William G. Lunney Lake Farm Campground (Dane County Park)

This is a fine spot if you are passing through and I imagine if you live in Madison area this is a place you come for day activities.

The camp ground was quiet after it closed but lots of transient traffic both in cars, bikes and walking.

Appears to be some folks using the facilities that are not campers.

I am sure none of this matters if you have a travel companion or more but for a single woman this is all a bit disconcerting.

So for single women warning that you may feel uncomfortable here.

Site 3 is close to restrooms and showers. Very level and had a picnic table. I did not notice a fire pit as I was not using one.

Sites are very close together.

This is a small campground very clise to downtown Madison. There are many paths, one is a paved path leading into town which could be biked. The area around the camp is lovely and peaceful. The rv sites are small and as others have noted have zero privacy. We came to sightsee, so no problems there. We had site 2, which is level and there is a picnic table and fire ring. The bathrooms/showers are nice, there is water and a dump station. The host we had is excellent. The camp was very quiet at night. We would definitely stay again.

No city noise just geese and ducks landing in the marsh.

Nice campground. A lot of trails around for biking and hiking. Boat launch near by so bring you kayak and fishing pole.

This is a county park with state-park type amenities. Not a lot of privacy because neighbors are pretty close, but it was quiet for a good night's sleep.

Paved roads, gravel sites, nice and level overall. Bathroom facilities appear new and are well-maintained. They even have a dish-washing station and high-pressure air hose available.

Sites have 50/30/20 amps. No water on sites but spigots located throughout the park. Dump station right at the entrance but there's plenty of room to maneuver around there. Could get congested if busy.

Some sites are quite large; saw plenty of bigger rigs here. Site 17 is a smaller one but worked great for our Class B. All sites have an aluminum picnic table and a fire ring.

Cell service was decent for T-Mobile and Verizon.

The campground is adjacent to a large multi-use trail system, which would be great if you were here for a few days. One path even takes you downtown in just 4 miles.

Price is a bit high due to $10 registration fee on top of $28 site fee. But would stay here again for an overnight or two if in the area.

We enjoyed this park so much we have already been here twice and have a third trip planned for this coming September.   There are very wide bike/hiking paths that are paved or stone. 

The huge lake has boating opportunities and you can rent a boat in McFarland that is a short drive or bike ride.  We rented a boat to fish and then drove across the lake to eat at a restaurant with boat parking.

The nature center is across the street from the campground and has a small snack bar/restaurant.  There are cranes walking all around and the park is so big it has different types of plants to explore.  There is an observation tower and in the picnic area a playground.  The best part is the boardwalk that extents over the lake and you are walking/riding on water.

About a half a mile away is a very nice dog park that you receive admission to if you have a campsite.

Dane County has many parks in their system and we have stayed at several and all are great.

Good spot for a short stay in the Madison area. Nice area to walk around and close to food. Shower was closed. The one road can get congested when you are waiting for the dump station.

I did not spend a night at this campground but did spend time bicycling around to get to know it. This is a small county campground with electric and water sewer hookups for RVs and a handful of tent campsites.

However, in summer 2020 all of the tent campsites are closed to reservations. The RV sites are only open to vehicles with self-contained water and sewer. In fact, the entire toilet and shower building is closed, at least temporarily during this time of COVID. The tent campsites, when they available, are very open and would be quite sunny during the day. They are also extraordinarily close to one another, there is no understory between for any privacy. Each tent campsite is equipped with a metal picnic table and an elevated grill, there are no places for ground bonfires.

The electric RV unit sites do have bonfire rings. The entire campsite sits along a fairly busy residential road, the tent campsites butt right up against it, it would be fairly noisy.

I honestly see no appeal to this campground except for a cheap place to stay near the city of Madison. While I did not see them, there are hiking trails around and nearby the lake.

I do however see one interesting function for it for a particular set of campers. Someone living in Madison who is interested in trying out a bike camping trip would do well to practice biking to this campsite. It's about a 30-minute ride from downtown Madison and you could practice both your biking and tent gear, with easy access back to the city if you forgot something :-) or call a friend :-)

This campground has electric sites for RVs and plenty of space for your slideouts. What it doesn't have is privacy. There are some great paved bike trails (Capital City Trail) that connects you to Madison and all the city has to offer. If you're looking to bike or run the trails, it's the perfect jump off point. There are lots of connecting hiking trails for bird watching. But the sites are not shaded, and it's like a big grass parking lot for RVs. Because of the COVID-19 restrictions, the bathroom have been closed and porta-potties in place. No other amenities right now, so bring what you need. There is a nature center that is open in non-pandemic times. But for how, this is a great place to park your camper at a reasonable price where you can ride your bike to downtown Madison in about 40 minutes.

