The Outdoor Campus - West

Fantastic experience: Enjoyed the tour throughout the place.

Fantastic experience: We walked our pups here while we were on vacation. Very well taken care of and beautiful!

Fantastic experience: I enjoyed the class. It was helpful to learn about paddeling and what to do with safety. The facility was very nice, and I thought the instructors did well and were very nice and helpful.

Fantastic experience: There is no cost to go in. Loved the stuffed animals and the fish in the fish tank.

Fantastic experience: Closest public place to being in the Black Hills down in Rapid city. A great microcosm of the hills compacted in the outdoor campus west. Well maintained trals with ponds, streams, benches and grassland. It's a pleasure to walk. Dogs need to be on leashes.

Fantastic experience: Always a great experience here. Lots of info to gather thru staff members, books & pamphlets. Lots of taxidermy animals and a small aquarium inside. Large classrooms for free classes. Free equipment signout. Trails, fish ponds and archery range outside.

Fantastic experience: Very nice place to visit and learn about the area.

Fantastic experience: Whats not to love. Nature in and out doors free fun. Thanks outdoor campus!!

Fantastic experience: Granddaughters love this place.

Fantastic experience: Just went for a beautiful walk on the grounds. Trees are turning colors and it's beautiful.

Fantastic experience: A very nice trail to explore and lots of info in the Blackhills in terms of hiking, fishing, camping, lodging, restaurants, and sightseeing/fun activities.

Fantastic experience: Catch it, clean it, cook it was such a great class! Very informative with great volunteers!

Fantastic experience: Love that you can get to learn about the wildlife of South Dakota here, and for free at that! Highly recommend if in Rapid!!

Positive experience: So worth a trip. This is set in a very busy area but its peaceful and beautiful. My friend loved the displays and I liked the fact that we had the place pretty much all to ourselves we got their right at opening, so we were able to take our time and mender through instead of being rushed off by kids or lots of people. The nature trail is a little hard to find which was what I wanted but we such a hard time finding it so we had to settle for walking around the pond they had on property but still so worth it. For it being free I was so surprised that it had as much as it did.

Fantastic experience: Love coming here to show im kid all the animals and we practice what they sound like. It's free it's kid friendly their books games and a large fish tank to view local fish. As well as a bull snake to see. The I door area is awsome for cool weather they offer classes you can come to for free I loved archery class. The outdoor has an area for kids to play and a large nice walking path with 2 fishing ponds and a stream if you follow up you get to a lovely park with restrooms near by. I highly recommend this free activity their is no wait and it's usually pretty quiet not many people go here

Fantastic experience: Nice place. Very quiet. Right on the edge of town, in a very convenient location.

Positive experience: Lovely fall colors. Some kind of wretched odor though

Positive experience: With littles, this has great trails and paths that introduce hiking at a young age. We loved the education center as well

Fantastic experience: What a great place to visit with children! It is so much nicer than Outdoor Campus East!!! You could spend hours here.

Fantastic experience: Amazing place with a great environment for parents and children. Great intern with lots of helpful information

Fantastic experience: Hands down some of the best taxpayer money ever spent. The facility is clean and full of educational activities for children and adults! I would highly recommend stopping by for an excellent learning opportunity about our natural resources here in South Dakota!

Fantastic experience: Had a lot of fun at the touch a truck event with our boy

Fantastic experience: Absolutely love the fact we have an outdoor Archery range.

Positive experience: Fun and educational lots of fun hands of things for the kids

Fantastic experience: We did a kayaking activity for our youth group and the staff were wonderful and the kids had a blast!

Fantastic experience: This place is a gem. Too many family friendly activities throughout the year to even start listing here.

Fantastic experience: Great facility; incredible volunteer staff. It is a delight to have meetings scheduled there.

Fantastic experience: Cool area/classes. Make sure you read the information on where to specifically be

Fantastic experience: This place was amazing. The lady at the front was so helpful and knowledgeable. If you are into outdoors I definitely recommend stopping by here.

Fantastic experience: This is a great s great facility for kids to visit. It's beautiful and there is a lot to look at inside. It's designed for kids to touch things and explore. The surrounding grounds are nice for easy, outdoor walking, and there is a cool structure to walk up. I call it a fort, but that's not really the correct word, I just can't think of a better one. Our most recent visits were for my 13 year old son to take the Hunt Safe course. I was impressed with how organized they were, and he really enjoyed it.

