Military Park Ellsworth AFB FamCamp (Ellsworth AFB)

Dawn J

The Famcamp at Ellsworth Air Force Base is a great location to stay for a few days while exploring the Black Hills and the Badlands region of South Dakota. Located just northeast of Rapid City in the town of Box Elder, the base is easy access off of I-90. If you have a longer vehicle or trailer, it is best to use the commercial gate. Sites have concrete pads and full hookups, which are mostly level, and some sites have trees and shade. Camp has bath house, free laundry machines and wi-fi, and is closely located to the commissary, exchange, and gas station. We stayed here while making day trips to the missile silo sites also located off I-90, the Badlands, Keystone, Hill City, Mt. Rushmore, Deadwood, and Sturgis. There is also an Air & Space museum right outside the front gates of the base.

Kristjan VanWinkle

If you have some time to go see it, it is certainly worth the trip even if it is just the exterior displays. My main criticisms would be the hours/days the museum is open, as well as most of the outside displays could use cleaning and a touch up on the paint and markings.

Sheila S

It was nice being with other military retirees, quiet, clean and laundry is free, be mindful of others and don't hog up all the machines at once please, grounds were clean, spots mostly level, felt safe on this base. Thank you Ellsworth AFB. #TeamSchmidt. 45 mins ride to Mt. Rushmore with lots of little shops and diners in town.

Kaja SWIEB

Nice and clean, cement level spots with full hookups. Good Verizon and T Mobile service. Very clean and free laundry.

Mick Williams

We followed both our GPS and the instructions provided in the housing office email. Since we arrived on a Saturday, we called ahead to check on bringing our 40’ fifth wheel through the main gate. The visitor’s center said it should be fine, but also noted the commercial gate is open until 1:00 PM on Saturdays. Following the email's directions, we entered through the commercial gate without any issues. The airmen who checked us in mentioned that we could have gone through the front gate as well—they're able to adjust the barriers for larger rigs. We proceeded to the housing office to check in and pick up our package, as no one was staffing the office at the time, we found our welcome packet on a board just inside the entry door. We were in back-in site #6 with full hookups. The back-in was straightforward. Utilities are positioned toward the front-middle of the site, and we had no trouble connecting. Water pressure was strong, so we used a pressure reducer. We got 4 bars on Verizon and 2 bars on T-Mobile. The campground Wi-Fi was slow, with speed test results of 2.46 Mbps down and 0.71 Mbps up—barely usable. We relied on our T-Mobile home internet router instead. In this part of the FamCamp, there are trees, but satellite access should still be possible with a movable antenna. We really appreciated the size of our yard and the generous site spacing in this older section. The newer area has fewer trees and the sites are more closely packed. The base itself is small, so don’t expect a large BX or Commissary. Overall, Ellsworth is one of the nicer FamCamps we’ve stayed at to include overflow and tent sites. However, the price and limited truck gate hours on weekends plus the uncertainty about the front gate’s outbound barriers make it a bit of a hassle for large rigs—something to consider when planning your arrival and departure.