Bismarck Campground National Forest

I chose Bismarck Campground for our next stay due to it's proximity to Jewel Cave National Monument. But for $28 this park didn't make the cut. It is $24 for an overnight (no hook-ups, no amenities) plus $2 per pet per night. I would not stay here again. You hear the road noise and the lake is crowded with lots of people for very little shoreline. We don't look for amenities like hook-ups because we like to be away from it all. We also like spending very little on a campground. This one met neither of those criteria.

Bismarck Lake was pretty but small.

We got a pretty water view site.

Just a bit uphill from the water.

That was surrounded by trees.

We then took a walk over to the spectacular Stockade Lake. It was very pretty and across the street. If I had it to do over again I probably would have stayed at Stockade Lake which has a choice of two campgrounds. We visited the South Campground which was nice and entirely in the forest. The North may have been a better one to visit but since we didn't have a map we didn't know it was closer. By the time we walked to the South one we were too tired to walk to the North one. We did think about transitioning but since it was a state park you had to call to see if anything was available (it was almost empty) but you can't drive up and select a site, registering with the host. They do it only through a central reservation system. Or some such thing. The off duty hosts tried to explain it but it didn't really make sense for a camping facility.

However the lake was extremely pretty.

Blossom enjoys a swim at Stockade Lake.