Best Tent Camping near Colfax, WI

General: Smallish (38 sites plus four walk-in sites) Army Corps of Engineers campground. Some (see below) have electric hookups but no water or sewer hookups, however, there is a dump station. 

Site Quality: All sites are gravel/dirt (except for the ADA-accessible site), and most are very generous in size. Our site (7) sloped down but leveled out with plenty of room for our campervan at the bottom. All sites are wooded with trees providing separation/privacy between sites. Completing the site are a metal picnic table, fire ring, and lantern hook. 

Bath/Shower House: Sites 28-38 only have vault toilets (but you could trek to the other campground loop). Sites 1—27 have flush toilets and showers. They were very clean, and I especially appreciated the fact that they were cleaned daily before 6 am, a shout out to the camp host! The shower was great– warm water and great flow, although our friends (who arrived two days before we did) had cold showers when the campground was full.

Activities: Several short hiking trails. I give this campground 4 stars instead of 5 because Eau Galle Reservoir (Lake George) is about a 10-minute drive from the campground. Most Corps of Engineers campgrounds are located right on the water. There are no amenities (rentals, etc.) offered at the lake but it is small and beautiful, and we enjoyed a peaceful paddle. We saw a couple of people fishing on the lake and there is a small swimming area. At the campground, there was an interpretive center, but it was locked when we were there. There is also a nice, modern playground. 

Aside from the plentiful bugs (in August), we enjoyed our two-night stay at this campground!

 This park is on a smaller scale and less crowded than Devil’s Lake. There is a small beach that is in the process of renovation. The sites are large surrounded by trees and very private. The sites on the lake side are not electric and some of them are huge buddy sites, great for extended families. There are two shower houses in the campground located next to sites 29 or 72. If you are on the legs furthest from the lake it is a long walk to them, but all those sites have electric. There are two vault toilet locations and a total of 116 campsites all with a picnic table and fire ring. There is a very large playing field and a playground in the Family Campground and another playground past the beach near the fishing dock. This State Park has a large number of picnic shelters and picnic grounds with picnic tables. There are about 10 hiking trails. There is a boat launch and you can rent kayaks or canoes at the visitor center. Everything was kept clean and in good repair. Cell service for both AT&T and Verizon was strong enough to stream video. If you want to take a trip to town, there are about 5 no longer than a 10 mile distance. There was a large grocery store in Chippewa Falls. Only ice and firewood are available at the park.

General: There is a main campground and a bonus sites section; we stayed in the Main campground and this review is based on that. There are approximately 90 sites laid out in typical RV park fashion with the sites close together and no physical privacy between sites. 

Site Quality: Sites tend to be very long and could accommodate even large-size Class A rigs. The “driveways” are a mix of grass and gravel and were not very well defined. Each site has a picnic table on a concrete pad. Our site had water and electric hookups. Our challenge was that we arrived after dark, and the site numbers were posted at the back end of the sites, necessitating a sleuthing operation with my flashlight to find our site. Only a few sites had fire rings that I could see. 

Bathhouse: The women’s area had three “all-in-ones” with a toilet, sink, and shower. They were very clean with hooks, soap, and paper towels. The entire bathhouse appeared to be in a state of remodeling, and it wasn’t clear what was going to happen with the remainder of the space (plumbed but not completed when we were there). Did not use the shower so cannot comment on that. 

We arrived after dark and left the next morning but our stay on a Friday in August was quiet except for the loud trains running along the Mississippi. We heard two around 10 pm and either there were no more until the next morning, or we mercifully slept through them! This RV Park is located in the small town of Nelson and accessed through a residential neighborhood. Although not our preferred camp stay, we chose it since we knew we wanted to eat at Stone Barn Pizza (a must if you are in the area!) which is why we arrived after dark!

The campground is lovely considering it's only $20 for lakeside ($17 non lakeside). It has a shower house, bathroom, dump station, wood for sale ($6/bundle), ice for sale and is non electric. The sites are very generous with a lot of green between spaces. You are not on top of your neighbor.

I like to hammock, and while not a lot of the sites are ideal, they're are a few that are. A3 was one ($17 non lake) and 2LR ($20 lakeside). The latter was perfect for several hammocks.

All sites have very clean fire rings, picnic table and a bench next to the fire pit.

There is a totally separate loop (Loop D) for units that are self contained.

If you don't make it before the office closes, there is self check in. A total of 108 spaces with about 30 that are first come.

Very little road noise here… Pretty far off the road. I did have noisy radio neighbors the second night I stayed, but it happens sometimes.That did not reflect on the campground itself.

Raccoons frequent the park, hence the name, so they will give you trash bags at check in to keep them at bay. That's a great way to help control the problem.

Campgrounds are very well maintained.  Very clean and when we arrived we could tell that the site was recently groomed and even the firepit was cleaned out.  Bathrooms were very clean but did not check out the showers but I can only assume they were well kept as well.

Ice, firewood and fire starters are available at the main office and firewood only is available at the host site 300.

The waterfall is beautiful - make sure to pack some water sandals or shoes so you can do some exploring within the waterfall.  All trails are marked well and the map provided at the main office is very nice.

This is one of our favorite Wisconsin state parks. It is quiet and shady, next to the Chippewa River. You can kayak on the river and in-between the islands where the water is very calm and full of lily pads and wildlife. There is a paved bike trail, Old Abe, that connects to the park and is 20 miles long to Chippewa Falls. It's an easy bike ride, a few miles, into Cornell for ice cream at one of 2 shops that have it! One camground loop has electric and bathroom with showers and flush toilets. The other loop has no electric and pit toilets and has many sites next to the water. Campsites are roomy and shaded.