Best Tent Camping near Altoona, WI

Very wooded campsites, which allowed for some privacy, but you will still see your neighbors. The campground was pretty and very well kept by all standards. It is one of the 3 campgrounds of the Black River State Forest, but this one appealed to us because of its location to the town and to the highway. Its a very nicely spread out campground that had a lot to offer. When you first pull in you are directed to the pay kiosk/office park. Note that you can't pay right now due to the virus, so you will need to have a sticker on your car ahead of it. 

As for the sites. They can be large or small depending on where you choose. The majority are for tent camping and not larger RVs so if you have a bigger RV make sure you are looking ahead at the size of the pad. We saw a variety of people in different rigs from medium winnebagos and airstreams to small tear drops. Some sites are electric and that is where the campground was full. The tent sites were nice and we could get our scamp into one of those fairly easily. The nice thing is the trees...they provide great shade and also allow you to hang your hammock up if you choose. We did see warnings of ticks so just be cautious. 

The showers were very nice and looked to be housed in a new shower house. They were working on the water heater when we stopped so the cold water was all they had, but that was fine as it was a hot day. The toilets around the campground are pit, but they are more than just an outhouse so you are safe. 

One random thing was the firewood was the cheapest I have ever seen it at any state park. Nice to see them offering up a good deal on what nature provides!

This is one of my favorite campgrounds in Southern Minnesota! It is only 1 1/2 hours away from the TwinCities which makes it an ideal getaway. The campsites are wooded and have enough distance between them that noise is minimal. I especially love the view of Lake Pepin and the nice little swimming beach. On our last stay, we were able to watch eagles from our campsite, which was amazing. They have recently added 3 small cabins to rent which would be a nice alternative to tent camping. If you do plan a camping trip to Hok-Si-La and you're driving in from the Twin Cities, be sure to take Wisconsin Highway 35 through Maiden Rock, Stockholm, Pepin, and other small towns. You can loop back into Minnesota through Wabasha. This adds about an extra half hour to your drive but it is definitely worth it!

We spent two nights at Lake Wissota State Park tent camping in site 30. The site was very deep, and very private with lots of tree coverage on all sides to block out any noise and most of the light from your camping neighbors. The water source was a little far away (about 200 yards) but we were located near the bathroom and showers. The shower facilities were mediocre, but about what you'd expect at a state park.
Park has a swimming beach and several miles of trails.

Worth taking a trip into town and walking up and down the main street. Visit the local shops, and make sure to visit Leinenkugel's brewery for a tour and a pint, but don't over look the Brewster Bros. Brewing Company and the Chippewa River Distillery, also located right in Chippewa Falls.

We ran across a little camp ground called Sleepy Hollow Campground W922 Lower Eagle Valley Road, Fountain City, WI. 54629(609) 687-8351 This is one of the nicest places we have found. It is not marked on RV Trip Wizard or any others that we could find. I found it by accident through Google Maps. It looked like what a campground would look like from the air and by querying the address I found the name of the campground called Sleepy Hollow. They do not advertise and it is a small camp with little amnesties. It has a shower house with restrooms and a laundry. They are clean and well maintained. They have 13 pull through sites 80” in length and very wide with full hook-ups, eight back in sites with just water and Electric. And tent sites as well. It is on a quiet road called Lower Eagle Valley Rd. It is set in a valley with 3 to 4 hundred foot hills full of trails on a working farm. About a mile from the Mississippi just north of lock and dam no. 5A if you are looking for a quiet place to recharge this is the place for you. This is a camping site where there are adults, not designed for kids.

I had read about this being a really nice, quiet campground for tent camping, and though I was not ready to stop for the night (on my way to a wedding up north), I did get off the highway and drive through it.  Honestly, I wanted to stay!

It was not a huge campground, and facilities were basic (I guess they call that primitive), but each campsite was generous in size, well separated from the next site and nicely landscaped by nature's appointment of trees and shrubs.  It was clean, well-kept, and enticing.

