Best Tent Camping near Wauzeka, WI

I tent camped at Six Pines Campground for 3 nights in August. The park has two campgrounds and this one is non electric with pit toilets and water. Each site has a picnic table and fire ring with a really nice grill. The sites are large and flat and the ones on the outside of the loop are well shaded. Two trails can be accessed from the tent campground - Six Pines trail and West Lake trail. There are two shower houses that you can use at the RV campground but it takes about 15-20 minutes to drive across the park to that campground. The park is very large with about 20 miles of trails. There is a spring fed creek and, if you stay away from the trout fishing area, you can play and wade in the creek. It has a sandy/rocky bottom and sandy banks. It felt wonderful on a hot day. There is a swim beach on the lake but it was closed due to E. coli in the water. There’s a small camp store too. At night in this campground there are no lights except in the registration kiosk so it’s perfect for star gazing. The Field of Dreams movie site is just 45 minutes away and makes for a fun side trip. There is a town about 10 minutes away with a couple restaurants and coffee shops. The Six Pines trail can be taken from the campground to the Backbone trail. The Backbone trail is along a rocky ridge. There are side trails down to the base of the cliffs and lots of rock climbing to do. Very fun to explore the side paths and climb up the rock walls.

I was there on a Monday and was the only tent around. Site 15 is the best for tent sites, it’s right at the delta of where two streams meet. It’s a quick bike ride to pulpit rock brewing and other parks.

Great state park for a family camping vacation, tons of stuff to do. Lakes, trails, kayaking, boating, paddle boarding, fishing. Hidden gem of Wisconsin. The campsites are pretty private, nestled in trees. Some shaded, some have sun and shade. They even have horse sites, so you can bring your horse, and stroll through the park horseback riding. Vault toilets, and regular toilets with ok showers. Water faucets scattered around for easy water access. Twin Valley has tent sites and RV/electric sites.

Stayed in 2 primitive tent sites: table, fire ring, shaded. Great sites for hat are all within walking to stocked trout streams! CG is in valley, cooled air, shaded, cold water streams to cool off. Pit toilets, trash bins, self registration with some sites reservable.

Decorah is so beautiful. The river is right beside the tent sites. Hiking trails close by. Caves and water falls only a short drive away. Tubing, canoeing, and kayaking services behind camp grounds. Super affordable site rates. Shower house. Picnic tables and fire pits at each site.

This park is perfect for families or anyone looking for plenty of activities. They have boat rentals, amazing trails, a camp store onsite, a swimming beach and super clean bathrooms. Stayed at tent site #24 in the Southlake Campground, and it was fairly quiet even on a busy holiday weekend.

Campground is well maintained, restrooms, showers, recycling station, fire wood available, campground host onsite, resident park ranger, standard RV sites, some electric tent sites otherwise primitive with fire rings and tables. Trout stream (Catfish Creek) runs through campground and park and is stocked by Iowa DNR, has Swiss Valley Nature center with trails.

We stayed here in our tent. This is a rural campground, somewhat dated, but very pleasant. It is true that the bathrooms were an older style but they were clean and functional and we found no fault with them. Most of the residents are seasonal and we had nice shady and grassy areas for tent camping, This campground is not near a busy highway, lake, or either area where there is a lot of noise. It is nice and quiet. The hostess was very nice and welcoming. We would certainly stay here again.

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

My friends and I camp here often as it is close to Madison, yet far enough away to be more secluded. The sites are are better than some of the state park sites with tent sites offering more privacy than the electric ones. There is plenty of hiking trails around the park with some great rock formations to explore. There is also swimming areas, concessions and a very helpful staff.

This park is arranged more for RV's than tent camping and you cannot set up right along the river but can get pretty close if you are in tent spot 25. The sites are really close to each other. Bear Mound is cool to see if you appreciate the history behind it. Bridal falls is also a must see if you are there. The hiking trails can be done with a long day hike and offer some beautiful scenery as the leaves are changing. One of the few spots I have stayed along the Mississippi and one of my favorites.

I went with a group of entering sixth grade Girl Scouts on a weekend tent camping trip to this park. The campsites were simple to access and the grounds were easy to navigate. We hiked on the famous Backbone trail - a really fun hike that isn’t too incredibly long. The grounds were well kept and we had a phenomenal time. The girls gathered our firewood in the neighboring tree line, and our evenings were filled with fun and friendly camping neighbors. I highly recommend this park.

