Gunderson Park — Hotel in Centerville Township

UPDATE

CAMPING IS NOW ONLY ALLOWED BETWEEN MEMORIAL DAY THROUGH LABOR DAY. NO WINTER CAMPING IS ALLOWED ANY LONGER.

Gunderson Park is a nice little boondocking location just ½ mile from the downtown area of Centerville. They have 2 fire pit locations, but, after speaking with the official at city hall we found out you can camp pretty much anywhere in the park you would like.

It is free to camp here, you can stay virtually as long as you wish to according to that same official. There are no hook-ups. No bathroom facilities. No picnic tables. No playground for children. You may fish with a South Dakota license in the lazy rolling Vermillion River that skirts the park on 3 sides. They have a cement boat ramp. I will say when we stayed there the river was so low you would have had great difficulties getting a boat launched. On the west side of the park there are park benches at the beginning (or end of the walk depending on your start location) with a cemented walk way along the road to the park and the Vermillion River. It runs close to a quarter mile long with benches about half way through the walk. The city keeps this park mowed during the summer months. This is an old old park dating back to 1800's. The trees are massive and just as old providing beautiful shade. There are remnants of old stone items remaing in the park, grape vine thingy, a stone fireplace and pillars. Our stay favored us with Bald Eagle sightings. 2 hung around the trees on the other side of the river in full view, it was wonderful.

At the city park you can dump your tanks. We didn't need to so we didn't visit this location. At the four way stop sign located at the center of the town, turn west, travel one block and on the south side of the street you will find city hall. There they will tell you how to find the dump site.

This seems to be a favorite location for locals to drive through. Sometimes we found traffic through the park on the heavy side but most of the time very quiet. People are small town friendly. Population is around 900 people. Town has a grocery store, convenience store, bank, medical clinic, pharmacy, restaurant, bowling alley, auto parts store, bakery and other businesses. We noticed 4 churches in our drive around the town. At the city park they have a community swimming pool, Frisbee golf, 2 ball diamonds, tennis courts, playground equipment, volleyball courts, 2 picnic house areas and a location for 4 RV campsites with electrical plug ins [2 50 amp and 2 30 amp) for $10.00 a night with...

Gunderson Park is a lovely little park where we like to walk the dog around. There is a boat launch area, however, the drought this year has made the river very low so this year is not the best time to enjoy the river, sadly. I think the park could be improved with a couple trash cans and maybe picnic tables but it is really nice as is. I plan to go camping there at some point as well. It is really nice with very mature trees in the area and a few benches. It looks like some new trees have been planted so in a few years those will be lovely and helpful for shade...

What a great place for free camping! I stayed here in mid October on my way to and from Western South Dakota. It sits right outside the nice small town of Centerville. The road to the park was just recently repaved. I car camped in my Jeep. There was a small blue sign at the entrance saying camping was only from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Nobody gave me any issues. Took a quick drone shot before I left. Zebra King donuts in town are...