Bad experience
Summertravel2026
7/21/2026
Overall Experience
2.0
Services
1.0
Nice but expensive
Very well kept campground. Good layout and space between sites. However, the overall price after tacking on all the extra fees is out of line with the market. Nightly cost is right around $50 for an electric only site. If you’re going to require that campers pay an additional $15/night for park access then just make it part of the campsite nightly rate.
Traveler
7/20/2026
Overall Experience
3.3
Services
4.7
Facilities
4.7
Nice Place
We got to our site very late and had no problem hooking up. The sites were big and clean. They had our name attached to the site which was nice. No complaints. Very nice place and the neighborhood outside of the campground looked nice too.
Kevin
7/18/2026
Overall Experience
4.8
Services
5.0
Facilities
4.7
Great experience
Rocky
7/15/2026
Wonderful night of camping
We were just passing through and What a fantastic campground! Beautiful setting, cleanest bathrooms I have EVER seen! Even the vault toilets were super clean! Wish we were staying more than one night.
Kate
7/6/2026
Overall Experience
5.0
Services
5.0
Facilities
5.0
Great Stay!
Papa Paul
6/24/2026
Great Experience
Tim Mikkels
6/23/2026
Big Sioux Rec Area camping
JT4400
6/17/2026
Big Sioux State Recreation Area
Steve R
6/13/2026
Nice Memorial Day Weekend 2026
Medic 42
5/29/2026
Loved the park, except for one thing
We love this park! It’s clean and there are lots of good trails, great people and close to family members in Sioux Falls whom we like to visit. The only issue is that there is only a one-drain dump station—there was a long line on Sunday prior to check-out, and we waited 45 minutes to get to the front of the line. For the number of campsites in this beautiful park, there should be at least 2 or more drains.
Minnesotans in South Dakota
5/28/2026
Overall Experience
4.8
Services
5.0
Facilities
3.8
Nice spot close to Sioux Falls for a get away.
KB64
5/28/2026
Park and Reservation review
Visit was great. My recommendation is for the online reservation system. Would like to be able to make multiple reservations at the same time versus having to fully complete one before adding another. Time consuming entering same information each time.
Camper
5/24/2026
Overall Experience
5.0
Services
4.7
Facilities
3.6
Great facility. Rained the whole time.
The facility looks nice and the staff was helpful. I didn't get the full experience because of the rain, but would come back if ever in the area again.
Sherrokkennen
5/23/2026
Overall Experience
5.0
Services
4.7
Facilities
4.3
Pleasant camping
Granny10
5/21/2026
Big Sioux
The lady that was the Host on the date of our arrival was awesome! I really enjoyed and was happy to see them coming thru the park on a regular basis.
Mom
5/20/2026
Overall Experience
4.5
Services
5.0
Facilities
5.0
Beautiful and quiet
WI visitor here for a hockey tournament
5/19/2026
Great park
Great clean well kept park
Knobs
5/17/2026
Overall Experience
5.0
Services
5.0
Facilities
5.0
Good Time
Good Time
5/8/2026
Nice park website reservations awful
The park was nice I think with all the development going on around it it will be in the middle of a city.
Barb tessene
5/7/2026
Overall Experience
3.8
Services
3.0
Facilities
3.8
Short early trip
Regular
4/25/2026
Big Sioux Recreation Area
Staff was very helpful….I had accidentally reserved a spot at a different area, showed up at Big Sioux and with Tom’s help, realized my error. Tom said just stay for the night and we’ll figure it out tomorrow (which we did). We were able to cancel the original reservation and rebook at Big Sioux and stayed a couple days longer than we had originally planned.
Very nice campground…clean, quiet, safe.
Camper 62
4/20/2026
Overall Experience
5.0
Services
5.0
Facilities
5.0
Big Sioux overnight
It's very early in the season. I do not believe the grounds had a spring clean yet. Which is ok because it wasn't bad at all. Just made me want to get out a chainsaw & wheel barrow to bring the area to its normal beautiful sight instead of relaxing. But again it was not a mess. Just needed a small amount of tidying up.
The staff that stopped by to check our reservation were very helpful friendly and very down to earth. I enjoyed having a conversation with them.
StephKC
3/24/2026
Overall Experience
4.8
Services
5.0
Facilities
5.0
Beautiful Park
Jess
11/3/2025
Fantastic park management
Park management is fantastic! Had an issue with an electric hookup that the park staff fixed super quickly, and everyone was a pleasure to deal with (especially John). I happened to encounter a fallen tree on the disc golf course that was also cleaned up right away. They're on top of their game here!
3939
10/23/2025
Overall Experience
5.0
Services
5.0
Facilities
5.0
HORRIBLE EMPLOYEES
I was approached by the camp host after I was walking out of the shower and she defecated in the toilet in restroom. She asked for more money, which I replied I would pay directly on government website. She told me she was going to tell John on me. John was standing so close to me when he interrupted me and asked if I had cash to pay him for state fees and was very aggressive. John started following around the park while I was walking to restroom in mornings and then when I called the park to complain he trespassed me for having no permit (I have an annual permit). He is a total pervert. I have still had no follow-up or any information from the park on the unprofessionalism of the staff at this park. We have went on to stay at multiple parks and private campgrounds in SD and no issues. These two are a waste of taxpayers money and I pray they receive treatment or help for their issues.
