Best Campgrounds near Highland, WI

Devil's Lake is one of my all time favorite state parks, and holds many fond memories for me. I have led youth camping trips here, gone on group trips with friends, and my now husband proposed to me here. I love love love Devil's Lake!

As far as tent camping, I don't love the campsites. There is very little privacy between sites, it is always packed, and there is lots of noise. The first night I stayed here, the group across from us kept us up until 2 am!

However, Devil's Lake is truly a fantastic place - we stayed for several days and had a blast in spite of the poor sleep.

I went on a group trip to Devils Lake. Having camped at Devils Lake before, we decided to camp somewhere quieter in the area. My expectations were low going in, but Mirror Lake really wowed me. The park was beautiful and quiet. The campsites were very large. We came in a group with multiple cars and tents, but the sites easily accommodated us. The pine trees were gorgeous! The park was quiet at night, and there was great hiking and paddle boarding in the park itself. It was an incredible Basecamp for our devil's lake trip!

Took my 5 year old son camping here in early April of 2024 and it was fun. We were at site #125 which has fantastic views of the river and surrounding area's, but the wind is stronger at this spot because it's open. The entire campground is situated on top of a bluff so this compounded our wind issue. I also need to note that the majority of these campgrounds don't have much privacy or lack it entirely. This site was very open and I would opt for a little more tree coverage in the future.

There's some really nice trails and cool rock formations, couple this with the playground and nice bathrooms it makes for an ideal campground for families with younger children. Just keep in mind that it's on a bluff so there are some steep drop-off points that children could take a pretty nasty fall from. Cellphone coverage wasn't a problem either.

It was a Colder night as we camped in 30 degree weather and freezing rain came into our campground. This along with the wind made our situation feel pretty cold and we left early in April. We would stay here again but probably opt for a slightly more warm month. Over-all it's a good campground for the area.

On a side note, I bet this place looks tremendous in the fall with the changing colors.

Was very thankful to find a place to overnight in mid-November. Not a lot of free parking options in this part of Iowa. No water, electric, or dump station, so very much like a parking lot overnight from that perspective. However, the park is situated on the valley bottom of the Yellow River Forest with beautiful tall trees, and there are fire rings. Fee was $12. First come first served basis from November through March.

General: Small county park campground (28 sites) located on Lake Mendota 

Site Quality: All sites were level and generous in size. Camper pads were somewhat gravel but not well-defined. Long enough to accommodate the largest RV or additional cars (friends visited us when we were there and could easily park two cars in addition to our van at the site). The power box is located at the very end of the camper pad, but extension cords are available from the camp host. Thank goodness that there were ample shade trees in most sites as it was humid and in the high 90s when we were there. 

Bath/Shower house: Located a short walk from the campground to accommodate the day-use people as well. Reasonably clean. The bathroom had three stalls and two sinks but could have used a couple of hooks for toiletries in addition to the one small shelf. Two shower stalls, including one ADA-accessible one. There is also a vault toilet closer to the sites.

Activities: Fishing, swimming, boating, kayaking, etc. There were kayaks that looked like they could be rented but did not find information on how to do so. Basketball, Volleyball and a playground. The maintenance employee mentioned that people were catching fish with hot dogs! 

Note that this park will be closed in spring 2025 for improvements. Note also that this park is located in a residential area, and I imagine it would be packed on weekends, but it was relatively quiet when we were there on a Monday at the end of August. Shortly after we arrived, a loud plane flew overhead, and we were worried this would be a problem, but we didn’t hear any more. The bugs (gnats and mosquitoes) were relentless, especially in the grassy areas so bring bug spray!

I’ll begin by saying this is by far the cleanest campground I have stayed at. The facilities were well kept including the vault toilet houses. We stayed in a walk to site and the views were incredible. Our tent pad was quite rocky so I would recommend sleeping pads or you will be very uncomfortable. Our site was also extremely dusty which wasn’t a problem at all just be prepared to be a little dirty. The campground was quiet except for the occasional train that rolled through those are quite loud due to how close they are to the campground. I would definitely come back to Nelson Dewey and stay again. There was not a ton to do in the area so a short weekend stay was perfect. A highlight is that the park provided cart to use to haul all your stuff to the walk to sites. There is 1 designated parking spot per walk to site as well. The walk to sites are small and only accommodated our one (6 person) tent which was not a problem for us as we knew this ahead of time.

