Fort Robinson State Park, Crawford, Nebraska
The 'Gateway to the Black Hills', wonderful camp sites, patrolled by the State Park 24 hours, activities for the Family from Olympic Swimming Pool to Horse Back riding.
If the prices for Black Hills RV Parks are too pricey... check here. You go to Toadstool Park north of Crawford into Toadstool State Park for the same Badlands as in South Dakota, but you can climb around and walk anywhere you want in the park. Go a bit further and there are Badlands on BLM Lands.
If you are not bashful... great Off the Grid camping on National Grasslands... but you find them, as I do not want to ruin it for those who actually had to do some research prior to their trip.
You can see the Black Hills from Toadstool... Hot Springs, SD. Go to the Mammoth exhibit that was discovered when someone wanted to build a motel and found a former hot spring that mammoths entered and could not get out... They built a building over it and it is a Natural Wonder.
Hot Springs, SD has a huge swimming pool complex.
You can commute to the Black Hills from Fort Robinson to see Deadwood, Devils Tower outside Newcastle, WY and avoid the crowds. Locals go to the Casinos in Deadwood and a lot going on on the main street. Crazy Horse Monument is on the way to Rushmore, as well.
There are 'some' National Forest campsites in the south end of the Black Hills...if you can find them on a map. We parked our 23 foot there on this sliver of National Forest 22 years ago, but never marked it on the map. Only if you are... adventurous. Otherwise... go conventional.
Been going out there since I had a driver's license in
1965, learner's permit with a licensed driver in my
1956 VW and we would camp out for a week or two collecting fossils on local Ranches... which now... no longer accessible.
Love this area. There are so many places to see in this part of the country and many places like Agate Fossil Beds, Captain James Cook's Indian museum now National Park and on and on. Chief Red Cloud. Crazy Horse was murdered at Fort Robinson in 1877 and there is now the location is marked with a restored jail. This entire large area is a former Cavalry Fort and you can rent cabins or rooms. Water, restaurant, weekend melodrama... full hookups, horses, hiking...
Some days at Devils Tower you may find climbers. They will camp on top overnight.
The Black Hills have many sites... large parking lot at Crazy Horse Monument with a trailer in tow. Cool evenings. Dry air. If there is anything I missed... it is because someone else may have mentioned it.
If a picture is worth a 'thousand words'... the area from Agate, Nebraska to Sturgis, South Dakota will take a life time to know it well.
When all is well and done... the Bighorn Mountains will test your brakes and nerve. Have fun. You will return... over and over.