The Best Little Campground in South Dakota

Notice the cornfield across the road

One of the things I’ve been hoping to do on our prolonged road trip is to find some gem of an off-the-beaten-track campground. And we found one at Campground America just a few miles from Salem. No, not Salem, Massachusetts or Salem, Oregon but the small farming community of Salem, South Dakota. Our plan was to break up our long trip from the Badlands to the Winnebago factory in Forest City, Iowa by stopping at a decent campground just long enough to get some sleep and  then be on our way.

The campground we chose—Campground America—was a delightful surprise. It’s a small park set in a grove of shade trees surrounded by corn fields. In fact, it was so delightful that we decided to stay an extra day and just soak up the relaxing vibe. The price was right, the owner was a pleasure to talk to, and the swimming pool was deep and cold. 

Not long after we were back on the road headed for the Winnebago factory we had a scary moment when we got caught in a three-way dance with a Suburban in the lane to our left and a semi merging into our lane on our right. Thanks to some expert driving on Russ’ part—and a few “what the ??!!!”  comments—we got through it without a scratch.

We “dry camped” for the two nights we spent at the Winnebago parking lot while we toured the factory and had a little maintenance done on the RV. As soon as we got there we asked the man at the visitors’ center where we could get fresh water for our holding tank.  His answer sounded like it came straight from a 1960s psychedelic movie: “See the flashing light? Go past it.” Unfortunately, the traffic light he pointed to split in two directions. He didn’t say which way to go and we were too tired to think to ask. Net result—we took the RV on an unplanned joy ride through the streets of Forest City.

Right now we’re in Madison, Wisconsin for the weekend before driving over to spend a week in the Chicago area. We've already got our tickets for an afternoon Cubs game at Wrigley!

Sunset at Campground America