The granite peaks and rolling plains are calling. The clear mountain waters are inviting and the open ranges are waiting to be discovered. Bring your family to Custer State Park and let yourself run wild.
Encompassing 71,000 acres in the Black Hills, Custer State Park is home to abundant wildlife and adventure; camping, hiking, biking, swimming, fishing, or relaxing, there’s something here for everyone.
Feeding and disturbing park wildlife is against park regulations. While the animals within the park are used to visitors and vehicles, they are still wild animals. Please remain in your vehicle or stay at least 100 yards from bison, elk, and other animals.
Pets must be on a leash no longer than 10 feet and are not allowed in any park buildings or on designated swim beaches. Please clean up after your pet and do not leave it unattended. Service animals are welcome.
Firearms must be unloaded and cased unless during a hunting season with the proper license. Concealed carry is allowed with the appropriate permit.
The new Custer State Park Visitor Center is open year-round is a great start to your adventure.
Take a break from the Wildlife Loop road to appreciate the Wildlife Station Visitor Center.
The Peter Norbeck Outdoor Education Center is a perfect opportunity to catch an educational program or just take the opportunity to play and explore.
Custer State Park encompasses 71,000 acres of rolling prairie hills and stunning granite spires within the Black Hills. It is the crown jewel of the state park system. The park is planning to build a new interpretive, information center in the southern end of the park focused solely on one of the biggest draws to the park, the bison herd. The center would include how the bison are uniquely managed within the park, the history of the herd, the genetics within the herd, and our biggest event each year, the Buffalo Roundup and Auction.
The bison corral complex often sees visitors stopping, trying to understand the complex. Having a center for them to visit will give them a destination and not just a spot to stop and turn around. The Bison Center will attract the buses that frequent the area, as well as the Safari Jeep Tours ran through our concessionaire in the park. There is no better place to tell this story. The most engaging exhibits, centers and programs in the park are ones that could not be located anywhere else; they are a mixture of real places, objects, stories and people. The corrals are very location where our bison story began and continues today.
By creating another piece of the story of Custer State Park, it allows visitors the opportunity to come back and learn more about the park. Visitors often learn that we have bison and that we round them up each year, but this center gives the park the ability to tell much more of that enriched story of our bison herd and will give visitors the opportunity to dive deeper and learn more about the country’s national mammal.
The bison center provides the park a physical location for the story of our bison. This frees up space in our other visitor center and allows the center to tell a broader story of the park. This will provide more encompassing information to our visitors.
Custer State Park has a corral complex within the park boundary that gets utilized twice a year. During the annual Buffalo Roundup and when the park works the entire bison herd to get them ready for Custer State Park’s annual auction, where the park sells a portion of the herd, in November.
The other 10 months of the year, the corral complex sits empty, but visitation to that area is constant. There is car and bus traffic that pulls into the corral complex daily, but visitors have no idea what it is, or why it is in the park.
The bison center would address that need to the park’s 1.9 million visitors each year, explaining how the Custer State Park utilizes the corral area, along with the significance of the bison herd, being one the largest public herd in the North America. This new center would allow the park to tell the story of the bison herd. How Custer State Park actively manages the herd, compared to other public bison herds in the country. Through interpretive displays, the building would also tell the rich history of bison in the park, the story of the annual buffalo roundup, how Custer State Park supplements the private bison industry across North America through the annual auction and how the park works the bison herd in the corral complex and maintains a brucellosis free herd with genetic testing.
This building would be the final piece in helping tell the story of Custer State Park, South Dakota’s oldest and largest State Park. It would attract new visitors to the park, as well as providing a reason for visitors to stay in the park longer, increasing visitation and ensuring the park remains a prominent vacation destination in western South Dakota.
The memorial bench program at Custer State has been discontinued. In its place, CSP is offering the opportunity to make gifts in honor or in memory of loved ones to help fund park improvements.
The new Tribute Wall is dedicated at the Visitor Center. The Tribute Wall program provides an opportunity to memorialize and honor loved ones, as well as provide support for park projects that will continually enhance our visitor’s experience.
You may make an honor or memorial gift to this program by completing the Tribute Wall Gift Form and returning it by mail, along with a check made out to Custer State Park, or by calling the park and providing credit card information.
Thank you for your support.
Sewage is used water and wastes discharged by a visitors and collected from the drains of sinks, showers, toilets and laundry facilities and flows into sewer lines, or collection systems, from the drains in homes and businesses. From the sewer lines, it is then transported to a sewage treatment facility.
Sewers back up when sewage collection lines get clogged by items flushed down toilets and drains such as Fats, Rags Oil and Grease (FROG) that get caught in the line and plug it up. In addition to the costly repairs, sewer back ups are messy, foul-smelling, and pose a serious public health threat.
Never flush down the toilet or drain
Proper Disposal Tips
7-Day License: $20 per vehicle | Motorcoach License: $3 per person per visit
Vehicles traveling non-stop through the park on US Hwy 16A do not need an entrance license.
Open: Year-round. Between Oct. 1 and April 30, showers, flush toilets and other water systems may be closed. Please contact the park directly for current status. Vault toilets usually remain open.
Park Size: 71,000 acres. 9 campgrounds with 341 campsites and 50 camping cabins, horse camp
Directions: GPS can be unreliable in the area. Please refer to a map or call the park office for directions.
Nearest Town: Custer, Rapid City, Hill City, Keystone
Make reservation online or call 1.800.710.2267.
Within our 71,000-acre wildlife preserve, four private historic lodges offer restaurants, guided wildlife activities, and modernized cabins or hotel rooms as part of Custer State Park Resort.
Custer State Park is excited to offer a variety of educational programs for all ages through the summer months.
Feel the thunder and join the herd at the annual Custer State Park Buffalo Roundup and Arts Festival.
Each November the park holds a buffalo auction as a tool in herd management.
Hunting helps reduce the size of populations, preventing overcrowding with the park.
All scenic drives are subject to closures depending on weather conditions and other hazards within the park. Please call the Park Office if you would like to check the status of one of these roads.
The sights throughout Custer State Park offer several unique view points and historic buildings and landmarks.
Throughout the park you will find miles of hiking/biking and horse trails with various terrains and views.
