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Fall camping

Awesome trails to hike and walk our dog. Color is starting inthe trees and grasslands. Lots of space between sites give you plenty of relaxation! This is one of our favorite spots to camp.
 Braggs
9/24/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  5.0

Excellent

 JP
9/17/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

Fantastic

The campground is great! Beautiful trails to hike and great scenery.
 Iver22
9/16/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  5.0

Hartford Beach

We loved Hartford Beach campground! We loved the trails and beach. We will be back! Thank you for taking good care of our state parks, we love them!
 Jenny
9/12/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  5.0

Great Park

We absolutely love this park, everything is kept up trails, sites, facilities etc.. The staff and the host is very friendly.
 Danita
9/11/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  5.0

Cabin Review

We love the cabins! Hartford Beach has a lot of great activities to participate in. The one thing that we did not at Hartford Beach was the location of the cabins they are in their own area away from the camping. It gets very dark at night, which makes it hard to do any activities around the fire due to it being very dark. We did go later in the season so that didn’t help that it was dark at 9 o’clock. I wish there was some light in the cul-de-sac where the cabins are. If you love to fish, big stone, Lake is a great fishing lake. We caught our limit both days.
 Cabining Mom
9/10/2026
Overall Experience  4.3
Services  5.0
Facilities  3.8

Making this a yearly stay

What a great campsite! Friendly hosts and other staff! Clean facilities and well maintained sites! Our only wish is that SD campsites had water hook up as an option. Not a deal beakers though.
 Back to camping
9/4/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  4.7
Facilities  5.0

Excellent Park

Enjoyed visiting with the campground hosts! They were so friendly and helpful!
 Ilene
9/1/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  5.0

Very nice place and clean

 Tony
8/28/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

To much dirt around the fireplace site 44e

 Funcping
8/19/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

crowded

During the week very peaceful, on the weekend very crowded. Lots of kids on electric and peddle bikes
 GSquare
8/13/2026
Overall Experience  3.8
Services  4.0
Facilities  3.6

Our new favorite!!

We stayed in the west (older) campground because we have a smaller camper and it is beautiful with LOTS of huge old trees for shade. The campground host was friendly and kept the bathrooms spotless. There were at least 4-5 hiking trails and we walked all of them, highly recommended! Our spot was right on the lake and our fire ring was fairly secluded and private, we loved the place!!
 Paul
8/10/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  4.9

Hartford

Awesome park with all the amenities. Staff was great, park was clean and campsites were nice and shaded
 Ranger
8/3/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  5.0

Very nice clean car clean bathrooms doing a great job

 Tony
7/31/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

Satisfied

 Happy Camper
7/30/2026
Overall Experience  4.8

Excellent

 Kmikesh
7/30/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

Excellent experience

Many upgrades to the trails. Great signage and maintenance
 JM
7/29/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  5.0

Lazy Day

 Rumdy
7/27/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

Favorite Destination

Hartford remains a favorite state park destination! Great trails although we picked up a lot of ticks on the prairie trail. Nice shady campsite. Dump station paving improvements are appreciated.
 Happy Camper
7/27/2026
Overall Experience  4.8

Midweeker

 Retired camper
7/27/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

Great, except for the weather

 Reservation
7/27/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

If only the heat would've stayed away

We camped in the West campground, right on the lake. I wish we had been warned about the hills, since it affected our choice of campsights, and they don't show very much online. But our view was wonderful! The campground is very clean and well-maintained. The swimming beach is a must see; I could have spent a day there! Due to the heat (which SD does not have control over) we stayed in our air conditioned trailer more than we would have liked, but we plan on coming again.
 CatMamma
7/25/2026
Overall Experience  4.8
Services  4.7
Facilities  4.6

Great experience

 SDHunter13
7/23/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

Peaceful

 MomOfBoys
7/23/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

Perfect Amount of Trees

Spot 44E had a lovely tree canopy and an open area underneath it big enough for a large tent! Much needed when it was 90°+ outside!
 MomOfBoys
7/23/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  4.9

Well Maintained!

