Best Campgrounds near Fort Atkinson, WI

The First thing you see when you pull in is a rundown trailer and buildings, over grown grass, dog kennels filled with chickens, it looks abandoned. As you keep driving it opens up into a cute little camp ground with a pretty little pond.

BUT…. There’s hardly ever anyone in the store. You sometimes even have to call to get someone to come down. There’s no staff after 9pm so well if something happens no one’s answering the phone you crap outta luck.

We check in they were nice but everything in the store looks like it’s from the dollar store and they $5 for it. We’re Andes a map that’s INACCURATE it’s got not only old tore down buildings that haven’t been there in years but also future planned buildings 🤦🏼‍♀️ We head to our camp site turns out there’s no actual bath just porta potty’s which I’m fine with if they we’re filthy and completely full. Also the showers there’s 4 down by the office for the entire camp ground to share. They are filled with bugs they stink oh and the whole time we stayed no one cleaned them one time.

To added to that there’s a seasonal group of campers that keep you up tell 4:30am and when you say something to staff they respind with well I live here and slept fine btw there’s no refunds. Ummm I didn’t ask for one I asked for you to speak to them because my sons autistic and has a harder with lack of sleep. Oh also we got asked to leave and take our tent down immediately because it flooded during a horrible storm that literally took trees down and neighbor took us in but we were not following the rules. And staying in someone else’s site is not allowed because that’s $10 a person extra which they charged us for too.

This was our first visit to Kettle Moraine and this site was completely booked. We were able to grab a nonelectric site and transfer to an electric site when one cancelled last minute.

The site was spacious and clean, complete with the basics (fire ring, flushing toilets, showers, drinking water). Shower house #2 was clean although a bit older (paint was peeling off the walls due to humidity) but the water pressure was fine and as hot as I needed it to be. Not all sites here have electricity so be mindful of that while booking.

The ranger was very nice and so was the company at the campground. The road noise is absolutely noticeable. It was incredibly loud when we drove through the loop closest to the highway and was significantly better even just one section over. Although it didn’t disturb our sleep, certain loud vehicles were more noticeable throughout the day and night.

The campground was close to our intended hiking trail — the Scuppernong section of the Ice Age Trail. It’s absolutely gorgeous and will be why we come back again.

In terms of Ottawa Lake, the beach and lake was incredibly clean (they had a triathlon there we weekend we stayed). Scuppernong Springs was also a treat for the kiddos although I highly recommended planning for a solid 2 mile hike if you’re with kids.

In short, a very solid and straightforward state park campground that is well maintained and convenient to hiking and family activities.

We stayed at site 52 which is along the boat launch parking lot. You cant tell from the pictures online but theres a walking path between all the sites in that area. There was literally a 10ft opening into the neighbors site so we could clearly see eachother. I thought it was going to be more private. Site was clean though and easy access to the lake. Easy getting kayaks in and out of the lake. The noise from the highway was loud. Even at night it was loud. Pit toilets could use a cleaning. For a quick stay it wasnt bad but i would probably go somewhere else for longer stays. We drove through the tent only sites and they were terrible looking. Very uneven and zero privacy between sites. Its basically an open field. The boat landing area at least had trees between sites.

The good- nice shaded playground under old growth trees and along a river. Nice trails in the area and good fishing. Convenience to everything you could need in Madison. You can walk or run down a couple of quiet streets and get to a river trail that goes for miles. The Big lake that this river attaches to looks nice for fishing or paddling. The bad- the road noise is VERY loud all day and night- not peaceful. Sites are close together and not private. No water or sewer. The river is full of algae. Not much to do in the park besides playground.

First, it’s a really nice location, well laid out, well-maintained, with very generous spaces, nice features (swim pond with a huge bouncy float, etc), and the hosts seem nice.

However, The Dyrt lists them as having sewer hookups and they DO NOT have sewer at any site on the campground, though they do offer a pump-out service to come by and empty your tanks (for a fee…$15, I think). The error is presumably The Dyrt’s fault, and the campground does have the usual free dump station.

My big gripe, though, is the bathrooms. There are exactly TWO unisex showers and FOUR unisex “restrooms” (sink and toilet), with one shower and two restrooms currently “closed.” The facilities are perfectly fine and clean, but that leaves one shower and two restrooms for the entire campground, and the shower is PAY.

A quarter gets you three minutes, which isn’t much, except that campground is charging similar prices as other full hookup campgrounds we’ve stayed at recently (around $60/night). It just cheapens an otherwise great place, to be honest.

Lastly, The Dyrt also says they have WiFi. They do, but there is a daily “per device” charge for it. It’s not a lot, but again cheapens the place. A charge of $5 per person for any visitors you have adds to this feeling (plus an additional $5/car the visitors arrive in).

It’s really a shame, because it’s a VERY nice campground in many ways, but the shower, WiFi, and visitor fees really irked me. And at $60/night and no sewer, this campground is a bit overpriced, IMHO. If you don’t care about WiFi, bathhouse, visitors or sewer hookups, it’s fantastic, but if you do, consider the above.