Camping in the Black HIlls

When we visit the Black Hills area we like to camp there. Our favorite place to camp is Custer State Park. This is a beautiful state park that has several wonderful campgrounds. Each of their campgrounds has a different personality some are better for children and some are better for people who like it quite. Most of their campgrounds do have modern bathrooms and they have been adding to electric to sites that allow campers and there is water near by.

We tend to like Sylvan Lake. Sylvan was in the movie National Treasure 2. It is not right behind Mount Rushmore as shown in the movie but several miles away (about 25 miles by the road I think) and a granite mountain in between.

This is a peaceful and quite campground that is at the west end of Needles Highway. While it is called Sylvan Lake Campground it is not on Sylvan Lake but very near it on the other side of the road. While it is next to the road you do not have to look at the road because there is a line of trees between the campground and the road. This line of trees also blocks a lot of the road noise.



One of things we like about this campground is that Sylvan is that we can walk over to the lake to fish or walk the trails. The Lake is small enough that you can fish it without a boat or enjoy a leisurely walk around it.


There is always lots of wildlife near by once we had a young stag on the trail next to us while Randy and Jeff were fishing. Randy even caught a trout this year! Too bad we didn't get a picture of him and his fish. Late one morning we had several deer eating at the entrance to the campground and next to our campsite.



Another thing the guys like to do is rock climb. This year we didn't go rock climbing but Sylvan Lake has a lot of wonder areas for all levels of rock climbers and even has a rock climbing school that can supply gear and guides.

Sylvan Lake Campground does not have many planned activities like some of the other campground in the park this does not bother us. One of our favorite things to do after dark is to look at the stars. Because there are few lights you can see many stars and other sky objects with just your eyes or binoculars. We even saw several of the satellites, the space station orbiting and a few meteors.