South Dakota campgrounds see strong start to season
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — With summer-like temperatures heating up the spring season, the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks (GFP) said they are seeing a great start to the camping season, with many campers out in the state's parks.
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Communications Manager with the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks, Nick Harrington, said the warmer weather is one aspect they can thank for the increase in campers throughout the state.
'That warm weather has put campers in the parks that there is no other way to put it, and that has been great to see, it almost felt like a fake summer, that kind of came that last week of April and a little bit of May,' Harrington said.
Harrington said South Dakota hosts 62 parks and recreation areas with around 30 to 40 of those parks offering ideal camping locations. The total number of parks included 13 state parks and 43 recreation areas.
'I think people saw that forecast, people are out camping and that's just really cool, especially for me to see, you know, we have, you know, 50 to 100 sites available depending on the size of the park,' Harrington said. 'When we checked back Monday morning, pretty much every single one of them or close to was filled.'
Harrington added that parks have seen higher visitation than in previous springs they have had.
'Folks have been out, the campers are out of winterization. The parks have been, I'm not going to say full, but I'm going to say there's been significantly higher visitation than we've seen just based on some of those past springs that we've had,' Harrington said.
Harrington said that the visitation to a lot of the state's campgrounds has been significantly higher than in previous years.
'Overall, when we look at the visitation, we are tracking pretty up. I think we're a couple percentage points up from where we are granted small sample size because that's going to vary by the year and we're not truly into the peak camping season,' Harrington said. 'But when you look at 2022, 2023, and 2024, we've seen gradual 1-3% increases in camping visitation as a whole.'
Harrington said the state parks and recreation areas typically see a 90-day reservation window and they have seen most of their campgrounds and recreation sites stay full, adding they have seen most of their reservations heading into Memorial Day weekend as well as Father's Day weekend.
'Right now, as we stand, we're looking pretty full for Memorial Day, I would anticipate that when you factor in the last-minute pickups and maybe some last-minute cancellations,' Harrington said. 'I would say the vast majority of our parks are probably going to be 95% to 100% capacity.'
He said that residents from in and outside of the state make up the total number of campers.
'So, if you look at somewhere like Custer State Park, we're going to have 20% residents, 80% non-residents, vice versa, a couple of those smaller, I refer to them as hidden gem park, that's going to be a lot of those locals that know this is a great place to get outside town and enjoy a quiet park. It depends on how you like to stay.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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