Cedar Pass Campground
October 2026
About
Overview
Surrounded by the vast, open prairie and featuring expansive views of the Badlands, Cedar Pass Campground is a great base camp from which to explore Badlands National Park. Featuring 96 sites, this seasonal campground is open from late March through mid-October, and is conveniently located within easy walking distance of Cedar Pass Lodge & Restaurant and the Ben Reifel Visitor Center.
Recreation
An evening program led by park rangers is held nightly at the Cedar Pass Amphitheater. This event runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day, beginning each evening with a half-hour educational talk about the Badlands, covering a wide array of topics that change every evening. Once the educational part of the presentation finishes, the rangers begin a guided night sky viewing program. Interesting facts and features of our night sky will be explored and pointed out for you via laser, and telescopes are often provided to view star clusters, planets, and the Milky Way.
The Amphitheater parking lot is conveniently located at the entrance to Cedar Pass Campground, in easy walking distance for most campers! For evening program start times, please see the Ben Reifel Visitor Center, Cedar Pass Lodge, or the host kiosk at the campground entrance.
Facilities
An evening program led by park rangers is held nightly at the Cedar Pass Amphitheater. This event runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day, beginning each evening with a half-hour educational talk about the Badlands, covering a wide array of topics that change every evening. Once the educational part of the presentation finishes, the rangers begin a guided night sky viewing program. Interesting facts and features of our night sky will be explored and pointed out for you via laser, and telescopes are often provided to view star clusters, planets, and the Milky Way.
The Amphitheater parking lot is conveniently located at the entrance to Cedar Pass Campground, in easy walking distance for most campers! For evening program start times, please see the Ben Reifel Visitor Center, Cedar Pass Lodge, or the host kiosk at the campground entrance.
Natural Features
Cedar Pass Campground is surrounded by prairie grasslands and Badlands buttes, or geologic formations. These formations contain sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, claystone, limestone, volcanic ash, and shale. The natural beauty of this landscape makes for stunning sunrises and sunsets, while low population density and minimal light pollution creates a beautiful night sky most evenings.
Contact Info
This location is staffed. Please call (605) 910-9246 to speak with local staff.
Nearby Attractions
- Ben Reifel Vistor Center
- Cedar Pass Lodge
- Minuteman National Historic Site
- Prairie Homestead
- Wall Drug
- Mount Rushmore (1 hour, 45 mins)
- Custer State Park (1 hour, 45 mins)
Amenities
Phone: 605-433-5460
Is Cedar Pass Campground fully booked?
A campground showing no availability is almost never full for good. People cancel — plans change, weather turns, someone books three weekends and keeps one — and the site goes straight back into the booking system, usually without warning and often at odd hours. The reason sold-out campgrounds feel impossible is not that sites never free up; it is that nobody is watching at the moment they do.
CampHawk watches Cedar Pass Campground in Interior, SD for you. We recheck it every 15 seconds, around the clock, and the moment a site opens we send a text, an email and a push notification — and on Recreation.gov we can put the site straight into your cart, so it is held while you get to your phone.
Searching is free and needs no account — the calendar above is live right now. Watching Cedar Pass Campground for cancellations is the paid part.