Best Tent Camping near Wisconsin Rapids, WI

I camped here last summer and wasn't impressed at how close the camp sites were. We camped in a tent and there were several RV's nearby. Additionally when we went to hike around the area we couldn't seem to escape the sounds of the nearby highway. Aside from that the bluffs were beautiful and really fun to climb!

Campground is adequate, it has a functioning shower house and private spots. I used a primitive campsite and it cost me $30 ($15 if your from WI). That was on top of the $11 non resident park entrance fee. So $41 for a primitive tent site, $47.50 if you count the bundle of firewood I bought from them. So yeah, keep that in mind if coming here as a non resident. I’m sure there are cheaper places nearby.

This campground is right on the Ice Age Trail and a nice place to stop off during an extended hike.

There are not that many sites available here and most do supply electricity. More people tent camp here rather than RV camping. There are pit toilets but no shower house although there are water spigots for drinking water. The sites are closer together than some campgrounds but it's not like a city block of camps like some KOA's I have camped at. The night time temperatures dipped in the low 30's in the middle of May when I was there. The campground attendants were on site twice a day to sell firewood and collect camping fees. The DNR rangers do patrol the campgrounds on a regular basis. There is places all along the river to fish and I was told the fishing is good, however I did not have very much luck when I was there. The campground firepits with cooking grates were OK and the wooden picnic tables are worn, but there is level ground for pitching tents.

The scenery and hiking along the river and on the Ice Age Trail is great. If you had better luck fishing than I did this would have been a great camping weekend. Bring warm cloths and a great sleeping bag.

The campground is part of a larger park. There are multiple playgrounds, tennis courts, splash pads and even an amphitheater and ice rinks within the park.

There is a lot of traffic during the day from park visitors. The evening is mostly quiet, but with traffic noise from the outside of the park streets and occasional loud vehicles that can be disruptive. Morning was largely quiet as well.

The campsites themselves are small — if you have a camper there’s not much room outside. Even the tent spaces are small.

There are no open fires allowed - which didn’t bother us given it was just an overnight stop. You can use grills etc though.

Being a city park it is quite well lit - which has its pros and cons. The back left corner where the nonelectric tent sites are seems to be one of the less bright areas. We slept fine with the rain cover off.

There is a 2 day minimum for online reservations. That’s not required for walk up self registration so you can do one day as a walk up. Self registration has a 3 day maximum.

There is a bathroom/shower for the campers. As a walk up registrant you will have to contact the phone number on the board to get the code. Not sure if online registrations get it in the email. There are other bathrooms (no showers) that are not locked that are a further walk into the park though.

Overall it was a nice place to stay over spending $100+ for a hotel room on a quick overnight on our way further north.

I had read about this being a really nice, quiet campground for tent camping, and though I was not ready to stop for the night (on my way to a wedding up north), I did get off the highway and drive through it.  Honestly, I wanted to stay!

It was not a huge campground, and facilities were basic (I guess they call that primitive), but each campsite was generous in size, well separated from the next site and nicely landscaped by nature's appointment of trees and shrubs.  It was clean, well-kept, and enticing.

 I wanted to take a picture of one of the attractive sites, but couldn't decide which one!  The small lake was so peaceful, and there was some new-looking children's play equipment, as well as some benches perfect for reading or eating on its banks.   I only saw one campsite occupied with a tent, and one small camping trailer elsewhere, which may have simply been stored there.  It was Friday afternoon in early June.  I would have expected to see more activity there.  Perhaps, as some have mentioned, there is an abundance of mosquitoes and other insects from the river (which I was unaware of) that disuades people, I don't know.  I didn't notice any when I sat by the lake.

The author of the camping book through which I had found it also said he had found the place quite charming, and he did not understand why it was so little occupied.  He, apparently had spent the night there.  I'd like to stay there next time I am driving north on 94.

I gave it 4 stars even though I have not stayed there, because it has much of what I want in a campground, and which is getting harder for nature-loving tent campers to find--simple, quiet beauty.  I took off the extra star only because I haven't actually stayed there, and want to give East Fork a chance to live up to even more!