 I wanted to take a picture of one of the attractive sites, but couldn't decide which one!  The small lake was so peaceful, and there was some new-looking children's play equipment, as well as some benches perfect for reading or eating on its banks.   I only saw one campsite occupied with a tent, and one small camping trailer elsewhere, which may have simply been stored there.  It was Friday afternoon in early June.  I would have expected to see more activity there.  Perhaps, as some have mentioned, there is an abundance of mosquitoes and other insects from the river (which I was unaware of) that disuades people, I don't know.  I didn't notice any when I sat by the lake.

The author of the camping book through which I had found it also said he had found the place quite charming, and he did not understand why it was so little occupied.  He, apparently had spent the night there.  I'd like to stay there next time I am driving north on 94.

I gave it 4 stars even though I have not stayed there, because it has much of what I want in a campground, and which is getting harder for nature-loving tent campers to find--simple, quiet beauty.  I took off the extra star only because I haven't actually stayed there, and want to give East Fork a chance to live up to even more!

First thing you need to know: It's completely in the woods, and sites are FULLY shaded. Sites 28-38 are on a loop with a picnic pavilion in the middle with some openings for sun on the road and in the picnic area. Other than that, the rest of the campground is rather dark all the time; there aren't as many sunlight openings on the road to the other sites. This is not a good place for solar panels, but almost all sites are electric.

Nice price: Cost is $20/$16 for electric/non-electric. This is an Army Corps of Engineers park which means you pay $10/$8 if you have an NPS Lifetime Senior Pass.

Services: There are full services at this campground - flush toilets, sinks, showers, trash receptacles, and drinking water/dump station near the entrance. There is an interpretive center for Saturday evening ranger programs and a playground next to it.

Roomy sites: This campground is small, but almost all sites are large. There are 38 sites plus walk in tent sites A through G and a group site. It looks like sites 28-38 can be rented for a group; the entrance was blocked off when we were there.

Equestrian section may be open to campers without a horse: There is an equestrian campground about a half mile before the main campground entrance. You may camp in the equestrian area (E1-E10) without a horse if the main area is full. We were able to reserve a site in there a couple days ahead of time because the main campground was full. It was just us and one other family on a Saturday night, and neither of us had a horse. We moved to the main area on Sunday morning because lots of sites were open on Sunday.

This is a diamond in the rough - exactly what we wanted on our journey.  Our criteria - less than $100, pet friendly and rustic. 

This is a sawmill that has it all - they run the mill when needed, but also have primitive cabins (where we stayed), full cabins with in house bath, electric RV/tent camping and more. Even wood fired pizzas with homemade crust most nights of the week and sometimes live music!

We were in cabin #3 - rustic.  Yes - it did have heat!  A little ceramic heater had it so toasty when it was 30 degrees outside we actually turned it off - so it's sure to please on chilly nights.  The interior was amazing - lumber that I'm sure came from the mill and ceiling planks that were gorgeous - left over planks from many years ago, stored in a shed and re-purposed for the cabin. The bed was very comfortable with clean sheets and squishy (in a good way) pillows. A small covered front porch and we just parked in front.

Bathroom - if you are in a cabin without a bath, it's very nearby. One of the largest, cleanest bathrooms I've seen.  He built it himself. Women's had 2 sinks with a large vanity area, about 3 stalls (very large - you don't have to squish into them) and two very large shower stalls with full doors - not shower curtains. Heated as well.

Pets - easy pet policy. Just let the owner know and it's no problem as long as you are responsible, pick up after them and leash them when necessary.  Just a small charge for them and they were very welcomed here.

He even has event space indoors (heated) and outdoors for weddings and such.  And hiking trails (6 miles) if you choose to take on the outdoors.

The owner plans on adding saunas and a hot tub in the near future - so this would be the place to drop for a while if you want something out of the norm, peaceful, rustic and relaxing. It's off the main road, behind a field in Amish Country.  Lovely place to stay for the night. Very quiet.

This campground has two sections, north and south. The southern portion has been closed all summer because of flooding. We stayed in the north section in site 12, which has a small grassy overflow parking lot across from it. The campground is clean and very open. The campsites are arranged on both sides of a circle drive with trees surrounding the circle and some in the middle.