We stopped here to sleep on our way home from a long road trip. The electric sites are like a typical RV park, not much space or privace. We had site 40west and it was larger, but too close to the smelly pit toilets. Showers nice, hot and clean. The tent sites looked spacious, but not very private. The campground is in a beautiful setting and not far off The Great River Road. We enjoyed watching a muskrat family playing in the stream by our site. We would definitely use this campground as a layover again.

This camp South of Lacrosse Wisconsin is a great family or road tripping camp. Goose Island has very friendly staff and a nice little camp supply store at the entrance where you can also purchase firewood in two sizes of tubes. You’ll need a way to haul the wood to your site. We tent camp so we choose nonpowered sites away from the RV’s. The website refers to the camp as being on the backwater of the Misssippi. What ever it is, it is beautiful and right on the water. Bring the bug spray for the evening becasue the mosquitoes do come out in force. The camp facilities are clean and convenient. There is a small children’s playground and a small swimming area also. The camp was relatively busy in the powered RV area but clean and quite thoughout. It looked like there were some long term RV campers by the looks of their set up. You won’t regret staying at Goose Island.

From someone who typically prefers backpacking and sleeping in remote areas, this campground facility, pretty much in the city, is okay.

The facilities are nice, bathrooms were clean. What I didn't enjoy was how close each RV site is. The sparks from our fire were making their way to our neighbors site.

The campground is situated next to the Trout Run Trail, providing quick and easy access to the 11-mile loop or in to the city center of Decorah.

Overall, decent for a city campground, but very crowded. The tent sites near the river look more spaced out.

This campground had 60+ campsites. The sites were very open and did not appear to be planned very well for camping functionality. The tent sites appeared to be very flat. Many other sites were very uneven and were challenging to get a camper into. The electric boxes in sites were also placed in strange areas (middle of campsite, 10+feet from camper parking pad, etc). The campground was also very open.

We did enjoy the peacefulness of this campground though. Lots of star viewing opportunities. Very limited road noise. Nice hiking trails. The overlook was also a great place to relax.

We definitely would return to this campground for the hiking opportunities; but we would chose to bring our tent instead of our camping trailer.

During my visit the campground was fairly quiet, and the sites are decently private with lots of shade. The bath/shower house was in fair shape and clean, plus showers were free! You can reserve the sites ahead of time for a convenience fee of 4 bucks, but they also have a kiosk to pay cash first-come first served if you can stand the suspense! Tent sites were $11/night when I visited in August.

The nice thing about this campground is its proximity to a couple trail-heads that lead to some of the park's nice hiking trails.

I would definitely recommend this campground, and would absolutely stay here again given the chance!

There are two campgrounds at this park (the first state park in Iowa): a primitive one and a “modern” one. The primitive one (Six Pine) only has a pit toilet and each site has a fire grate and a picnic table. The modern campground (South Lake) has 30 amp, 50 amp, and tent sites. The electric sites are very close together (too close for our liking) so we opted for a tent site. We were in a loop with about six sites, and while the site size was generous and spaced a decent distance apart, there was no delineation between sites and no specific place to park your vehicle (and you cannot park on the road). These sites were also decidedly bumpy and not level; it took us about 15 minutes of maneuvering our van around to find a reasonably level spot. 

The restrooms were six separate rooms, each complete with toilet, sink, and shower; they were clean. 

We drove around the park and saw the balanced rock (meh) and I walked the short distance to the mouth of the cave. There was good signage to find the cave but once there, no information about the cave and its safety (or not) was available so I opted not to explore its dark and wet interior! There are seven trails in the park; the East Lake trail was a treat to hike. It hugs the lake for about two miles and while you can veer off onto the Bluebird Trail, I enjoyed hiking out and back for a different view. You can also hike from the South Lake campground to the beach– about a mile but the trail does start and stop, and you have to walk on the road for a bit. You can rent kayaks, canoes, and paddleboats but we did not take advantage of this. We also did not swim so I cannot speak to the quality of the lake (other reviewers took issue with this). There is also a CCC museum, but it was not open while we were there. 

We stayed one night which was sufficient for us. It might have been nice to stay longer if we decided to rent kayaks or hike different trails.