Best Tent Camping near Prairie du Sac, WI
Tent camping options around Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin include several established campgrounds within reasonable driving distance, with Devils Lake State Park and Governor Dodge State Park offering the most extensive tent camping facilities. These state parks provide dedicated tent sites with varying degrees of privacy and amenities, including both standard drive-in campgrounds and more secluded walk-in options for tent campers seeking a more immersive woodland experience.
Most tent campsites in the region feature dirt or forest floor surfaces with some gravel areas, particularly at the established state park campgrounds. Devils Lake State Park Group Campground offers well-spaced group sites with pit toilets and full bathroom facilities within walking distance. Water sources are available but may require collection and transport back to your campsite. Governor Dodge State Park provides backpack tent sites located approximately half-mile to one-mile hike from parking areas, offering more seclusion for wilderness-oriented campers. Tent pads are available at most sites, though some backpacking locations may have rough, uneven terrain.
The tent camping experience in this region combines woodland settings with convenient access to recreational activities. Devils Lake campsites are heavily wooded, providing natural protection from rain but resulting in dirt surfaces with abundant leaf litter. At Governor Dodge, the backpack tent sites serve as excellent base camps for exploring the park's extensive trail network and two main lakes. New Glarus Woods State Park offers walk-in tent sites along a bike trail with decent spacing between sites, though some campers note highway noise can be a factor. According to one visitor, "The walk-in sites have a good amount of space between each site, however the sites on the east side of the bike trail get less level the further you get from the parking lot."