Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Brule, WI

This 2,350-acre campground was well-maintained and is located on Madeline Island (the largest Apostle Island) on Lake Superior. 

You need to take a ferry to get there and I took Madeline Ferry and it was easy even with an RV.

Big Bay State Park does not allow dogs (pets) on the 1.5-mile long beach which was disappointing, however, there was another campground (Big Bay Town Park) on the Island that had a fabulous pet-friendly beach so I spent time there.  

There are several hiking trails and Big View Trail was scenic along Lake Superior.

Big Bay State Park experience video:
https://youtu.be/LHGZdC6y-A0

If your from Wisconsin this sits at the very north of the State. If your looking for areas to visit while camping here you may have a little bit of a drive. The park features some of the best waterfalls in the State and the trails surrounding those falls can get you pretty close for some spectacular photos! The North Country Scenic Hiking runs through the park. This is the longest hiking trail in the county and stretches over 4500 miles. The park does have a beach but if you have a four legged friend with you the pet beach isn't the best as your subject to the boat landing area and isn't very inviting. You can walk through this park and never get bored of the scenes. If you like being surrounded by green this is the place! A nice park to get away from any amenities or thoughts of the city!

This is a small state forest campground adjacent to the beautiful and wild Brule River of northern Wisconsin. There are drive-in sites for both tenters and folks with small RVs, but be advised there are no hook-ups. The sites are large, well spaced, and rustic, with basic latrines and a communal water pump. The campground is fairly small and fairly remote, however the garbage receptacles were overflowing so clearly staff arent visiting very often and there wasnt evidence of a campground host so I would be a bit concerned about supervision of the campground if I was camping alone, hence I docked my review by one star. That being said, the pros are many, especially for those wanting access to this special river. There are trails up and down the river, for shore casting, and access to the shallows ir bridge fishing as well, and the fishing is equally good for angling or fly fishing. The very best aspect of this campground is its selection of paddle-in or hike-in campsites along the river, large campsites nestled in tall forest pines that could accomodate fishing or canoeing groups. The canoe landing is nicely developed and has easy access, and there are great canoe racks adjacent to the landing as well. This landing is an easy days paddle from a put-in at the outfitter to the south on Highway 2, and an easy paddle from here to the next stops on the Brule River Water Trail, so you could easily plan a nice multi day canoe trip even if you didnt have your own gear. As far as a water trail with canoe campsites go, thus is one of the best II’ve seen!

As we arrived on a Saturday around 1:45 PM, there was quite the line of RVs checking in as most people come in for a week on Saturdays. As we have been here multiple times, we knew not to line up down the narrow road shoot that’s adjacent to the lodge where you check in but stay on the main road. They had plenty of staff on duty, so check-in was fairly quick, and we headed to site 457, which was an easy back-in with FHUs. We were pleasantly surprised we didn’t get site 456 right on the road. When we make a reservation for this campground(CG), you can only pick an area, not a specific site, for most of the sites. This was the first time we’d stayed in this area of mixed short-term and seasonal sites. The FHU facilities were placed in the middle of the gravel-grass site with a picnic table and fire pit. We were able to put out our back patio and have plenty of space to park our F450. There are a lot of mature trees in this park, so satellite is going to be iffy depending on the site. We were able to get an okay shot to the north for Starlink but no chance for the southern sky. You can opt to pay for the park Wi-Fi. The water pressure is good, and we had two bars on Verizon. The staff at the lodge/office is top-notch. We found out that this year’s“watch out” was kids riding electric bikes full out versus underage golf cart drivers of last year, so“watch out” in either case. The CG has been trying to police the lack of parental oversight, but this first-rate CG attacks a lot of families. Though there’s no formal dog park, there are plenty of areas to walk your dog, including the trail up and around the newer primitive camping area. Lake Chip is one of our favs, and we will continue to return.

Oh thank goodness, we camped out at Dalrymple Park and Campground in Bayfield, WI as supposed to our original reservation at a boring campground in Cornucopia, WI. Dalrymple was just minutes away from Bayfield, and boat rides away from the Apostle Islands and Madeline Island. There are 28 sites surrounded by canopies of trees and there are wooded fences along the sides next to Lake Superior. It was a perfect spot to settle in for camping. Some sites were drive-in and others were back-ins perfect for RVs under 30 feet. Camping is $25 a night for 2 vehicles or 1 RV for each site. There is a fire ring, picnic table, electric hook-up, and a stump to cut some firewood at each site. Bathrooms are vault toilets and are walking distance. There were plenty of FREE firewood piles near the entrance. Cell-signal was strong for Verizon. A few of the back-in sites were steep but spacious and the drive-in sites were a bit small. It is a family-friendly campground. Pets are welcome but must be on a leash. The mosquitoes were pretty active so bring your repellant or citronella to ward them off. The view was great, but the noise level at night was a damper. We had a rowdy camper who had no consideration or camping etiquette when it's past 10:00 pm. The campground itself was overall wonderful.