Spearfish City Campground — Hotel in Spearfish

Didn't even start off good. When I called to make reservations it took forever to get ahold of someone. Why they don't do website reservations and confirmations is beyond me. Second once I finally got someone to answer the phone I made my reservations. Was told I was in site 38, I confirmed this a second time when I called back at a later date to make a tent reservation for some extended family Was glad for this because it's a longer space then we have been before so we were looking forward to more space. When we got there at about 5pm the girl told me we were in site 27. A shorter one. More aggrevating the people camping in site 38 only had a pickup with an in-bed camper. They didn't need this space. My camper alone is 32 feet. To top it off our second day there several people had left. Including the people next to us. My sister-enlarged had parked in front of the campers hitch to load her stuff from the camper because she was not staying again the second night. So I parked my pickup in the spot next to us and planned to move it right back. It wasn't even there for 10 mine and a young girl on a golf cart came pulling in and walked up to my sister enlaw and demanded the pickup be moved now. I was in the middle of cooking at our outside kitchen. When I heard her say that I tried calling out to her n asking if it can sit there for just another 10 min as I finished cooking and my sister enlaw was about to leave. The girl wasn't having any of it and drove off without even acknowledging me as I was trying to talk to her. I left the pickup there for about another 5 min as I finished cooking everyone's hamburgers and hot dogs. She again came back, parked in the space next to the space my truck was in and waited till I moved. So I moved it. I was expecting some camper to be waiting for their space. Nope! About 6 hours later someone showed up. Sure was a rush. Even more interesting a group behind us had a party of people at their site. 3 vehicles total. 1 of theirs parked in the space next to them. They never got talked to that I saw. The vehicle sat in the space for 3 hours before finally an elderly man with a camper came to the spot and needed them to move cuz it was his spot. Let's just say we won't be back. I've camped there twice. NEVER AGAIN. I enjoy camping and that part was relaxing. But the workers by far...

Negative experience with Hatchery volunteers at camp site.

Due to having fewer volunteers at the hatchery than in past years, campground personnel rented to us one of the sites ordinarily reserved for volunteers. In checking in, we were told we had access to the community firepit since our site - V9, did not have a fire ring. We chose to make a fire in the vacant firepit last night at about 8:30 pm, and with our own wood. I want to also note that during our last 5 nights here, we had not seen a fire burning there.

Almost immediately after starting the fire, one of the volunteer/ campers came out of his RV and asked why we were on private property. He asked for my name, took my picture, and in an apparent attempt to intimidate me, gave me his business card showing him as head of some small nonprofit organization in ND that I was apparently supposed to be impressed with. He also took a picture of my wife, as well as the license plate on our vehicle.

He indicated we had no business being there and that he would fix it the next day with the office. His neighbor on the other side of the firepit came out to confront us as well. After all this fun, we let the small fire burn down and got out of there as quickly as we could. Needless to say, the rest of our night was ruined.

We thought maybe the city had not communicated to these volunteers, what they shared with us regarding joint use by all campers, paying or volunteering, but later learned that is not the case. His classic bully tactics upset my wife and we both were made to feel very unwelcome.

The actions of one of the volunteers, with support by his neighbor, were not what you'd expect from someone who supposedly leads a small non profit organization, and who stays at the campground free of financial cost by volunteering a few hours a week at the adjacent fish hatchery. I received a follow up call from a USFWS staff member the next day, but it felt like an obligatory check box, more than anything. He said he'd speak with the volunteers and "probably end up somewhere in the middle", and gave me no indication of what he would do with the info. Oh well.

We still love the campground and their staff - as locals who have stayed here frequently. They have bent over backwards to help us many times. But I can honestly say we have no intentions of camping...

Beautiful campground and close to everything. The campground was clean, grass well kept and cut, and all workers were friendly and happy. It has a paved walking/running/bicycle trail around the park that also crossed Spearfish Creek and runs for at least a couple of miles. Next door was the city park with a playground and many activities available and the DC Booth National Historic Fish Hatchery. Critters everywhere (the good kind LOL). Also within walking (1 mile or less) distance was the downtown area with restaurants (Chinese, Mexican, American, Japanese, Steak, you name it), bars, coffee houses, and more. All this and a simple drive to Sturgis, Devil's Tower, and the absolutely beautiful Spearfish Canyon. This campground was more like a state park than any city campground I have ever stayed in. The "Only" reason for giving it 4 stars, was the bathroom/shower area. They could really up the ante on cleaning. Looked like they did a basic cleaning daily, like toilet, floor, sinks and shower floors. But, there were the same spiders and webs in all corners and ceilings for five days. I literally counted five spiders every day in one stall. Again, the bathroom was cleaned, but how hard would it be to run a broom up the wall/corners and ceiling? WiFi was MEH, if that is important to you it could be a problem. Lastly. Don't buy your ice at the office. I did "ONCE". A 16 pound bag of ice was $8, but anywhere downtown it was $4 or less for the same size. I would definitely stay again and recommend this...