I feel like the reviews for this place are misleading. Manage your expectations a bit people. This isn't a 5 star, all inclusive resort. It's a hotel centered around families with kids. Kids are filthy animals! It's hard to keep every inch of a hotel 110% immaculate all of the time with kids everywhere. The pool might not be perfectly clean, might see a dropped ice cream cone on a sidewalk. Thats what kids do. Your kids won't be the only ones here! That being said, we had an absolute blast here! We had a double queen room and everything was great with the room. No it's not anything overly special. But we stayed here with the intention of spending very little time in our room. Basically a place to sleep and shower. It was very clean, the beds were pretty comfy, AC worked great, and the balcony was a nice touch! Plenty of water pressure and hot water in the shower. Ice machine nearby was a life saver too! Wifi was a little finnicky to get to connect, but mostly worked for us. Also worked by the pools when I could get connected. This place really is a kid paradise. Two pools, two hot tubs, splash pad, water slide, jump pad, rock climbing, basketball, volleyball, mini golf, two playgrounds. It's got so much to do! Plus other paid (CHEAP) activites too! $3 rootbeer floats were great. Kids made tiedye shirts and it was only ten bucks a kid! Live music in the evenings. We didn't do the horses or bike rentals. We did eat at the restaurant next to the hotel one night and it was pretty good. The location couldn't be better. A few miles from Mt Rushmore. 15 minutes from Keystone, Hill City, and Custer. Plenty of shopping and dining options nearby if you want to get out a bit. Plus TONS of activities in all those cities to explore. Any small complaints? Sure. Apple juice was almost always out at the continental breakfast, they were a bit slow to restock most items there. Most hotels have someone there pretty much 100% of the time during breakfast, they did not. We ate there at different times and it was like that every time. But they did stock it up again eventually. Our room never got cleaned during our stay. But I think that's probably for the best considering we had 3 kids' suitcases that essentially exploded in the room. But we were able to get clean towels from the front desk when needed. Positives TOTALLY outweigh the negatives. Despite a few small negatives, this place is fantastic! We actually skipped a couple planned activities so the kids could come back to swim and play. A lot of the parents sit at the pools and drink while the kids swim, so don't be shy about bringing a cooler or a drink or two. Nobody was drunk or obnoxious during our stay and we visited both pools. Manage your expectations, and understand that this is part of a LARGE!!! KOA Campground, and that you're sharing the place with a bunch of other people. Know that going in, and you'll have a blast like we did! Still 5 stars for me!

It was everything our family was hoping for! Absolutely beautiful and majestic, and several stops along the trail where rangers shared interesting historical stories. Be sure to visit the artist's building to see the scale model of the finished vision. I had no idea that the monument wasn't completed yet!

The customer service is horrible. They could care less once they get your credit card. I received broken key fob, told Melissa but didn't notate and then got charged $221 once I got home. I called them and they did not care. Disputing on my credit card. The pool was dirty and shower Stations #3 was gross.

The lodge is in a perfect location for sightseeing. They are updating the pool and hot tub right outside of the lodge and it appears this will be really nice when completed. The resort had some fun activities for the kids and we did participate in some things as we were charged a daily resort fee. Our kids really enjoyed tie dying shirts and building rockets (extra fee). The jumping pillow and bouncy houses were a nice touch. The swimming pool and hot tubs by the campground needed a good cleaning. BUT, the rooms are in dire need of updating. They have updated the flooring in the entry of the room and it appears as f the sink was newer as well but that’s it, The carpets are really, really bad and stained. We wondered if some of the stains were pet stains as pets are allowed and the room had an odor. The air conditioner needed a good cleaning. The bathroom smelled of urine and had some specks on the ceiling which may or may not be mold. The shower sounded like a helicopter at times. When the helicopter took off, you’d better take cover because the super hot water was coming. We did have a lukewarm shower one morning as the hot water must’ve ran out. The room needed a good cleaning. We understand that there is trouble finding help, but some of these things did not just happen since COVID. Breakfast was your typical continental breakfast with bagels, cereal, yogurt, juice and coffee. The room where the breakfast was served was nice. The lodge was far enough away from the campground so that you weren’t disturbed. The only way we knew we were next to a campground and cabins is the campfire smells at night.

Okay the room was fine the beds were fine , the staff were fine but we had the experience of expectations that were not met at this resort we stayed for 4 nights 1) the facility was about to close for the season although the lodge seems full to capacity every night 2) their pancake breakfast had closed so that expectation was not met and we had to find breakfast offerings off sight that were few and far between 3) No room service at all 4) the horse back riding had closed 5) as this was attached to a huge KOA place we got the feeling that the KOA was still going strong but less strong at the lodge - micro complaints I guess - it was clean and there was coffee downstairs - and it was very central to all of the things we got to experience