There is a play ground for the kids, but you need to drive or walk about half mile to 3/4 of a mile to it. It is located at the nature center. During our stay, they had a presentation on birds and our boys really enjoyed it. The park also offers a boat landing, which was clean and easily accessible. You could also bring your boat up to a walk-able landing near the north campground, but this is inaccessible by car. This landing did offer a sand beach, but I don't know that I would recommend swimming here because of algae. During our stay we were also plagued by little black flies, but the mosquitoes weren't bad.

The campground offered very clean restroom facilities with both bathrooms and showers at one end, near where we stayed, and at the other end there was a bathroom that offered pit toilets. You are able to tent camp or bring in a pop up camper or larger pull behind. I'm not sure that a large RV would fit in any of the sites, but a small one definitely would. There are specific sites that are reserved only for tents and some sites do offer electrical access. There are no sites with water access, but there are two water access points within the North Campground, one on each end. Roads in the park/campground are paved. The campsites themselves are not paved. They are grassy. There are no additional amenities at this campground.

While the campground itself is quiet and all campers were respectable, the frequency of trains and the loudness of their horns at night was enough to drive me nuts. Every time I was almost asleep another one would go past. I finally moved from our popup camper to our car, which blocked out enough noise to allow me to fall asleep. Because of the trains, we will not be returning to camp here. If you are not able to fall asleep right away or are a light sleeper, I would definitely not recommend staying here.

The rest of the park was quiet and did not have much car traffic. I am not sure if this was due to the fact that the south campground was flooded or if it always has few cars. I was able to run the length of the park without encountering many cars (3.8 miles round trip including running through parking lots in the park). I did not, but you are able to walk through the flooded section of the park. They are just prohibiting people from driving there. Close to fishing, boating, and unique shopping opportunities.

Campground Review:

Lake Eleven campsite is a back country site located within the Chequamegon National Forest in Taylor County, Wisconsin. It is the 15.5 mile Lake Eleven Segment, part of the 1200 mile long Ice Age Trail. A 2.5 hr drive from the Twin Cities it is an excellent diverse section of trail with many geologic wonders formed by continental glaciation, with the most recent effects formed at the end of the Wisconsin Glaciation, a period ending about 10,000 years ago.

Starting our hike at the STH-64 parking lot we hike approximately 10 miles to our campsite. There are two sites on Lake Eleven, one on the south side and ours on the north side. Our initial intentions were to camp on the south side but surprisingly it was occupied on an otherwise empty trail. Our late October backpacking trip skirted hunting season in Wisconsin and it appeared a few groups were getting a head start on the weekend. The guide book does mention that this site is used for backpackers, hunters, fisherman and equestrians. We were fortunate to grab the north side location moments before another group of men came thru. I should note that there is plenty of space for large groups at the north side site but as a group of 7 women, the men knew better than to try and camp at our site; fortunate for us as we could hear their drunken banter across the lake. This north side location is accessible via a short spur trail and situated under a grove of pines so we had adequate protection from the sleet storm that was coming as well as a soft pad of needles for all 5 of our tents. This site also provided excellent space for hammock camping. Located next to the lake, it provided ease of access to water that was drinkable with a filtration system. The site has a nice stone fire pit with log benches surrounding it. Plenty of downed/dead trees provide firewood. There is no pit toilet at this location but plenty of open (no low lying brush) wooded area to find a spot to do your business.

Overall a pleasant spot to consider as you travel some or all of the Ice Age Trail.

