Roundup Group Horse Camp
5Heads up4 park alerts · 1 fire 48 mi away
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 15 of the next 30 nights read 15:36 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
For groups with or without horses visiting the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Roundup Horse Campground is a great place to stay. Located 12 miles (19 km) from the entrance to the South Unit of the park, the campground is open from May 1 to October 31. Keep reading
Recreation
Hikers and horseback riders can access the estimated 70 miles (113 km) of trails within a short distance of the campground. Visit the Hiking and Trail Information page on the park website or stop at a Visitor Center for more details.
Facilities
Toilets, drinking water and picnic tables are provided at this facility. The site can accommodate tents, trailers and RVs. The site can accommodate up to 20 people with 20 horses or 30 people without horses. There are no hookups or a dump station. Depending on the weather, water may/may not be available during May and October; however a water fill station is available for campers, located in Cottonwood Campground. All wheeled vehicles and trailers must remain on roadways or pads.
Natural Features
The Little Missouri River is the central, unifying feature of this wild and broken land where, as a young man, Theodore Roosevelt ranched and hunted in the 1880s. The park is part of both the Northern Great Plains and the West, blending a rich natural beauty with diverse human history. The rugged topography, with its flora and fauna, also provides an opportunity to discover the badlands environment as Roosevelt once did. It is a place to experience a land and way of life that helped shape Theodore Roosevelt's attitudes and philosophy regarding conservation. Cottonwood trees surrounding the campsite turn golden in the fall.
Nearby Attractions
The town of Medora has shopping, restaurants, amenities and the Medora Musical is located approximately 12 miles to the south. The Little Missouri National Grasslands is the largest National Grassland in the nation at 1.03 million acres. It is located in western North Dakota and is managed by the Medora Ranger District in Dickinson, ND and the McKenzie Ranger District in Watford City, ND. The National Grassland provides additional recreation opportunities in the area.
What the agency tells you
Roundup Group Horse Camp Reservation on-sale date. Reservations for the Roundup Group Horse Camp go on sale the first business day of March at 8:00 a.m. Mountain Time.
Entrance Fee. The park collects a separate park entrance fee of $30 per vehicle. Visitors may pay the fee upon arrival or purchase in advance. The fee is valid for seven days. The park also honors Federal interagency passes (e.g., annual, senior, access, 4th grade, Golden Age pass etc.). For more information visit the park's Fees & Passes web page.
Pass Discounts. Senior and Access pass camping discounts are not valid for group campgrounds.
Everything else this campground posts · 9
Maximum Stay. During the busy season (May 1 through October 31), campers may stay a maximum of 5 nights total in Roundup Horse Campground.
Check-in & Check-out Times. Check-in/out is 12:00 noon
No Showers. There are no shower or laundry facilities located in the park.
Water Availability. Water may not be available in May and October, weather dependent.
Generators. Generator hours are from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Generators must have an effective muffler.
Vehicle (RV) Height over 13 feet (4 m). Trees and branches in the campground may not accommodate vehicles of this height. Camping equipment may experience significant damage for which the NPS is not responsible.
Firewood. Gathering "down and dead" firewood is allowed only in the campground. Firewood is available for purchase in surrounding communities.
Campfires. During hot and dry summer months, fire restrictions are common and campfires (including charcoal fires) may be prohibited.
Don't Move Firewood: Help protect our forests! Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group, 1 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets - year round · Vault Toilets - seasonal
- Drinking water
- Yes
- Dump station
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 5 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Birding
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 15:36 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 15:26 UTC. See them
OpenBookedClosed
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 15:36 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
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 · 5
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 15:26 UTC
- Cottonwood Campground (ND)Theodore Roosevelt National Park · 4.1 mi · 11 of 42 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:36 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| South Unit | Horse Camp | group equestrian | yes | 3,556 ft | $100 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Cottonwood Group Site (ND)Theodore Roosevelt National Park · 3.9 mi
Cottonwood Campground (ND)Theodore Roosevelt National Park · 4.1 mi
Wannagan CampgroundLittle Missouri National Grassland · 5.1 mi
Buffalo Gap Campground (ND)Little Missouri National Grassland · 8.7 mi
Elkhorn CampgroundLittle Missouri National Grassland · 17 mi
Magpie CampgroundLittle Missouri National Grassland · 21 miThe South Unit entrance is in Medora, ND. Medora is accessible via Interstate 94 Exits 24 and 27 in North Dakota. Note exit 27 is westbound exit only.
Medora is 133 miles (214 km) west of Bismarck, ND and 27 miles (43 km) east of the Montana state line.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Medora, ND
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 3°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 · a letter you can send
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Roundup Group Horse Camp is in North Dakota’s at-large congressional district. Its representative, Julie Fedorchak (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 4
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The office that runs itTheodore Roosevelt National ParkNational Park Service unit
- The member who votes the moneyJulie FedorchakU.S. Representative · North Dakota, at-large
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJohn HoevenU.S. Senator · North Dakota
- Your senator, on the same appropriationKevin CramerU.S. Senator · North Dakota
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks the National Park Service to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up, and to post what that share is.
Subject Hold back a share of sites at Roundup Group Horse Camp for campers who drive up
To the National Park Service, Theodore Roosevelt National Park: I tried to camp at Roundup Group Horse Camp in North Dakota and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Roundup Group Horse Camp are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Roundup Group Horse Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m asking for one specific thing: set aside a published share of the sites at Roundup Group Horse Camp as first-come, first-served, and post what that share is so it can be checked. Somebody who drives up has no way in, and no way to find out whether they might have had one. Sent about Roundup Group Horse Camp (Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Roundup Group Horse Camp, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
Dear Julie Fedorchak, I’m a constituent in North Dakota, at-large. I tried to camp at Roundup Group Horse Camp, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Roundup Group Horse Camp are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Roundup Group Horse Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Roundup Group Horse Camp. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Roundup Group Horse Camp (Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Roundup Group Horse Camp, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
Dear John Hoeven, I’m a constituent in North Dakota. I tried to camp at Roundup Group Horse Camp, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Roundup Group Horse Camp are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Roundup Group Horse Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Roundup Group Horse Camp. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Roundup Group Horse Camp (Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Roundup Group Horse Camp, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
Dear Kevin Cramer, I’m a constituent in North Dakota. I tried to camp at Roundup Group Horse Camp, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Roundup Group Horse Camp are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Roundup Group Horse Camp keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Roundup Group Horse Camp. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Roundup Group Horse Camp (Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota) via campanac.com