 MomOfBoys
7/23/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

Well Maintained!

 MomOfBoys
7/23/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

Great Time

Hartford is a great place to camp. We were in the top campground. Kept very clean, all the grounds. Bathrooms were spotless. Quiet. Will definately go back.
 MJH
7/23/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  5.0

Great time o

We rented cabins 1 & 2 plus the camper pads for our family reunion. We all loved it and had a lot of fun.
 Tina
7/18/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  5.0

Hot weather, great park

 Dad! I have to poop!
7/17/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

very nice

We had three campsites, which were all on one side of the road. Since there were no fire pits on that site, we switched the sites to utilize a fire pit in the middle of the park. Switching was very easy, though, since they had some open spaces.
 Richard
7/16/2026
Overall Experience  4.8
Services  5.0
Facilities  4.4

Love SD State Parks

Love this park. I wish the hose for filling fresh water tank was not so narrow. Took quite awhile to get our tank full because of slow stream.
 Barb
7/14/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  5.0

The 4th

It was a well kept park with lots of room around your camper. The mosquitoes were bad and wished they had sprayed.
 Pat
7/9/2026
Overall Experience  3.8
Services  3.5
Facilities  3.7

super clean facility

I have to compliment that hosts of the east campground. They welcomed me back (remembered me from a couple weeks before). They keep the park so picked up and clean. Enjoyed my week stay.
 fremontrat
7/8/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  5.0

Hartford Beach State Park

Leveler camp pads
 K and P
7/5/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  4.9

Our favorite park

Hartford is our favorite campground. We look forward to visiting multiple times every year.
 Snmiller
6/29/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  5.0

Super clean park

The hosts this year are doing a fabulous job. Everything is so clean and well kept.
 Fremontrat
6/25/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  5.0

Great place

The hiking trails were wonderful, however the maps show a trapper cabin and there isn’t one. This was confusing because all the signs said there was one
 Local Camper
6/25/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0

Excellent

 Lolly
6/18/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

Cabin 1

Everything was great except the air conditioner let out a bad small - musty rotten kind of smell
 Jess
6/17/2026
Overall Experience  4.8
Services  5.0
Facilities  4.4

Hartford State Park stay

 1959
6/10/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

Great Park!

 Jill
6/5/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

Great time

Beautiful campground friendly staff. Checked on us every day. The only thing i would change, is add more camping cabins
 Jimmy D
6/4/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  4.5
Facilities  5.0

Hartford beach

Clean well cared for park, I will be staying there again in the future
 Russ
6/1/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  4.6

Vault toilets very clean and smelled good

 35E
5/28/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

Bad trail signs

All these trail signs leading to historic places like a prehistoric village and all they were nothing but mown grass, no history markers, nothing, and quite the hike. Very misleading. The west campground was unlevel including the pads and the fie put areas. Super dmall turn atound area if you have a 5th wheel. Go to the east campground, very nice and level
 Csnt be real
5/28/2026
Overall Experience  2.8
Services  5.0
Facilities  3.0

Excellent facilities. Wonderful staff!

 slenk
5/25/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

Excellent facilities.

 slenk
5/25/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

Beautiful cabins. Lovely park.

We had a very peaceful visit. The cabin was amazing--clean, comfortable, quiet euth a great view of Big Stone Lake. The deck was ideal for birdwatching.
 Milo
5/19/2026
Overall Experience  5.0
Services  5.0
Facilities  5.0

Ok

With the amount of campers in the west campground I can’t believe the comfort station wasn’t open yet!
 Walleye slayer
5/6/2026
Overall Experience  3.8
Services  5.0
Facilities  2.5

Nice me campground

Restrooms not open for the season. I think prices should be reduced when facilities are not available. Dump station not usable.
 Camper
4/30/2026
Overall Experience  4.3
Services  5.0

Hartford Beach

 SD Outdoors
4/30/2026
Overall Experience  5.0

Beautiful Park

 Hikers
4/24/2026
Overall Experience  5.0