Fantastic experience: The State needs to pay these people more. Specifically the Conversation Officers. They deal with sooo much and are so good about it all.

Fantastic experience: They have a wealth of interesting facts and events here. I like the trails as well

Negative experience: Really hard to apply for any kind if tags since different format!!! People are really friendly & helpful

Positive experience: First time visiting the Outdoor Campus West... Lots of interesting exhibits and the walking trails are well kept. I thought that the aquarium would be bigger. Online pictures of the aquarium were a little misleading. It started snowing so we had to cut our visit short but will return again soon. My daughter loved the book section. We read an interesting book about wasps and looked at many others too. Great place to relax and watch the geese and ducks too...

Fantastic experience: Nature and hunting education center run by the state. Nature trail and museum. Great free archery range.

Fantastic experience: Can’t beat a beautiful free space, great for the family and a great place to walk around. Love it for photo shoot space

Fantastic experience: Attended a Foraging Class. Jean was a great instructor. Very patient with the questions. A fount of information. Well done!

Fantastic experience: I love the back door campus great place to go play around and very education as well.

Fantastic experience: Samuel and I had a great time at the archery range

Fantastic experience: We visited from Sioux Falls and we are familiar with The Outdoor Campus - East. The inside of this one is much bigger and we loved how it is laid out! We do like the grounds in Sioux Falls better, but these grounds are also very good. I wish we could have taken advantage of their archery range. We will have to do that next time we are in the area.

Fantastic experience: One of my favorites within the city limits to get in a hike and enjoy a little bit of wilderness-like time without actually being in the wild.

Fantastic experience: Another Great facility in Rapid City, I was really impressed. My young grandson loved the exhibits and so did I.

Fantastic experience: I went to my first backpacking class here. Had a great experience the instructor was very knowledgeable and informative.

Fantastic experience: Lovely walking trails. Highlights the local flora and provides great interactive spaces for kids to explore nature. We have also done archery and explored the center itself many times.

Fantastic experience: A wonderful place to explore with the kiddos and learn more about local wildlife. The trail is a nice walk with plenty to look at.

Fantastic experience: Great place! Lots of hands on!

Fantastic experience: Very nice facility, great programs, nice outdoor features as well (trails, pond, archery)

Fantastic experience: Awesome, should have checked out this campus sooner. Interns were top notch helpful!

Fantastic experience: This was certainly a nice walk in what would be a busy town. Sits on the edge of Rapid on the west side. Very quiet and nice area. A few photos to show off the area

Fantastic experience: Amazing! We took a group of summer school students, k-6th grade. They had an absolute blast! We did archery, fishing, and a South Dakota wildlife class. The people who led out classes were very kind and knowledgeable. Thanks so much for letting us explore!

Fantastic experience: Awesome guided museum and wonderful little hiking trails. Very educational. I take my kids here all the time.

Fantastic experience: Was pretty slow.. with Covid and mid week. Was lunch hour.,.staff minimal... Was in and out in minutes with park stickers. They have way more to offer.. Recommend checking them out..

Fantastic experience: Great place to take kids/families. It was quiet on the Sunday afternoon we went. Nice to let the kiddos RUN! Although, there's an open water pond.

Fantastic experience: Our family loves Outdoor Campus! The classes they offer are so fun and informative! The instructors have all been great and genuinely want to teach you!

Fantastic experience: It is clean and quiet and has all the amenities I really enjoy going here!

Fantastic experience: Beautiful place with lots of available resources. Definitely a must see for sportsmen coming to the Black Hills

Fantastic experience: We just walked the trail for the first time and it was great for all ages. Met a few friends in nature like a turtle and butterfly. All in all was a 10/10

Fantastic experience: Great organization. Great people! Fun activities - I took the Ellsworth Air Force Base fly fishing course here and it was well done. Thank you!

Positive experience: 5/13/2020-Drove to campus because the website says you are open! Sign on door says not. Please update your web site! Thanks!

Fantastic experience: We were very happy with the info we were given. We will be back when we have more time.

Positive experience: Enjoyed using the distance targets as well as using the trail targets.

Positive experience: Wish the online hours were updated went there expecting it to be open only to have a disappointed child...normally 5 stars tho

Fantastic experience: Lots of fun for the family and a great place to learn about our local habitats!

