Overview
About Blue Bell Lodge
Why stop
- Fire pits at every cabin make it easy to wind down after a Wildlife Loop drive.
Heads up
- Dining feedback is mixed on food and service.
Map
Where it is
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Custer Tour Guide
Your drive to Blue Bell Lodge, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Custer State 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 Custer audio tourRecorded for this place
Blue Bell: Creekside Dining and Horseback Rides“You're approaching the Blue Bell Lodge and stables area. For a meal, the log lodge serves ranch-style food, including bison dishes, with a patio overlooking French Creek.”
Plays as you drive up to Blue Bell Lodge in the Parkwolf Custer Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- The Bat's Feeding Buzz
- Bighorns' Grip on the Rocks
- The Squirrel’s Winter Store
- Why Trout Like Cold Water
- 82 audio storiesacross Custer’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Bison, Wapiti, Bighorn Sheep, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 40 trails, 49 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 Blue Bell Lodge
A stay on the Wildlife LoopBlue Bell Lodge is a western-style lodging and dining area in Custer State Park, with a main…
Blue Bell Lodge is a western-style lodging and dining area in Custer State Park, with a main log lodge and 29 cabins along the Wildlife Loop north of French Creek. The Horse Camp is next door and Blue Bell Store is across SD-87. It makes a useful overnight base if you want time for the loop; a park entry permit is required.
Cabins around the lodgeEach cabin has an outdoor fire pit, and many have a stone fireplace and kitchenette.
Each cabin has an outdoor fire pit, and many have a stone fireplace and kitchenette. Kitchen equipment varies by cabin, so check what comes with the one you book and bring the cooking basics you rely on.
Dining and the chuckwagon outingThe lodge's dining room and lounge serve a western menu with bison, beef, chicken and fish; the…
The lodge's dining room and lounge serve a western menu with bison, beef, chicken and fish; the patio overlooks French Creek. The resort also runs an evening wildlife hayride to a secluded backcountry valley for steak dinner and live entertainment. Dining is seasonal, so check current opening dates if a meal here is part of your plan. Food and service get mixed reports, so treat the setting and activities as part of the appeal rather than counting on a standout meal.
From Camp Narrows to Blue BellBefore it took the Blue Bell name, the area was known as Camp Narrows or Robber's Roost.
Before it took the Blue Bell name, the area was known as Camp Narrows or Robber's Roost. The Civilian Conservation Corps established a camp here in 1934 and built most of the resort area's buildings and water and sewer systems. The park board bought the 40-acre site from Governor Leslie Jensen's estate in 1936; the cabins followed in 1937–39, and Hot Springs architect S. P. Eisentraut designed the lodge.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Custer
993 sightingsBisonMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
91 sightingsWapitiMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
260 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
85 sightingsMountain GoatMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
259 sightingsBurroMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
711 sightingsPronghornMost seen around 6 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Custer. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
