Whistler Gulch Campground

The campground is in a good location, but it is in a valley with a high incline, the parking spots for your camper are flat but the rest of the spot where you typically grill or put chairs outside are on a incline not flat, it would have been nice if the grass was cut when we got there but had to wait and ask someone to cut it. Had to leave to wash clothes because the dryers weren’t connected they said. For the price I expected a lot from this place because they are charging twice the price of other campgrounds, but seemed to be pocketing the money instead of keeping up with maintenance.

This place would be great if they just kept up the maintenance of the lawns. We did notice that the host's site was well manicured. Our sites where tall with weeds in the lawn. When we asked, we were told we arrived too early. But the entire place was like that. We saw one young man mow two sites one day - that was it. They should buy him a riding mower so they can do them all. It would make the place look so beautiful. The people in the office were very nice.

Great location to deadwood, but would not recommend staying here at all! I called before booking to explain we had a 40ft toy hauler, dually truck and 2 side by sides. Staff said oh you will have no problem fitting into a premium plus site. Barely fit everything as it is not as large as they made it sound.

Arrive to find the site was super hard to get the toy hauler into due to a tree and how un-level the site was. Had to put toy hauler tires (drivers side) on 6 blocks to make level!

Asked staff 3 times to trim tree so when we left it would not scratch the rig. The 3rd time to the owner and she said they professional get the trees trimmed and said we could trim it ourselves. That tree had never been touched. Horrible customer service!

Grass was super tall and had to ask staff 2 times to get it cut.

The outdoor furniture cushions had bird droppings and very dirty and some were on ground, so could not use them at all.

Bathrooms were dirty.

Never told laundry was not available until the day we arrived. We stayed 7 nights and dryers were never hooked up.

I guess for the price you pay to stay here I would expect the basics, level sites, clean bathrooms, mowed grass and trimmed trees.

Edit to the response of the owner but for the reader. I did NOT choose my site like she said. I called and they booked me in this site and they said I would have no problem fitting. I camp all around the US and have great experiences, but not here.

Our family really enjoyed our stay at Whistler Gulch Campground in Deadwood, SD!

You truly can't beat the location and beauty of this campground just minutes from downtown Deadwood. Everything is within easy driving distance, but in a situation where you prefer to not drive, the Deadwood Trolley has a stop at the front office for your convenience. Be aware that the trolley does not operate at the times provided on their website. We missed the trolley multiple times and instead opted for a taxi (there is no Uber or Lyft available).

This campground also has some short trails that provide neat views of the gulch, an old mine, and some old mining equipment.

Upon arrival I was informed that my site had been substituted from 106 (a premium back-in site) to 322 & 323 premium pull-through sites. The switch was due to construction along the loop I had originally been placed on. This was a bit of an issue for me as my rig fits well into back-in sites which I opt for every time as they provide better privacy. The gentleman at the front desk assured me my new site was better, but allowed me to find a new site during my stay. The premium pull through sites are nothing more than gravel pull through grassy areas that would be rather tight with neighbors, but they were giving guests two sites for added space. As this campground is in a gulch, many of the pull through sites are not flat and I really did not like them at all. However, they are perfect for someone in a motorhome that intend to either spend most of their time out of the campground or in their motorhome. We ended up reserving site #303 which had a pergola overlooking the gulch's cliffside. It was a beautiful site and we loved sitting under the pergola while enjoying meals.

While the front office facilities are very nice and upkept, the bathhouse requires some much needed TLC. The bathhouse looks like it has had patch job over patch job and needs a lot of maintenance or a complete remodel. Much of the campground has unfinished projects and construction materials stored in random places (under the pool, along the pool, along the sides of hills, behind buildings). Although this didn't effect our enjoyment of our stay, it's an easy clean up job.

I would recommend Whistler's Gulch to anyone trying to camp in the Deadwood area, but be aware of how each site may or may not fit your needs and also keep in mind the bathhouse conditions if this is important to you.

Don't waste your time or money! Poor customer service by staff! Unpleasant! And act like we were interrupting their days! We booked July 20th to 30th then chose to extend to August 5th. Rally rates double.. ok. We had to move our trailer- ok! The day we move our trailer to the spot, they told us we found we had no power. Walk down to the office talk to the staff and she acted like we didn't know how to hook up the trailer or flip on breakers and then acted like we didn't have extended reservations and then eventually told us to move to neighboring spot, nobody knows who's doing what and they are an absolute joke. Never again will we stay here!

One day we chose to use the pool and it was filled with bugs, dead and alive so I asked if I could use their net. I'd be more than happy to clean it, and a kid came out gave it a sweep and walked away! With all the options in this area & the horrible reviews, you think they would try a little harder if they want people to come back! Surprising how empty this place is before the rally!

