Great pix! Even better is that the Barth behaved...

It's been 57 years since I was in the Badlands, so I'm interested in that area.

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They will give a group of 15 - 20 RVs the off- season rate of $38.95 per night plus 10% off for Good Sam members through to May 2nd, not including Memorial Day Weekend.

That's suppose to read June 2nd, My bad.

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the kind words and glad you enjoyed the photos. Spending a week living with Tonka in the Black Hills and getting some photo ops in the bargain was a blast. I missed a few great shots like a burro trying to give Connie a nice slobbery kiss through the car window.

We loved the place and hope to return next summer if work and life give us the chance. We’d be up for a GTG if we can schedule around work and family needs. At 96 years young Mom is thinking she may not be up to it next year.

Tonka really was on her best behavior. Maybe it was the promise of 6 stylish new boots this fall or maybe she was just really happy to finally get the heck out of the driveway for a long drive before winter.

We are truly RV and Black Hills novices. We chose Rafter J Bar because they were a larger facility with a terrifically convenient central location just outside of Hill City close to everything we wanted to visit and on a large RV friendly highway. They also were set up to take care of getting a rental car for us.

We also lean toward scenery and a little extra “cabin in the woods” space around us. The site we had met our needs perfectly. It also helped that it was after Labor Day and we had only a few quiet neighbors. We’ve definitely added Rafter J Bar to our list of favorite places to linger.

They have several completely different types of sites, including the more typical concentrated compact RV sites, more spacious and unshaded pull through’s at the edge of their open meadow and several large clusters of sites in the pines. There’s a fair amount of grade change in the two large pine clusters. We opted for a smaller flat cluster that had some pines and an open sunny area that was easy for even me to back into.

This is a large park organized around a very large central meadow. I think they could easily handle a large GTG but don’t know if the sites might be too spread out to encourage and support the social interaction and camaraderie the GTG’s are known for.

There are site and location maps here.

http://www.rafterj.com/directions-and-map

I’m fairly sure we drove by both Wolf Camp and Horse Thief. I think Horse Thief is near the Highway 385/16 end of the Needles Highway before it turns crazy and heads up into the switchbacks and tunnels. I seem to recall cabins but don’t recall RV sites. I think it was wooded and had a fair amount of grade change.

I think Wolf Creek is on or near the Custer State Park wildlife loop just before the intersection with Iron Mountain Road leading to Mt. Rushmore. If I’m recalling the right park, I think it was a little more open with some grade change.

Many of the roads in and around the area are a lot more fun in a car or on motorcycle than in a Barth or other large RV. Both the Needles Highway and Iron Mountain Road are a very bad idea and really unsafe and unsuitable for any but the smallest RV’s even though the pro’s purportedly drive tour busses on them.

One caveat when it comes to any discussion of RV parks coming from us, as novices we are struggling at finding great spots. Any of these RV parks could be wonderful. We just really liked the specific site we had and found other similarly nice sites scattered around the Rafter J Bar. The additional space that we covet comes at a higher price especially during the peak season. For us it was worth it.

Thanks,
Wally

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City of Spearfishs owned campground, Pavilion

Spearfish is over 50 miles from Rushmore and other attractions while Hill City, SD where Rafter J Bar Ranch, Wolf Camp, Horse Thief Campgrounds are near, is less that ten mile from the same attractions.

Yep. More excited now.....

Lou

We stayed at the park in Spearfish five or six years ago. Very nice place, but also very much in demand. Car clubs, and Motorcycle fans use it quite a bit in the summer. No experience with the other campgrounds mentioned.

2013 Black Hills GTG June 17 to June 20, 2013