Mount Rushmore KOA Resort at Palmer Gulch Resort — Hotel in Hill City

We rented a cabin for 3 nights here. This was a our 1st time at KOA Mount Rushmore. I grew up passing by this campground always wanting to stay there, so I was excited to book & take my family. Our cabin at first glance had a nice exterior, a porch swing with potted hanging flowers. Interior was a bit dirty. I wiped down the beds and floors myself and my cloth was black. The screened windows were ripped, so my husband had to tape them to keep bugs out. Keep in mind the cabins have no AC so it got very hot during the day even with the windows open. We had to keep our windows open to keep cool at night, but having them open set off our smoke detector from other campers fires around us. It really scared our kids in the middle of the night. They were half asleep and we couldn't get the alarm to shut off. My husband went to the office & they didn't have anyone to send to fix it until the morning. So we had to keep the stupid thing outside. Which kind of defeats the purpose if there actually was a fire. We were offered to switch cabins the next day, but we were not going to risk downgrading our location or possibly being in a worse situation with a different cabin.

Now moving onto the campground bathrooms. I read reviews from 5-6 years ago complaining about black mold. I would've thought by now this would've been resolved. There is STILL black mold years later. It was never fixed. It was disgusting to shower, especially with toddlers, to be surrounded and exposed to mold on the shower curtains, grout and tile. Some of the showers edges, the tile was even cracked and broken which seemed like a hazard if someone slipped on it. For the scale of this campground and walk-through traffic, the bathrooms are not cleaned often enough in a day. The toilet areas were filthy. Sometimes out of toilet paper or toilet paper all over the floors. Hair all over the place. One of the sinks in the women's bathroom was also leaking water all over the floors.

The garbage dumpster near us was overflowing and couldn't even close after a very busy weekend. On our 4th day, it was still untouched. I feel like the maintenance of the campground just wasn't there. If you're staying here in a trailer/your own accommodations with your own bathroom then you're fine.

Now for the good. It is awesome for families and kids. There is so much provided and activities to do. I loved the little shops, restaurants and even horse stables- everything you could ever need is within the campground. Optional pancake breakfast in the mornings. They organized movie nights with popcorn, mini golf, waterslide, live music- it's all fantastic that they do all of this. The event coordinating is 5 stars. You won't get bored here.

If the cleanliness of cabins and bathrooms were improved, this campground would've been the perfect vacation spot for us. I give it 3 stars- 1 for the beautiful location + surroundings, 1 for the services (restaurants/food) and 1 for camp activities.

The office promised to comp a night for us for the inconveniences, but that...

I feel like the reviews for this place are misleading. Manage your expectations a bit people. This isn't a 5 star, all inclusive resort. It's a hotel centered around families with kids. Kids are filthy animals! It's hard to keep every inch of a hotel 110% immaculate all of the time with kids everywhere. The pool might not be perfectly clean, might see a dropped ice cream cone on a sidewalk. Thats what kids do. Your kids won't be the only ones here!||||That being said, we had an absolute blast here! We had a double queen room and everything was great with the room. No it's not anything overly special. But we stayed here with the intention of spending very little time in our room. Basically a place to sleep and shower. It was very clean, the beds were pretty comfy, AC worked great, and the balcony was a nice touch! Plenty of water pressure and hot water in the shower. Ice machine nearby was a life saver too! Wifi was a little finnicky to get to connect, but mostly worked for us. Also worked by the pools when I could get connected.||||This place really is a kid paradise. Two pools, two hot tubs, splash pad, water slide, jump pad, rock climbing, basketball, volleyball, mini golf, two playgrounds. It's got so much to do! Plus other paid (CHEAP) activites too! $3 rootbeer floats were great. Kids made tiedye shirts and it was only ten bucks a kid! Live music in the evenings. We didn't do the horses or bike rentals. We did eat at the restaurant next to the hotel one night and it was pretty good. The location couldn't be better. A few miles from Mt Rushmore. 15 minutes from Keystone, Hill City, and Custer. Plenty of shopping and dining options nearby if you want to get out a bit. Plus TONS of activities in all those cities to explore.||||Any small complaints? Sure. Apple juice was almost always out at the continental breakfast, they were a bit slow to restock most items there. Most hotels have someone there pretty much 100% of the time during breakfast, they did not. We ate there at different times and it was like that every time. But they did stock it up again eventually. Our room never got cleaned during our stay. But I think that's probably for the best considering we had 3 kids' suitcases that essentially exploded in the room. But we were able to get clean towels from the front desk when needed.||||Positives TOTALLY outweigh the negatives. Despite a few small negatives, this place is fantastic! We actually skipped a couple planned activities so the kids could come back to swim and play. A lot of the parents sit at the pools and drink while the kids swim, so don't be shy about bringing a cooler or a drink or two. Nobody was drunk or obnoxious during our stay and we visited both pools. Manage your expectations, and understand that this is part of a LARGE!!! KOA Campground, and that you're sharing the place with a bunch of other people. Know that going in, and you'll have a blast like we did! Still 5...

I feel like the reviews for this place are misleading. Manage your expectations a bit people. This isn't a 5 star, all inclusive resort. It's a hotel centered around families with kids. Kids are filthy animals! It's hard to keep every inch of a hotel 110% immaculate all of the time with kids everywhere. The pool might not be perfectly clean, might see a dropped ice cream cone on a sidewalk. Thats what kids do. Your kids won't be the only ones here!||||That being said, we had an absolute blast here! We had a double queen room and everything was great with the room. No it's not anything overly special. But we stayed here with the intention of spending very little time in our room. Basically a place to sleep and shower. It was very clean, the beds were pretty comfy, AC worked great, and the balcony was a nice touch! Plenty of water pressure and hot water in the shower. Ice machine nearby was a life saver too! Wifi was a little finnicky to get to connect, but mostly worked for us. Also worked by the pools when I could get connected.||||This place really is a kid paradise. Two pools, two hot tubs, splash pad, water slide, jump pad, rock climbing, basketball, volleyball, mini golf, two playgrounds. It's got so much to do! Plus other paid (CHEAP) activites too! $3 rootbeer floats were great. Kids made tiedye shirts and it was only ten bucks a kid! Live music in the evenings. We didn't do the horses or bike rentals. We did eat at the restaurant next to the hotel one night and it was pretty good. The location couldn't be better. A few miles from Mt Rushmore. 15 minutes from Keystone, Hill City, and Custer. Plenty of shopping and dining options nearby if you want to get out a bit. Plus TONS of activities in all those cities to explore.||||Any small complaints? Sure. Apple juice was almost always out at the continental breakfast, they were a bit slow to restock most items there. Most hotels have someone there pretty much 100% of the time during breakfast, they did not. We ate there at different times and it was like that every time. But they did stock it up again eventually. Our room never got cleaned during our stay. But I think that's probably for the best considering we had 3 kids' suitcases that essentially exploded in the room. But we were able to get clean towels from the front desk when needed.||||Positives TOTALLY outweigh the negatives. Despite a few small negatives, this place is fantastic! We actually skipped a couple planned activities so the kids could come back to swim and play. A lot of the parents sit at the pools and drink while the kids swim, so don't be shy about bringing a cooler or a drink or two. Nobody was drunk or obnoxious during our stay and we visited both pools. Manage your expectations, and understand that this is part of a LARGE!!! KOA Campground, and that you're sharing the place with a bunch of other people. Know that going in, and you'll have a blast like we did! Still 5...