Cedar Pass Campground — Attraction in Wall

We visited Badlands at the very end of August 2024. The campsite wasn’t perfect, as it felt like we were practically parked on the road. We also had some issues leveling our trailer at site 13. The road crowns in the center and slopes down toward the shoulders, making it quite uneven. Our camper steps were higher off the ground than ever before, with the right side lifted by about 6 inches due to the leveling.

That said, we took it for what it was: a spot right in the middle of all the action.

One thing I didn’t realize beforehand was that this campground is inside the park, meaning you have to pay the park entrance fee to get there. This is probably fine with most people since the main reason to stay here is to visit the park itself.

On the second day, we spent the entire day driving the roads around the park, stopping at viewpoints, and enjoying every moment of our stay. We were even lucky enough to see bison, which was an amazing experience.

Our second night was incredibly eventful. The sky was blue all day until evening, when a thick, heavy, sharply defined line of black clouds rolled in swiftly. In a matter of 15 minutes, it went from clear skies and calm to the windiest, rainiest weather event I’ve ever experienced. We watched the wall of clouds approach as we began packing up camp cautiously, only to find ourselves speeding up as the urgency grew. Soon, the wind was howling. Campers in tents were battered, with their tent walls collapsing under the pressure, the rounded shapes of camper bodies clearly outlined as the wind whipped the fabric around.

I’ll never forget one woman who was so shaken by the storm that she stormed out of her tent, screaming and yelling, furious about what she had just been through. Her husband had a secretly amused look on his face as she hurriedly packed up, tossing blankets and the tent into their car before they sped off in a huff.

Those of us who weathered the storm and stayed were rewarded with a spectacular rainbow over the sculpted rocks of the Badlands and a magnificent sunset on the opposite side.

The site itself is okay, and we’d stay there again just for the location. But the memory that will stay with us is that weather event—the rainbow and the sunset.

Thank you for the unforgettable memories,...

Pay showers that were just disgusting. Slimy floors, dirty, no place to hang clothes and towels. Cold water, are you KIDDING me??

Potable water and dump station for RV fill located in Group Campground. Of course, there are no signs letting you know, so we had to hunt down someone to inform us. One spigot for water, one place to dump. Water hose leaked like a sieve. Ridiculous for a big campground like this.

Mostly side-of-the-road camp sites. Don't open your awning as it will extend into the road. Saw a lot of sites that were muddy and some had standing water in them. Bad situation for tent campers as there are no tent pads to put a tent. Just pitch your tent in the muddy grass.

I think there are only 20 sites that have electric. We booked on the day reservations opened up, so were lucky to snag one.

I'd rather stay at a private campground, which I abhor, then this place. Our friends stayed at Badlands Lodge and Campground 1.5 miles away (full hookups) after they found out the electric site they booked at Cedar Pass in Feb, didn't exist. Overbooked and under-managed by Aramark.

Only nice thing about this campground is the location.

Much nicer place with full hook ups at Badlands Lodge...

We enjoyed our stay at Cedar Pass. We had no problems getting one of the electric sites we booked. We were on the outer side of Agate Loop and we had plenty of room for our 25’ travel trailer and tow vehicle. Even when we disconnected, there was more than enough room between us and our neighboring sites. The campground and bathrooms were very clean and the host was awesome. The blacktop on our site had some pretty good divots clearly from stabilizers and leveling jacks so it took a little time to get us level. There was a lot of room behind us for traffic to pass so that was never a concern. It was amazing to wake up in the park and have it to ourselves first thing in the morning. It was also pretty cool to be here for the sunsets. From the campground, you can walk over to the restaurant/shop at the Lodge and to the visitor’s center. Both were worth checking out.

We could not find it anywhere online or in our email, but check in is 1:00 PM. Before that and the host may not be at the contact station where you’ll receive your site number. There is also a dump station on site with potable water.

We were definitely not...