Best Glamping near Babcock, WI

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.

Sherwood Forest Campground is a long time family run campground in an excellent location for enjoying all that the Wisconsin Dells has to offer. Our site had 50 amp electric, water and sewer connections. We were situated on the upper ridge of the campground, furthest from the office/camp store and swimming pool. Our showers were very disappointing. The shower stall had a single stackable plastic lawn chair and a curtain. No mirror, no towel bar or hook, no shelf or caddy in the shower for toiletries. To operate the shower, one must push in the valve, hope the water is a suitable temperature, and repeat after about 20 seconds, or keep pushing while performing your ablutions one handed. The swimming pool, while advertised as heated to 80 degrees, was not heated at all. There is a fairly complete camp store, a splash pad for kids, a game room and laundry available. Some seasonal sites are also available.

This campground is perfect for families with young children that don’t like the chaos of other campgrounds that are made for children. This ultra clean campground has amazing shower and bathroom facilities. All the camp sites are shady and super well kept. On site there is a small swimming pool that is clean and not too deep, as well as a giant beach and swimming hole. Campers me use the beach for free, but the inflatable‘s that are on the water cost extra . There is also an electric wakeboard Experience for cost. The beach is clean with a lot of shade pergolas, picnic tables, and seating. There is a restaurant on site that is not part of the campground, but makes for a good place in case of rain. They are currently building a new office which will improve the look at check-in a lot. The owners are kind and respectful, the grounds are very well-kept and bathrooms are cleaned multiple times a day. The showers take quarters, but they are hot, have good pressure, and a quarter gets you a lot of shower time. Our kids bring their bikes and have a nice time on the quiet and slow paths.

There is firewood for sale on site as well as ice, a few necessities, and ice cream!

We had site A11, and just loved the location. The A loop is overlooking the lake and close to the beach. Big pine trees so your campsite is really flexible- we had 3 sites A10-12 and just made it a big area for the families to merge in. Plenty of trees and coverage for hammocks, fire pits can be moved. The only negative is that showers cost $0.25 for 3 min. We skipped the showers and just went swimming. There’s a big beach area roped off, and a swim platform for the big kids. There’s a boat launch, and Buckhorn State park is just 15 min away if you need more trails. Dogs were welcomed, plenty of bathrooms and trash locations. They have 2 dump and fill stations for rvs. We have a 28 ft travel trailer and had tons of space at our site. So far, this may be my favorite camping location in WI! We went mid August, and didn't have problems with mosquitoes but we load up on the DEET. We are already planning our group camping trip again for next year! Also was able to get a nice 6 mile run in on roads without much traffic.

This is a great family campground. We just returned from a family reunion of 20 people camping together and they were great to work with. We were able to have 3 pop ups and 2 tents on 3 sites. We also rented a cabin for the great grandparents. All sites and cabin were clean. Bathrooms were also clean. Women's bathroom had only 1 working soap dispenser, but that caused minimal issues. Pool was clean and surrounding area was clean. Many activities for the family, bounce pad, volleyball, basketball, tennis, horse shoes, mini golf. We were disappointed that for$3 per person for mini golf that the course was so dirty. We did what we could to remove rocks, sticks, pine needles, etc from the holes in order to have a better family tournament. There was a good mixture of permanent and non permanent sites. Nicely wooded. We had a quiet week and on the weekend, the traffic picked up, but it was still quiet at night. My one complaint would be that since I was trying to work while camping this past week, we did not have any internet access like their website mentions. However, we did have a bad storm our first night and I believe the building was hit by lightening. Frontier was on site at least two days, but the internet did not improve. The only other odd thing was the wagon ride on Friday night. It started off great and then we went into the woods. They had all sorts of odd decorations randomly nailed to trees which distracted from the wagon ride and made us adults ready to get off of the wagon.

This campground is only 10 to 15 minutes from everything that you would want to do in the WI Dells. We did do some traditional Wisconsin Dells things while camping. One of which was riding the Original Wisconsin Dells Duck Boat Tour. While the jokes are super cheesy, the scenery is beautiful and the driver let our son drive the duck boat in Lake Delton. I would recommend this tour. I do not know how it compares to the Army Duck tour. We also ate lunch at MACs, which is an all Macaroni and Cheese restaurant. The Jalapeno Mac was so spicy it made our nephew cry and even my husband said it was spicy. Everything we ate here was great, including the Jalapeno Mac. We would highly recommend.

This was our second visit to this park. On both occasions we wanted to canoe the scenic Kickapoo river. Our first trip was five years ago and we got portage service for our canoe from Titanic Rentals in Ontario. We went from there (bridge 1) to bridge 12 Which took nearly all day, but we were able to have lunch at the park's Wildcat landing, the only real and equipped picnic site along the river. NOTE; Google maps makes it look like the campground and landing are near each other. They are not. It's three miles of very steep roads, so don't think you're going to fetch anything you left behind.
 The campground is on top of the ridge, which means in the morning you will look out over a fog shrouded valley through the trees. The views from the overlooks, which are a short hike, are worth checking out. Campsite 15 is the only one with a clear view.
There are walk in sites and the paths are wide and clear. The park provides large carts for your stuff so you can really pack stuff in and get away from it all. But the family tent and RV sites generally well spaced, check the map as some are more private than others.
 Our second trip was in August, 2023 and we canoed from bridge 12 to LaFarge (bridge 21). It was later in the season than our previous trip, and in the slightly less scenic stretch of the river. As a result, we didn't see any other boaters.
Campsites have basic fire ring, and there are pit toilets as well as one Full facility with running water and hot showers. Firewood is available at the Ranger station.
There's also Equestrian camping elsewhere in the park and lots of trails for both hikers and horses.
 The town of Ontario has a good general store and a couple bars, but this is pretty much wilderness and small farms. Two unique places however are Wild Things Furrier near bridge twelve. Want a coonskin cap or some smoked trout? This is the place.
 More unique than that if you want to treat yourselves, go 34 miles south to the St. Frances Hermitage restaurant. It's run by a small order of French Monks and Nuns who raise their own animals and grow the vegetables they serve. Their bakery is also delicious. This is not fast food, this is a gastronomic experience.