South Dakota Game Production Areas

The South Dakota Department of Fish and Wildlife has banned geocaches in Game Production Areas and Walk in Areas statewide. These areas are hunting lands managed by the Game and Fish Department. This does not include State Parks and Recreation areas, but note that State Parks require permission from the park superintendent for cache placements.

The Department has asked that existing caches be removed. Please note that reviewers will not go search out existing caches for archival, but will respond to should be archived notes. I ask that cachers who have caches in Game Production areas go and retrieve their caches and archive the pages.

A map of of the areas affected can be found here.

South Dakota Policies Pertaining to Geocaching

In South Dakota, the State Parks have a permission policy for caches placed on their properties. Please contact the local state park superintendent to seek permission. If granted, please include a statement about that in the text of any submitted cache pages. The South Dakota State Park geocaching page.

Federally, the Black Elk National Wilderness Area, managed by the National Forest Service is off limits to geocaches. So is the Mount Rushmore area and any other areas managed by the National Park Service.