1 active Badlands alert
- ClosureNotch Trail closed for ladder repairsNotch Trail and all areas within 100 feet of the designated trail are closed; do not enter the closure area.Official details
Overview
About Sage Creek Campground
Why stop
- Open prairie setting beside Sage Creek Wilderness.
Heads up
- No on-site water, and access uses an unpaved road.
Map
Where it is
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Full mapPlan your stop
Before you go
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Badlands Tour Guide
Your drive to Sage Creek Campground, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Badlands National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Badlands audio tourRecorded for this place
Sage Creek Campground0:00 / 0:30
“You're nearing Sage Creek Campground, a primitive camp in open prairie beside Sage Creek Wilderness.”
Plays as you drive up to Sage Creek Campground in the Parkwolf Badlands Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- The Coyote’s Hunting Pounce
- Why They're Called Badlands
- Sea Lizards Beneath the Prairie
- The Herd Had to Come Back
- 116 audio storiesacross Badlands’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Bison, Bighorn Sheep, Prairie Dog, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 11 trails, 34 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“We recently toured Badlands, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore and more! We learned so much from this app as we toured each of these sites. The audio tours are worth the money.”
Guide
More about Sage Creek Campground
A simple prairie campSage Creek Campground is a primitive, 22-site campground on the west side of Badlands National…
Sage Creek Campground is a primitive, 22-site campground on the west side of Badlands National Park’s North Unit. It suits campers happy with a simple night in an open prairie setting. Sites are first come, first served.
Come preparedThere’s no drinking water on site, so bring what you’ll need.
There’s no drinking water on site, so bring what you’ll need. The campground has pit toilets and covered picnic tables. RVs longer than 18 feet aren’t allowed, and the access road has limited turnarounds for larger vehicles.
Prairie wildlifeBison sometimes wander through camp, and visitors also often spot prairie dogs nearby.
Bison sometimes wander through camp, and visitors also often spot prairie dogs nearby. Sage Creek’s open grassland is part of the draw, but wildlife can be close: the park asks visitors to stay at least 100 feet from wildlife. The campground is also a backcountry register point for trips into Sage Creek Wilderness.
The road inYou reach camp on unpaved Sage Creek Rim Road.
You reach camp on unpaved Sage Creek Rim Road. It can close after winter storms or spring rain, so check the road status before heading out.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Badlands
760 sightingsBisonMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
1,061 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
906 sightingsPrairie DogMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
333 sightingsPronghornMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
304 sightingsMule DeerMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
87 sightingsCoyoteMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Badlands. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
