agency files 2 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It types every one of them MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
25 of 26 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Willow Creek Horse CampNorbeck Wildlife Preserve National Game Refuge · 4.4 mi
Horsethief Lake CampgroundNorbeck Wildlife Preserve National Game Refuge · 6.7 mi
Iron Creek Horse Camp8.0 mi
Bismark Lake8.1 mi
Grizzly Bear CampgroundNorbeck Wildlife Preserve National Game Refuge · 9.0 mi
Sheridan Lake South CampgroundBlack Hills National Forest · 9.4 miIn Hill City, SD, at intersection of East Main St. (US Rt. 16) and Deerfield Rd. (County Rt. 308), take US Rt. 16 south 5.2 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 Hill City, SD
Typical weather
Typical October night 28°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 10°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
Oreville 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 →