Well, my family visited the Elk Haven Horse Camp at Keystone, SD. this weekend. We live in central SD so this was a quick 2-night trip. The only other horse camp we've stayed at over the years is French Creek in Custer State Park. Elk Haven is a small camp with about 12 sites with hookups and a few tiny cabins. It was formerly an RV park. Our spot really didn't have enough room on the parking pad for us to tie our horses to the trailer. Two horses could be on one side of the trailer, but they were standing on quite a slope right up against the electrical box and water hookup. Each site does have a nice, shaded pen. Our four horses seemed to have adequate room. Most of the sites are in full sun. With temps near 100, we opted to leave a day early and go to my mom's 90 miles north and bask in her air conditioning. While the website for Elk Haven boasts a "modern shower house", I found a cold trickle of water at 10 p.m. Friday night to be less than adequate after a long, hot day. The trails were nice, but not marked. The is a 5-booth cafe that serves eggs, pancakes, french toast, burgers, and chicken strips, plus a small store and laundry. French Creek is more difficult to get to, but Elk Haven was far more expensive and fell a bit short on the shade and "modern shower house". I just thought I'd share my findings. The folks with LQs seemed to be quite comfortable.
Posted 2007-06-25 4:52 PM (#62827 - in reply to #62768) Subject: RE: Elk Haven Horse Camp, SD - Review
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 309 Location: MO
We stayed there for 10 days, two years ago. We did reserve a nice shady site. With full LQ, we didn't need the shower house. Our site had water, electric and sewer hookups.
We found the trails in the Black Elk Wilderness nice and well-marked. You can ride to close to Mt Rushmore - It's a 9 hour round trip on gaited horses and to Harney Peak in about the same amount of time. The last 3/4 mile on the trail to Rushmore is not for the faint of heart. Nor, for horses that are not in top shape. There are a lot of trails closer to camp that we thought were nice and we opted to not try the ride to Rushmore.
The trails in Custer that were close to Elk Haven were not marked at all. But, you can ride just about anywhere. Just look out for Buffalo. Give them a wide berth.
It's not ideal, I agree that most sites are in the open. But, you can reserve in advance.
Posted 2007-06-25 7:48 PM (#62843 - in reply to #62768) Subject: RE: Elk Haven Horse Camp, SD - Review
Veteran
Posts: 174 Location: Missouri
We stayed at Elkhaven 4 years ago. It was nice and the trails were good. We just returned yesterday from another trip to the hills. We stayed at Broken Arrow in Custer. It was the best horse camp we have stayed at. Everything is spotless and they have nice pens for the horses, full hookups for the trailers, cabins and rooms with bathrooms and kitchenettes. They have maps of the trails. We rode to Cicero peak, Twin Sisters, Blue Bell lodge in the park, Stockade Lake and many more. If you go back I would highly recommend staying there.
Elk Haven Horse Camp, SD - Review