Response to the campground owner.... Yes, we were told the site # we were supposed to move in by numerous people as they state, we wanted to double check- then came moving day. It's not hard to remember we're only moving a few spots down and which location we were told to go to.

What's frustrating is going to the process of packing up moving packing up and moving again in that heat when we had other plans.

What's frustrating is no one from the office ever checked any of the outlets at the site.

What's frustrating is the poor customer service.

if the power worked, and the site was booked for someone other than us, for that day according to the staff, why didn't anybody fill that spot?

But really the response could have been, we apologize for the inconvenience, let's try and troubleshoot this and/or make it right.

Same thing for the pool issue-we weren't looking for a pool with zero bugs. Mind you, I live in the mountains and have an outdoor pool for 15 + years so I know what it takes to maintain one. The issue again was customer service and lack of effort. It's not hard to make more than one pass with a net.

Regardless, the staff will continue to blame guests for sharing their experiences at their location rather than use it as a tool for possible improvement.

Overall we were pretty disappointed for the cost, our expectations were far greater then what we got. I don't mind spending $100 plus a night but expect a nice place.

Pro: Close to Deadwood, trolley comes to campground, the campground is very empty which makes it quiet, water pressure was good and power was good. We booked a premium PLUS up to 50ft, we have a 45ft motorhome and was able to level with no issues.

Neutral: Pool was good enough to swim, nothing fancy but worked. No shade and you can't use the umbrellas in the pool area. Dryer was broke with what seemed like no plans to fix. There was a grass area for pets but didn't have bags or a spot to put the bags once you picked up after your dog. Not a big deal as we always carry bags. They had no firewood and I was told to go down the street to a ACE hardware to get it.

Negative: Very ran down, grass was very high with dog poop... I asked them to mow it but they acted like it was a inconvenience. I ended up asking them if I could use the push mower while they took one of many breaks. They were very nice to let me use it to mow in front of our motorhome. Bathrooms were gross and were in need of major updating. WIFI only works up by the lobby. Cell signal was very poor so not a great place to camp if needing to work.

The very Negative: I will never stay again because of how we were treated by the owner. The park was very empty and only had shade on the sides, we were in the middle. We had moved our chairs to the side to get some shade while we ate dinner. We only had chairs set up and planned to eat and then move. The spot was next to people we were camping with which didn't have enough room for all of us to sit in the shade. She very rudely asked us to move or she would charge us for the spot we were sitting in. Again the place was empty! She did apologize to one of our group members a couple days after but the damage was already done.

After she told us to move she went down and told people who were playing bags in the shade to get back into there spot or they would be charged. It ended up being a running joke between us and them. They said they have staying a couple of other times in the past and this was the worst they have seen the place.

I will agree that she was mad because we didn't move our vehicle as fast as she wanted us to. We told the member of our party to move it and they did the rest of the visit. 100% on us. 1 wrong that we did doesn't make up for the rest of wrongs they did...

I have stayed at many campgrounds all over the US and this is by far the worst we have ever been treated. Please do yourself a favor and don't stay here.

We camped at Whistler Gulch RV Park & Campground in a Motorhome.

There is potential in this campground, but until someone works to deliver on that I don't recommend this campground. We visited just before Memorial Day, so perhaps they were not yet ready for the season. Did not see much sign of preparations underway either!

The location is great, convenient for Deadwood, and the views from our spot up on the hill were great. The town's trolley service goes to the campground but seemed to be unreliable and not as per the schedule.

General maintenance seems a long way behind schedule.

Our camping spot was not very level, and the gravel needed replenishing and weeding. It was a little on the small side and the drop-off at the end was severe.

The pool was not filled but as we were leaving it looked as if someone was doing some work on it. - one of the few staff members we saw, and not much other sign of work going on.

The washrooms were in poor shape, not cleaned, closed stalls (for renovation? right before the season?), broken lights - in the men's restroom the only light above the sinks that worked was over a sink that had no faucets. Go figure!

The electrical hookup was unreliable and kept tripping, and the next spot along looked as if their hookup had been melted by a previous occupant.

Overall, this could be great but isn't. The place needs an enthusiastic and energetic owner / workforce but appears to have neither.

We are in the RV park. Plenty of room with full hookups. Super sweet owners. Our battery was dead on our toad when we unhooked it, so they jumped it for us.

Whistler Gulch Campground Info

Amenities

Accessibility

Children

Pets

Other

Amenities

Best WLM Reviews

Quick Facts About Whistler Gulch Campground

Opening Hours

Location

Other Places