Wild Bill's Campground, Saloon and Grill

The Great Outdoors

Camping at Wild Bill’s Campground, Saloon and Grill is a good base for visiting the Black Hills National Forest, which lies along South Dakota’s border with Wyoming. It sprawls across more than one million acres. It encompasses Black Elk Peak - the tallest mountain in South Dakota - as well as large tracts of ponderosa pine forest and grassland prairie. You can spot wildlife while driving along the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway or explore the magnificent Black Elk Wilderness, then stretch your legs on a hike to the Roughlock Falls, which plunges into Spearfish Canyon.Directly south of Black Elk Peak is Custer State Park, which was the first state park to be established in South Dakota. It’s renowned for its immense herd of around 1,500 free-roaming bison, as well as the Badger Clark Historic Site, which protects the former home of South Dakota’s first poet laureate. Begin your visit at the heritage-listed Peter Norbeck Center, which features a range of exhibits detailing the park’s natural history and cultural heritage. Then follow one of the scenic drives that access a series of lookouts where you can spot the bison herd, together with white-tailed deer, mountain goats, and bighorn sheep.Continue driving south in the Deadwood motorhome rental, and you’ll arrive at the Wind Cave National Park, which is renowned for its underground cave system. Sections can be explored on guided tours, with their walls adorned in calcite formations known as boxwork. Above ground, the surrounding prairie and pine forests are home to a variety of wildlife, including elk and pronghorn antelopes, with sweeping views across the Black Hills on offer from the Rankin Ridge Trail.

Exploring the City

Wild Bill's Campground, Saloon and Grill is a 15-minute drive from Deadwood, where you’ll find a supermarket for stocking up on supplies and a gas station if you need to fill up your RV rental. There’s also a couple of saloon-style eateries here where you can grab a bite to eat.Deadwood is renowned for its gold rush history, with a handful of museums and attractions where you can take a step back in time. Stop in at the Adams Museum, which was established by local businessman W.E. Adams in 1930 to preserve the local history and features a massive gold nugget and a plesiosaur fossil. Also worth visiting is the Days of ’76 Museum, where some of Deadwood’s first pioneers (including prospectors, miners, and madams) are honored. You can pay your respects at the graves of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane within the Mount Moriah Cemetery or admire the Victorian-period rooms of Historic Adams House.If you want to tour a former gold mine, head to the Broken Boot Gold Mine on the southern edge of Deadwood. Follow the path of the ore cars deep underground as you walk in the footsteps of the miners who came to find their fortune here more than 100 years ago. Learn how mining was conducted using dynamite and picks, then try your hand at gold panning.Continue driving south, and you’ll arrive in the town of Lead, which is home to the Black Hills Mining Museum. It celebrates the rich mining heritage of the region, with exhibits exploring its ethnic history and the life of miners. Admire the vintage mining equipment and everyday artifacts on display, then join the simulated mine tour. Also in Lead is the Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center, which is situated adjacent to the 1,250-foot-deep Homestake Gold Mine. Browse the exhibits that explain how the old mine shafts are now being used for physics research, then practice your swing while hitting golf balls into the mine’s seemingly bottomless pit from the center’s observation deck.Whether you want to witness the bison herds of South Dakota or discover the gold mining heritage of Deadwood, book an RV in Lawrence County and start planning your next vacation.