Campground Review:

Lake Farm County Park is in a really cool location. It's just 5 miles from downtown Madison, which on a Saturday morning is a fabulous bike ride. There are trails right through the campground that are on Madison's trail system. There is a daily fee for the trails but I think it was $5 for the day. The annual pass was pretty inexpensive as well if I remember correctly. The park definitely fills up being so close to downtown, people camp there just so they can ride their bikes to the farmers market. The sites are relatively well groomed, mine was a bit shaggy as they were mowing when I was there and didn't want to bother me, which I appreciate because we have had tent lines cut with mowers that have gotten too close. My site was also considerably dirty. It was well marked that it was a smoke free site but there were cigarette butts everywhere and trash as well. That was disappointing.  I got in fairly early on a Thursday and there were only a few sites left. I had difficulty at first figuring out how to register as the office was closed but as I was trying to navigate the sign and instructions the host came over and cleared it up for me. I got registered for a couple days and set up camp. Shortly after I noticed that the camper next to me had a car from Colorado, where I'm from and it appeared to be a single lady also setting up a tent. This made me happy and we walked the park and chatted at our sites. The area we were in did not have fire rings. This was very disappointing. Other sites had fire rings but ours did not. One of the first things I noticed while in my site was that it was overrun with mosquitos. I know there has been a lot of rain in many places but it made it incredibly hard to enjoy the area.

There are showers, free of charge and flush toilets with running water sinks. So that part was quite comfortable. They even had a dishwashing station which was also super useful since I did not have a campfire. They had a water bottle filling station near the bubbler. Which was nice as well. Overall, the campground has nice amenities, you can even buy campfire wood from the camp host. There was an air filling station as well as a tiny little library. There was a playground as well for the kids. 

I decided that Saturday morning was a good time to hit the trail and head to farmers market. It's a pretty easy ride until you get right up to the square, then there was a big hill to bike up but overall the trail was very easy. I wished I had more energy to bike more while I was there. I would go back to this campground just to hit the trails. They went in about three different directions. I picked up a lovely Amish made apple pie while I was at farmers market and that was quite enjoyable for dessert that night.

Product Review:

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get products to test from time to time- today I am testing the Women's Free Rein Parka from Red Ledge. There a bunch of cool features in this rain parka that make it a nice jacket to keep on hand in any situation. It has two large armpit zippers that help with ventilation when it's warm out but wet. It has two large pockets in the normal location with a smaller pocket with some elastic inside one of those front pockets. I'm assuming the little one is to keep keys or ID from getting lost in the large hand pockets. It has adjustable velcro on the sleeves to keep that tight and water free. The hood has an interesting design. I found you have to unzip the front a bit to put the hood up as it's a bit of a tight fit but once it's up it's not tight at all. It is designed so you can turn  your head without ending up inside the hood and that feature works well. On top of the zipper going down the front there is also a velcro enclosure so that you know you're going to keep water from getting in. I did notice that if I am out with the hood down and it's raining, the water goes right down the neck. But, if it's raining, just put the hood up. It's form fitting, which I normally don't like but this one is quite comfortable. The fabric is pretty rigid at first, I'm hoping that will loosen up as time goes on. I also found that it is more comfortable with a long sleeve shirt underneath. The material feels weird on the skin otherwise. I also used it just as a coat while out, it didn't rain much while I was camping but it helped to keep me a little warmer as I neglected to bring a sweatshirt. I imaging it would also be a great windbreaker in a pinch. I look forward to keeping this in my camping arsenal.

With the rain and the proliferation of mosquitoes, we were wandering around southern Wisconsin without a plan when we stumbled across this county park. 50 sites, many with electric and very reasonably priced ($25 for electric/$18 non which includes a $2 senior discount). Spaces are generous in size although no privacy between them. Bathrooms are very large and clean. Showers but didn’t use so can’t comment on their condition. Dishwashing sink! Adjacent to the Lake Farm SRA and several multi-use trails. Note that it is in the flight path of the airport so you will hear planes.

Great place to camp with lits of things to do: boating, biking, nature board walks, dear, goose and bird watching and a nature center. The Maple Fest blue grass festival is the best. A group campground for tents and another one for campers. I bike camp there every year. Lots of great music all day and good musicians singing by the camp fire all night. Reservations may be necessary for summer weekends. As of this year some of the tent sites wont allow pit fires. Best to check and see if the site allows a pit fire before setting up your tent. Wood is avaliable so you wont have to bring your own.

We stayed in our 42 ft motor home with jeep tow. We drove to the park in our jeep at nine am on a Sunday to check availability. If you haven’t reserved a site, there are several sites for walk-ins but you have to be present to sign/obtain them. Check out time is three pm but weekend people often leave earlier in the day and that is what occurred for us. Several sites have 50 amp plus there are thirty amp And non electric/tent sites available. The campground has showers and bathrooms but this is a county park so understand these are not hotel facilities. They are adequate for campIng. There are biking and hiking trails in and through the park and trail users also share the restrooms. The park is close to Madison. There is WiFi but the signal is variable. The ranger and campground hosts were friendly and helpful. Four legged campers on leash can walk with you on the trails and there is s nearby dog park.

Quality

This campground was probably the most average town campground I've stayed in. Be prepared to immerse yourself in nature and then be disappointed as the cop sirens from the neighboring highway drown out the crickets. They have showers though I guess.