Fantastic experience: It has something for everyone. Both inside and along it's nature trails. With diarama's of wildlife and a aquarium of many different fish. It has many occupations for the young and mature mind. A pond to learn to kayak and fish a archery range. Hunters safety courses, and many groups meeting to promote photography, wildlife and water conservation, and disabled veterans fly fishing. There is something for everyone. Contact the Campus for classes and activities hosted daily and through out the year.

Fantastic experience: Very helpful staff. Bright friendly building. Good place to stop if you don't know the Black Hills

Fantastic experience: Took the grandkids. Lots of educational fun!

Fantastic experience: Wonderful place to bring the family. They offer many classes and the campus is beautiful. Their mud day is super fun! Definitely worth a visit and most things are free of charge!

Fantastic experience: I had fun in my field trip thanks outdoor campus for letting us go their hope u have a great day

Fantastic experience: Great place for the kids and they have a nice archery range

Fantastic experience: Perfect place for little ones to learn about the outdoors!

Fantastic experience: This is a great place to practice archery

Fantastic experience: This is a fun place inside and out for both adults and children.

Fantastic experience: This place is amazing! We came on free try canoeing and kayaking day! Great friendly very helpful staff! My older 2 kids (9&11) took a canoe together and had a heck of a time figuring it out, but one of the instructors came out in the water to their aide to teach them right away and had nothing but joy in helping them! I can't say enough good about this place and it's staff! Thank you for the experience & the fun!

Fantastic experience: Love the outdoor archery rang.

Positive experience: It was just like the great Outdoors

Fantastic experience: Fun free activities for families! Follow them on Facebook to keep up or you will miss out!

Fantastic experience: The inside is fantastic and educational. The outside portion needs some cleaning up and more for interaction. We enjoyed the water crossing and the free canoe/kayak event.

Fantastic experience: I always enjoy coming to Outdoor Campus. It is free and embraces learning through exploration. When my kids were little we came to some classes and family nights. Now we come when we have company to give an overview of Black Hills wildlife and land.

Fantastic experience: Great place to go if you want to learn somthing new or just have free time and want to get outside and not spend any money. There archery course and range has been a great addition and somthing that this community needed for a longtime. My only complaint is that some of the bags at the range need replaced.

Fantastic experience: Informative, attractive and interesting.

Fantastic experience: The outdoor campus is a wonderful place so glad they built it in Rapid City all kinds of activities going on all year long they have archery fishing kayaking most anything outdoors you name it they have a activity for it one of the best things is most everything is free

Fantastic experience: Love this place! Friendly and knowledgeable staff and always something fun to do. Great for families who are outdoor enthusiasts and/or with children of all ages.

Fantastic experience: Very nice facility. Good place to learn s little about the outdoors

Fantastic experience: Must stop for outdoor tourists, and parents of local kids

Fantastic experience: This place is awesome, and these people are doing amazing work!

Fantastic experience: Great handgun class tonight

Fantastic experience: Awesome...great place for children and the people are so friendly.

Fantastic experience: This is one of the best additions to the Rapid City area. A beautiful indoor wildlife display and aquarium that young and old alike will enjoy. If you're up for a walk try the surrounding walking trails. Lots of nature to enjoy.

Fantastic experience: My 3 grandsons learned about ice fishing and actually caught a few fish! Awesomeness!

Fantastic experience: Great for hikes and archery.

Fantastic experience: Love this place!

Fantastic experience: Great place to spend some time on a nice day. Beautiful setting, lots of space and different things to do. Walk paths, leashed dogs allowed, with kayak and canoe rentals available (very small pond though).

Fantastic experience: It's a really beautiful facility. Plenty to do and learn. I got help with my license, and look forward to using the new archery range.

Fantastic experience: Great family experience here.. especially if you like outdoor activities.

Positive experience: Got to walk the trails. 1st time there. Hope to see inside next time

Fantastic experience: If you're looking for information and activities go here.

Fantastic experience: Took Family Pictures there. A lovely place for that...a very nice Park area. Worth a visit.

Fantastic experience: My coworker and I brought a group of our teens here for a summer field trip, where we participated in archery and canoeing before we sat out back under a covered area to enjoy our lunch. It was the best field trip we had been on! The staff was so friendly, helpful, & fun! They greeted us right away, were hands on with the kids, & did an amazing job making the activities fun and exciting! I cannot put into words the adoration I have for this place and the people & all they did for us, but I can say we will continue to come back!

Fantastic experience: They have lots of activities for kids to learn from.

Fantastic experience: Very interactive, and the staff are wonderful. We went to a Kyaking event, and it was really cool.