Settling in the Black Hills of South Dakota made it difficult to find a campground that was centrally located. We planned a two week stay so we knew we wanted to be in a good location and that was most important for us. The area is gorgeous and has so much to see and do: Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Badlands National Park, Custer State Park, too many lakes to count (including Sylvan Lake and Legion Lake), and so much more.
We settled in at Heartland RV Park and Cabins in Hermosa and on night one, we got a little worried. We pulled in at dinner time with nothing in the RV to cook. There are no grocery stores nearby and at first glance, no restaurants. Luckily, the nice ladies working the front desk at Heartland told us about a little pizza place right down the street. I went in assuming I would need to order a salad, not thinking a small local pizza shop would have a Gluten Free option. I. Was. Wrong. And, it was the best Gluten Free pizza I’ve ever eaten. I ate the Buffalo Chicken Gluten Free Pizza and it was mind blowing. The combination of celery, Frank’s hot sauce, and ranch was perfectly balanced and I loved how big the chunks of celery were. Most buffalo chicken pizzas say they have celery on them and that’s a lie. You can never taste it. There’s never enough. They used large chunks of celery that you could actually taste and know you were eating. It was phenomenal.
After spending 2 weeks here, we definitely picked a great area to be in as it is right near Custer State Park which is the gateway to everything in this area. The campground was very muddy from the rain and our site was washing out underneath our camper (to the point our platform to raise the sewer hoses off the ground floated away). While they can’t totally control that, they could have helped some if the clay dirt underneath was built up more. They do their best to help as best they can by using a softball field drag to level out the clay/dirt/gravel, but it is still very muddy.
The bath house and laundry facilities are both great. I love campgrounds with individual locking rooms at the bathhouse instead of just a curtain to pull. This is a huge perk to me and I’m always excited when campgrounds have personal shower stalls. Water pressure and hot water were both fantastic.
They have a pool and hot tub as well, but the hot tub was always full of kids – kind of a bummer since hot tubs are for relaxing. We never got the chance to use the hot tub and we even waited 45 minutes for some people to get out, but they stayed in even though we were waiting.
While it isn’t quite built yet, it is worth noting for those looking to go here in the future, they have a rec center under construction. They say it will include a fitness center and other amenities. I’m sure this will be great when it is built as their other facilities are great.
Freeway Gypsy 