South Dakota's RV week starts in the ponderosa pines of the Black Hills, where the evenings end on a shaded pad in Custer State Park and the bison treat the park road as their own. Needles Highway threads granite spires through one-lane tunnels up there, and in a motorhome the width of that rock decides the route more than the map does. East on I-90 the pines give out and the Badlands take over, banded buttes that change color at dawn off the Loop Road.
The Hills and the Badlands make the classic week together, and the Sturgis rally can land right on top of it. Halfway across the state the pace drops off at Pierre, where the Missouri runs wide below Oahe Dam and a family can leave the rig parked by the water and let the river set the days.
Custer State Park, Iron Mountain Road and Mount Rushmore
Custer State Park gives the Hills week its nights, on pine-shaded loops spread through the southern Hills, and the days go to the scenic drives that wind out from them. On Iron Mountain Road the pavement corkscrews through pigtail bridges that loop back over themselves, and the tunnels line up so Mount Rushmore's four faces fill the far end of one. The monument fits in a day out from Custer, and the rig sleeps back in the park.
Blue Bell, Game Lodge and Legion Lake are the park's electric nights, and Blue Bell and Game Lodge each keep a dump station (South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks), so the air runs on summer nights and the tanks get emptied without leaving the park. The tunnels on Needles Highway and Iron Mountain Road carry posted widths and heights, and a family-size motorhome checks them before either road goes on the plan.
The Black Hills RV page goes loop by loop through the park. When Custer is full, the full-hookup parks around Rapid City make a base for the same drives, and the Rapid City RV page covers them.
Badlands Loop Road, Cedar Pass and Wall
Dawn on the Badlands Loop Road lights the banded buttes one layer at a time, and past the overlooks a gravel rim road heads off into the quieter grassland end of the park. Cedar Pass is the campground in the middle of it, and Wall, back on I-90, is the town stop. Nearly every Hills week ends out here, and the Badlands RV page works through Cedar Pass and the rest of the park for a rig.
Sturgis rally week
Every August the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally fills the northern Hills with the rumble of bikes, and the campgrounds around town fill with riders and their rigs. The crowd spreads well beyond Sturgis, so a family Hills week in August competes with the rally for the same motorhomes and the same campground loops, Custer's included. If your dates touch rally week, lock the campground first and book the rig second, and take the rally camping questions to the Sturgis RV page.
Oahe Downstream and Farm Island on the Missouri
Below Oahe Dam the Missouri spreads wide and slow between cottonwood bottoms, and the two state recreation areas near Pierre put the river right at the pad. This is a week for staying put, with the rig plugged in, the kids down at the shoreline, and nobody packing up every morning.
Oahe Downstream Recreation Area has three campgrounds with electrical sites and a dump station. Farm Island Recreation Area has electrical sites and its own dump station and stays open all year, though its water systems may be off from October through April, so a cold-season week there starts with a full fresh tank. Check the site length when you reserve at either one.
In winter the bald eagles move into the cottonwoods below the dam to roost. Oahe Downstream closes campgrounds 1 and 2 to camping from mid-November through late March for them and keeps campground 3 open all year (Game, Fish and Parks, as of October 2026), which makes a cold-weather river week possible with the birds overhead.
A couple who would rather keep rolling downriver to Chamberlain's bluff can make that trip in a smaller rig. Farther down the Missouri, Lewis and Clark Lake backs up behind the dam at Yankton, and the Yankton RV page camps a rig on its Nebraska shore.