Mount Rushmore KOA/Pulmer Gulch Resort

As many of my followers know, our family recently returned from our yearly family vacation to South Dakota. We had a fantastic time full of laughs, great weather, adventures, and memories to last a lifetime!  One of the things that helped this was our stay at the Pulmer Gulch Resort/Mount Rushmore KOA.

Finding the Right Campground

Since the boys (all 3) and myself are campers, we knew we wanted to stay at a great campground. We also knew it would need to be a KOA since those are our favorite for long stays due to full-hook ups (water and sewer at the site).  We are also KOA members, which means a discount! (WOOHOO!) We started researching and were pleased to find that there are numerous KOA facilities within South Dakota.  T did the majority of the research, I must admit, but did a fantastic job and decided on the Mount Rushmore KOA at Palmer Gulch in Hill City, SD for our visit.  He made a great choice!  Why so great?  Here are our pro’s & con’s from our visit!

Cons

I’m actually starting with the cons because there are just a few of them.

• Cell Service – we know this is not the campgrounds fault (at all), but none of us had any cell service while we were on grounds.  Not their fault, but also not convenient.  It helped us to “unplug”, but since we were traveling with others staying somewhere else…not the best situation, but we made it work the old fashioned way (decided on times, locations, etc hours ahead).
• WiFi – we were excited when we saw WiFi as an amenity to their facility, but were disappointed that the WiFi never actually worked with our devices while we were there…like never…not even a minute.  We had several devices to try (iPads, iPhones, iPods, Android, & Kindle) and it would never connect or it would tell us that the login page was down.  Frustrating as we could have used Facebook messenger to communicate with the outside world.
• Garbage Trucks & Car Wash – while the campground offers car rental and garbage pickup (at each site), it was horribly disappointing when we discovered that this all started between 6:30AM and 7AM.  It didn’t help that we were on the very end closest to the resort lodge because that meant all this happened by our heads at the time we were trying to sleep!

Pros –

As you will be able to tell, the pros far out weigh the few cons.

• Check-In Ease – the check-in process was incredibly smooth and we were provided with all the details and information we would need.
• Camp Sites – one thing we thought was great was that each camp site was provided a cement patio and patio furniture.  Ours was complete with a table and 4 chairs, which was much better than a traditional picnic table.  We were also pleased to find our site incredibly level (important to campers). It was also complete with our water, sewer, and cable TV hook-ups, which all worked great!

  

• Amenities – Holy amenities does this place have it covered!!  We enjoyed the water slide, jumping pillow, bike rental, splash pad, playground equipment, miniature golf, basketball court, sand volleyball court, 2 pools, and giant checkers!  There was so much we didn’t take advantage of either because of our time frame like horseback riding, chuck-wagon dinners, and the scheduled bonus activities (although R did enjoy playing basketball with an NBA player)!  Whew!  There was so much!!
• Turtle Town – When driving on to the grounds of the resort you almost felt as though you were in a small village in itself.  Turtle Town was a great draw for families and individuals.  There you could pet the horses, sample wine & fudge (as well as purchase them) and shop for quaint gifts.  Come home with clean laundry from their small laundry mat.  If you didn’t feel like cooking, you could order pizza, wings, & ice cream from their restaurant.  And yum, the ice cream was so delicious!  In fact, my Heath Supreme sundae was so good, I completely forgot to take a picture!  There was another restaurant on site, but we never did visit it, although the view from the cliff was amazing, I’m sure!

  

• Non-Campers – If you’re not a camper, don’t worry.  They have several cabins available for rent that come complete with kitchenettes, bedrooms, and air conditioning.  If that is still a bit more rustic than you would like, check out Pulmer Gulch Lodge.  We never did venture in it, but from the pictures, it’s fantastic. It also has a restaurant on site, so no need to worry about where you’re going to get your next meal!
• The Registration Lodge – just like all KOA campgrounds, this Registration Lodge did not disappoint.  Not only was it beautiful, but also helpful.  The people were helpful…the large array of pamphlets was helpful and their “general store” was fully stocked and then some.  We purchased a few items from it throughout the week and we are grateful it was there!

  

• Manicured Grounds –  I was thoroughly impressed with the grounds staff here!  Everything mowed very well and lined with flowers, which were magnificent!
• Comfort Stations – I love that they call their bathroom/shower houses Comfort Stations!  Sounds so much nicer, doesn’t it?  And the name fits the facility!  Tile lined showers with separate doors, etc made these bathrooms extra nice!

Conclusion

Overall, we had a fantastic stay at the Mount Rushmore KOA.  It is a bit further into the mountains than most resorts, which was ok once we got our bearings about us and it is most definitely easy access to most places in the Black Hills like Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park, Needles Highway, & Crazy Horse!  If you’re planning a trip to South Dakota, we definitely recommend you give the Mount Rushmore KOA a try! You can also connect with KOA on social media!  Follow them on Twitter, Instagram, & Facebook!