Product Review:

As a Ranger Reviewer for The Dyrt, I am honored occasionally to test and evaluate products. During this trip I tested out the Oofos womens Oolala Slide Sandal https://www.oofos.com/collections/womens-oolala-slide-sandal

This sandal is touted as a recovery sandal but frankly I use it as an everything sandal. I walk the dog in them, use them at the beach, use them after running, use them around the house, use them at the campsite after a long day of hiking… they are so comfortable that I don’t really care to wear any other sandals. The extra cushy foam, apparently called Oofoam, really does make your feet and legs feel better. The thick sole took a little bit getting used to but like a day not a week. The grippy bottoms give you great traction on all surfaces and my feet fit comfortably yet snugly in the slide, no worries about them slipping off. For our backpacking trip they were a great post 6-8 hr hike shoe. I’d throw off my hiking shoes and throw on the sandals. I really felt this allowed for a quicker recovery and less leg pain and fatigue for the next days hike. What was also great was popping them off right before I got in the tent. No struggling with wet muddy shoes as I crawl into my ultralight 2p tent (aka no room at all). Speaking of light, these puppies were attached to the outside of my pack and added a whopping 10 ounces. As far as the pricing goes these tend to be mid to upper range compared to other recovery sandals. I’ve had a different brand of sandal at a similar price and while nice they only lasted a couple years. For the pricing and the fact that they’re not used for hard use (hiking, running, etc.) I feel they should have lasted longer. Only time will tell if these Oofos will do the same. If they do last longer than they are worth the price.

This campground would be best for RVing IMO. The entire place is lifted from a swamp which means that it’s low, damp ground. They also must have used sand, as it drains very quickly. I describe the site as such because we spent the weekend in a tent and it literally rained the entire weekend. The site we were at turned into a lake four times, submerging our fire pit and picnic table. This made making a fire near impossible, let alone accessible, it was in the middle of a small lake! As we scrambled most of the fear to the car, we watched the water creep to the front door of the tent, from the highest ground. It’s a good thing we had a tarp under the tent, otherwise we would have been swimming in our tent. Anyway, busy place, near the road and a honky tonk. Not our preferred experience. Vault toilets, firewood, nice beach if the weather was nice.

There are three campgrounds run by the Wisconsin DNR in this area (not counting the 2 site boat-in camp on the river)  Castle Mound, Pigeon Creek and this one, which is the smallest and farthest away from anything. It's on the river, but not the scenic and most canoe-able part which is down below the town and dam in Black river falls. However there is a good shallow boat ramp for canoes/ kayaks.
There's a group campground away from the river, nearer to the marsh and 24 individual sites. Three of them are pull through (104, 113 & 120).
 We are tent campers, so I didn't pay close attention to hookups, but I doubt there are any.
We were there in October, and the birds had gone for the winter, so had the ATVers. I don't know what it's like in the peak of the summer, but the area has lots of off-road trails for ATVs.  Having said that, it was eerily quiet during our entire stay and we had maybe three other campers staying with us.
There's one trail leading out of the campground, but we were there to canoe and didn't hike it. We did hike the castle Mound trail which has cool rock formations and spectacular views (you have to climb an iron ladder at the very end, worth it).
We use Black River canoe rentals as our portage service so we could drift downriver to our car. It's run out of a liquor store, so that's convenient.

As a kid we went here often. The water front sites were awesome. Nice sandy shored lake a short walk from your tent couldn’t be beat. I remember there being decent little trails through out as well.

Continuing my quest to visit as many Wisconsin state parks as possible. I stopped by here to check out the campsites for potential future camping and look over the park. When I found was a very well-maintained park, love the viewing area of the lake. Campsites looked good as well.

Very nice walk-in site right on the river. LOTS of bugs to the point it was uncomfortable so make sure to bring bug spray. Tent pad, fire ring and picnic table available. Trees available that are good for those who hammock.

Beautiful Wisconsin state park. Two campgrounds, the north campground is more primitive, the south campground, where we stayed, has electrical hookups. We stayed here in Oct. of 2014, our first night camping in our new RV. Only stayed one night, but we were impressed. Decent bathrooms and showers in the south campground.

Secluded campground located on Silver Birch Lake and nearby the Chippewa River. More "rugged" style camping and about a quarter mile off the main road. This campground is open from mid-April through November. The campground has tent, RV spots, electric, toilets, and a picnic area. 

One single boat ramp with water access. Panfish, bass, pike, and catfish can all be caught here.