NA
10/14/2025
Overall Experience
1.0
Services
1.0
Facilities
1.0
Very Nice Park
We visit Big Sioux often. It is the quietest and least expensive campground in the Sioux Falls area. The staff is great...always very friendly. The facilities are clean. But! There are locals walking around the campground often with their dogs off leash. And there are other campers, especially on the weekends, that walk right through your campsite to save a dozen steps by staying on the pathways. It is difficult to not say anything.
RangerLee
10/13/2025
Overall Experience
4.5
Services
5.0
Facilities
5.0
Big Sioux
This our favorite pace to camp with our grandkids. Their favorite thing is to go into the trees and collect sticks to build things out of them.
CampingGrands
10/6/2025
Overall Experience
5.0
Services
3.4
Facilities
4.3
Expensive Ouch!
First thing is, I think SD state parks should rethink charging nonresidents more than residents, and also not rethink charging an entrance fee on top of the camping fee. This is not very inviting…unless you want to make nonresidents unwelcome. Even the entry fee was $5 higher per day for nonresidents, plus the $10 extra reservation fee.We visited a lot of parks on this trip and this was by far the least desirable and the most expensive with all the fees. The sites were spacious and nicely kept up, but the surroundings were not deserving of the fee in my opinion. The first thing we noticed was the odor. It smelled like a cow pasture..maybe a farmers fertilizer? The restroom in our loop was a pit toilet..no way of knowing when reserving. The main restroom had a strong septic smell on the women’s entrance..except when it was covered up by campfire smoke in the evening. Then when I tried to cook breakfast on our camp stove the bees, flies and biting gnats(no seeums) made it unbearable. This continued until dark. We had to jump on our bikes and they still persisted. I could not wait to leave this place....worst camping experience of our 56 night trip. I only stayed here to avoid a day of rain south of here.
SimpleGirl
9/27/2025
Overall Experience
2.3
Services
1.0
Facilities
2.0
Pretty good
The hot water ran out shortly into my shower. That was less than ideal. The hosts are great and, for the most part, we love this park!
Pretty good
9/18/2025
Overall Experience
4.0
Services
5.0
Facilities
4.4
Fantastic
iowacampers2402
9/17/2025
Beautiful campground but needs better hosts.
Nomad 2025
9/15/2025
Overall Experience
3.3
Services
2.5
Facilities
2.8
Great experience
We appreciated how clean the restrooms were kept and the quality of the showers. The campsites were level and spacious.
Sth
9/12/2025
Overall Experience
5.0
Services
5.0
Facilities
4.7
Big Sioux 1 night
LTV Travelers
9/11/2025
Big Sioux
This is a beautiful campground,. Nice level pads and shade trees throughout.
The big negative was a creepy homeless guy who was sleeping in his minivan at the bathhouse. I never saw any security or law enforcement drive by. Definitely made me uncomfortable.
Advracer
9/8/2025
Overall Experience
3.5
Services
3.7
Facilities
4.7
Not real happy about the staff..
We got there they got our key got all set up, they made a mistake and double booked our cabin made us move to a different were very very rude about it
Stayed at big Sioux recreation
9/2/2025
Overall Experience
3.3
Services
1.3
Facilities
4.0
Review
We love camping in the SD State Parks, but the price has risen for the out of state campers and visitors. Is this so you lessen the MN campers or visitors? Are you trying to make more room for the SD residents and deter the other state visitors. This could affect the enjoyment of a lot of out of state people and families.
Fred
8/29/2025
Overall Experience
4.5
Services
5.0
Facilities
4.6
Weekend get away
Josh Dixon
8/26/2025
great experience
Big Sioux campground is beautiful with lots of trees and the sites are all flat and easy to get into even though they are all back in sites. The bathrooms were clean and were always in great shape. The camp host(ess) was very accomodating and explained everything quite well. The hiking trails along the river were well maintained and were being enjoyed by many people. Will definitely stay in the future when in the area.
camper couple
8/25/2025
Overall Experience
5.0
Services
5.0
Facilities
4.4
Wonderful 3 days
Lisaruth
8/24/2025
Overall Experience
5.0
Services
4.5
Facilities
4.7
Good visit
Camper
8/21/2025
Campsite had trash left behind, but it was nice besides fhat.
Alex
8/20/2025
Great park, well kept and clean
Public
8/19/2025
Great Park
SD traveler
8/18/2025
Great campground; nontransparent pricing
The campground itself was lovely with big sites, shade, etc.
Pricing was not transparent: Online, it stated $30 for a campsite, but then an additional $10 online reservation fee was added. Furthermore, when I arrived, I was informed that I also had to pay $15 for park use. This turned a $30 campsite into a $55 campsite, which is far above my usual budget for a quick overnight stopover.
JessW
8/17/2025
Overall Experience
3.3
Services
3.0
Facilities
3.3
Nice campground
It was a very hot weekend and it had rained quite a bit washing mud onto the paved path. It was messy in several places. The shower house was clean and the shower water was hot. The campsite was spacious and pretty level. There was a lot of wear around the fire ring and since it had rained, it was muddy.
camper 28e
8/3/2025
Overall Experience
4.8
Services
4.7
Facilities
4.2
Nice Park
The campground host was very helpful and pleasant. Our site was nice and we would stay here again.
Ella
7/28/2025
Overall Experience
5.0
Services
5.0
Facilities
4.5
Big Sioux Retreat
Happy Camper
7/25/2025
Beautiful
Racing Fan
7/23/2025