My husband and I picked this park because of it's friendliness towards kids. We took our 2 9 year old nieces on their first tent camping adventure. We chose site 28 because it was a walk in site and on the water. When we arrived and checked in we grabbed one of their pre-loaded GPS units for Geocaching; It's something the park offers for free. They give you a bag, GPS and information book on all the Geocaching sites. We drove to the site and started loading up the cart to walk in. We walked past a very open campsite that was right next to ours, could be bad if you have loud neighbors but ours were great. There are 2 other sites in this location but far enough away and they don't walk past your site to get to them. The site was spacious and has a great fire pit for cooking. There is a small trail leading to the water with an extremely small beach front but it was enough to keep the girls entertained. Set up camp and started our geocaching fun. We hiked to the kids fishing pond & the tower. Trails are easy and well groomed. Following hiking we made our way to the beach; unfortunately, the algae was in bloom so the water was caked green! However, it doesn't do any harm so we made our way out into the more clear portion of the water and had a blast! The beach area has showers and a great area to have a picnic. The evening presented itself with an amazing sunset from our beach and lots of crickets chirping. It made for a peaceful night. In the morning we took the girls fishing off the dock and then over to the kids pond; the park also offers free poles and tackle. We ventured into the campground area for fresh water. From what we saw the sites were spacious and fairly private. The shower area was well maintained and is also accessible for anyone with disabilities. We will be coming back to this park; it was great! We didn't run into any issues with mosquitoes or other bugs while there.

This is a diamond in the rough - exactly what we wanted on our journey.  Our criteria - less than $100, pet friendly and rustic. 

This is a sawmill that has it all - they run the mill when needed, but also have primitive cabins (where we stayed), full cabins with in house bath, electric RV/tent camping and more. Even wood fired pizzas with homemade crust most nights of the week and sometimes live music!

We were in cabin #3 - rustic.  Yes - it did have heat!  A little ceramic heater had it so toasty when it was 30 degrees outside we actually turned it off - so it's sure to please on chilly nights.  The interior was amazing - lumber that I'm sure came from the mill and ceiling planks that were gorgeous - left over planks from many years ago, stored in a shed and re-purposed for the cabin. The bed was very comfortable with clean sheets and squishy (in a good way) pillows. A small covered front porch and we just parked in front.

Bathroom - if you are in a cabin without a bath, it's very nearby. One of the largest, cleanest bathrooms I've seen.  He built it himself. Women's had 2 sinks with a large vanity area, about 3 stalls (very large - you don't have to squish into them) and two very large shower stalls with full doors - not shower curtains. Heated as well.

Pets - easy pet policy. Just let the owner know and it's no problem as long as you are responsible, pick up after them and leash them when necessary.  Just a small charge for them and they were very welcomed here.

He even has event space indoors (heated) and outdoors for weddings and such.  And hiking trails (6 miles) if you choose to take on the outdoors.

The owner plans on adding saunas and a hot tub in the near future - so this would be the place to drop for a while if you want something out of the norm, peaceful, rustic and relaxing. It's off the main road, behind a field in Amish Country.  Lovely place to stay for the night. Very quiet.

On the Wisconsin River, there are four “loops” of campsites, with some on the river side of the road and some off the river. The main RV loop looked crowded, but it is also where the very clean bathhouse is located. There are restrooms on the other three loops, but they are not as updated as the main bathrooms and bathhouse in the RV loop. Most of the tents were put on the sites around the ballfield which is across the street from the river. The good thing about that is that the dust from the ballfield seemed to keep the deer flies at bay, which was not the case on the riverside sites. It’s a good thing the road is not too busy as you have to walk along the side of the road to get to the shower house from the other camp loops. There is a nice dock that is a good spot to watch the sun set over the river if you can stand the bugs.

This campground would be best for RVing IMO. The entire place is lifted from a swamp which means that it’s low, damp ground. They also must have used sand, as it drains very quickly. I describe the site as such because we spent the weekend in a tent and it literally rained the entire weekend. The site we were at turned into a lake four times, submerging our fire pit and picnic table. This made making a fire near impossible, let alone accessible, it was in the middle of a small lake! As we scrambled most of the fear to the car, we watched the water creep to the front door of the tent, from the highest ground. It’s a good thing we had a tarp under the tent, otherwise we would have been swimming in our tent. Anyway, busy place, near the road and a honky tonk. Not our preferred experience. Vault toilets, firewood, nice beach if the weather was nice.

Best campground in the Wisconsin Dells by far.