Nice sites, trails and facilities. Stayed during the week in mid September. Beautiful sites overlooking the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers. Great hiking with clean bathrooms and toilets. Private with plenty of room from neighbors for our teardrop.

My wife and I went there for the weekend and it was great. Clean and spacious sites. The bathrooms were even clean. They also provided free showers. The wood was a reasonable price and easily available at any time of the day. It was also pet friendly. I do wish that they hadn't cleared away so many trees. A little more shade would have been nice since we were in a tent. But other than that was was perfect.

I was hitchhiking thru, was dropped off by a ride that said he was buying a $14 tent site for me, come to find out he never did, I just was honest with sandy and the gentleman worker and offered the only 8$ I had, no sir, they said please stay for free and just enjoy. WONDERFUL PPL THAT CARE ABOUT OTHERS!! THANKS YALL

Lots of playgrounds for kids age 2-10. Pit toilets smell- I’d avoid sites around them. Hot Showers by lot 30 and at pool. Pool is not heated as stated- definitely not 80 degrees. West tower is the best for sunsets. Site 75 was nice as it was a bit back from the road and you can’t see your neighbors.

Great backpack base camp! Great views, plenty of privacy and an easy hike. We stayed at 806.

Quiet, all drive-thrus, reasonable rates, very close to the dells, clean bathhouse.

We enjoyed our stay close to everything.  Walmart and major shopping within a half  a mile. pet friendly. I would recommend this campground

I have stayed at this campground three times in the last decade or so.

Pros:

- Excellent location if you're looking to recreate on the Wisconsin River or visit the American Players Theater across the way.  

- Interesting history about the Shot Tower on site.

- Nice little hiking trails.

Cons:

- Every time I've visited we've dealt with lots of mosquitos, but nothing comes close to our most recent visit!  It was a mosquito massacre.  So terrible that after coating ourselves in DEET and eating dinner there the first night, we actually booked another campsite about a half hour away (Brigham County Park - a gem!) and abandoned this site altogether.  

- Vault toilets were fragrant.

We loved the amenities, sites, and staff. Everything was great. Even seasonal sites were well kept. We will definitely be back

We needed a place after visiting the House on the Rock and couldn't find anything with hookups nearby. We stumbled upon Tom's Campground hoping to find a site. We pulled in and Tom met us at our camper as soon as we got to the top of the hill and before we even got out. He was very friendly and informative. Showers were good enough but we aren't picky, 7 minutes for $0.25. The area was beautiful.

I wanted so badly to love this campground experience, but just didn't. Site 19 was an easy walk-in that theoretically had nearby vault toilets, parking, and water.

Each site only had space for one car to park before walking in. Not a huge deal, but annoying as there were 2 of us who drove separate and we had to problem solve. When we got to the site I was shocked to see that what was labeled as a tent site had literally NO flat space to actually set up a tent. Spacious site, but fully sloped.

Also, what I would have loved to know, is that the vault toilets are closed because they are doing construction to build something new in that space. Construction that starts loudly each day at 7am. Honestly every site from about #35 down was affected by the noise because the construction is happening in the middle of the loop (and actually blocking some of the one-way road as well).

The park in general was okay. Per the usual, the pet areas were lacking. No beach at all, just grass covered in goose poop and one cut out on the raised shore between tall grasses and foliage where a dog could potentially jump in. Certainly nowhere for a human to enjoy the water with their pups unfortunately.

Handful of sites, not very level. Lots of bugs, had raccoons fighting outside my tent. Was right across from the New Glarus brewery.

Very cool secluded walk in sites, pet friendly, awesome trails.

Nice quiet place no neighbors usually bothering you showers and toilets could be better but overall ok