Ottawa Lake Campground — Kettle Moraine State Forest - Southern Unit

This is such a good spot, it’s not just an RV parking lot. Each site is its own little site just far enough from its neighbor to feel alone. Super nice and well kept

Escape the everyday and immerse yourself in nature at Ottawa Lake Campground. Nestled in the heart of the Kettle Moraine State Forest, this welcoming retreat offers lakeside fun, scenic hiking trails, the quiet beauty of a true Northwoods experience, all without a long drive.

We have visited the Campground 5 times this year already, we love hiking all the trails in the Kettle Moraine Southern Unit.

https://youtu.be/xl4uAtNWclM

We've been full time RVers for 4 years and this is a beautiful campground close to "home". We stay here a couple of times each year for doctor and dentist appointments, visiting family and friends, and general relaxation.

The lake is very clean and the site are a good size. Gets very busy on the weekends!

You can camp year around in this campground. Most recent 2 times were winter camping. No host so buying wood is an issue, but pick a site on the edge and there is more than enough free. Bring a saw. Nice place for solitude. No rowdies in winter. Close to hiking. 10 minutes from a town if needed.

Site was spacious but very close to your neighbors. Lots to do in the area. Bathrooms and showers were clean. The beach was not clean and very hard to walk on, very rocky. Electricity on site and water near by. Great trails close by.

Campsites are kept up and quite clean. Some have a beautiful view of lake. Some water fountains did not work, however sinks were always working. So many little trails all throughout the campsite. Family friendly (parks, beach, pet friendly)

It’s a family friendly and decent campground. Sites are not too secluded, but they’re clean and well taken care of, the facilities weren’t clean, they have volunteer hosts on site for any needs, the lake is beautiful during the sunset, sandy area and playground for kids, car noise is noticeable but not too loud (in the inner camp sites). Few trails around for hiking. They charge an extra $11 for each car’s entry at the gate but you can use the car pass for visiting all the state park’s trails around the area (you need permit for parking at the trailheads). It’s good for family with kids or beginner campers, but not if you’re looking for a relaxing or adventurous time.

Excelent

A local favorite to hike during the weekend, relax and get back in touch with nature. All seasons have their own beauty and especially here. If you enjoy ooing and ahhing over fall color leaves, mushrooms, native plants and the wonders of nature, hiking here won’t disappoint.

I bought a new rooftop camper. Thought this would be a good place to try things out. It's only 20 minutes from my house and it was a nice site. The campground is clean, well organized. The restrooms are just fine for a state park. Nothing special. There's a small lake with a beach. Lots of places to have a picnic. When I was there there were quite a few families having large family gatherings in the park. But the campgrounds were your typical state park campground. Not very loud. We will behaving themselves for the most part. Each site seems to be pretty secluded from one another. Wood is available at the front gate as well as ice.

All of the campsites were full so it was busy but we liked that each spot still felt separated by trees. We would recommend staying further from the road as there is some road noise but it didn’t really bother us at all. The facilities were well maintained.

Pros: Clean Private Camp Site Good playgrounds Hiking Trails

Cons: Road noise if you’re in the first row

Nice quiet place to get away to. Sights are large. Good size lake for fishing or Kayaking. Large beach area for kids. Graded shallow so they can go a good distance into the water. Scuppernong trail is less than 5 minutes down hwyZZ.

Camp areas are pretty clear. Nicd hiking and beach close by. Great for young kids.

We've camped here before and like it. The sites are spacious and most seem to have shade for at least part of the day. Each site has a picnic table and fire pit. Ours had a grill the folded in and out, not sure if all have it. The beach is great, open and lots of room to set up for the day either on the grass or sand. There are flush toilets at the beach. There are rentable pavilions. We didn't see any garbage bins nearby so bring a trash bag to carry out. The showers are hot but that's the best thing about them. They're not very big and don't have a curtain to separate changing area and shower. With 2 kids, things tend to get a little wet. However, they get the job done. We love the location. Close to hiking: Scuppernong Trail on the Ice Age Trail and Scuppernong Spring Nature Trail and a few others. Close to shopping and restaurants, if needed. Only downside to our site was the highway (CR-ZZ) was on the other side of the trees and busy. All said, we'll most likely be back again.

This large campground was filled up with an upcoming triathlon. Even with all these campers there is still plenty of greenery between sites to give us privacy. We didn’t feel as if we were part of such a large place - such a great experience to have a small vibe amongst many campers.

The campground is a series of loops with a mix of electric and non electric spots. There is also a variety of shade versus sun. We saw a few people on bikes but enjoyed the lack of visual stimulation for our dog.

The road out into the forest area of the campground was closed off to cars for the triathlon. Not to worry, a couple miles away is a great hiking trail system. It’s for skiing during the winter. They keep it one way for the skiers but summer hiking gave us freedom to do an out and back hike. We loved the solitude on the trail. It’s wide enough for our dog to walk next to us and has plenty of rolling climbs.

This is a nice place that would be a great weekend getaway from Chicago.

This park is a bit smaller in scale but has flat roads for biking and hiking.   Our site bordered the road and was noisy, suggest you look for a  site in the  middle of the campground where it was much quieter.   Saw some interesting birds and enjoyed the picnic area at the lake

It was nice and I really liked how large the campsites were. Kids had a place to run around and I didn't feel like they were encroaching on other people's sites. We were up against the forest and they could play in there too.

Beyond the little forest was a busy road which kept my husband up. He didn't feel it was very safe and that anyone could walk into our site from the road. No one did but that thought kept him up.

We bought wood from their store and had to use a lot to get a good fire going. It was protected wood and didnt feel damp but it was not catching very well.

We enjoyed the hiking in this park but had to drive to it. Keep that in mind if you've got little kids.

Spent the weekend and was impressed. Most sites are well spaced for a state park. Clean bathrooms with flush toilets and showers. Wood and ice available to purchase. Walked down by the beach but it was too cold to go in. Sandy beach but looked like a rock bottom. Great hiking right across the street with views of little springs. Kids lived it.

Nicely nestled in the kettle moraine but busy in the summer. Bring bug spray

Great for RV camping but not quiet a bit ! Like being in a noisy city! 👎🏼

I drove through this state park to find some great campsites for future camping; I haven't actually stayed here yet. overall I wasn't particularly impressed with the campground or sites. Nothing really stuck out as a super duper winner, until I arrived at five sites that overlook the lake. If you can get them, this is probably the cheapest lakefront property you could rent for a weekend :-)

The purpose of sharing the following is that is difficult to figure out what are nice sites from the online reservation site. For anyone who is interested in camping here, the following sites, in my opinion, are the best campsites in terms of shade, not being flooded during a rain and privacy. 332, big level and shady

380 overlooks lake

382 overlooks lake

388 over looks like, not private

377 overlooks lake, nice view

Very nice campground. I have camped at Richard Bong State Park numerous times and this campground is very similar. The campsites are roomy and (at least the one I was using) was wooded and private. I was camping with another party and we had adjoining sites. There was a small trail between the two sites that made it very convenient for walking back and forth.

The lake is nice and there is a very nice beach as well as a fishing pier. I didn't take advantage of any of the hiking trails so cannot speak to those.

One thing that I didn't like as well as Bong State Park was that there was very little grassy area in the site. When it rained the first night, most of the site was mud.

Great for families, nice beach. We stayed in site 324- too close to freeway, constant traffic and lights. Avoid this side of campground- the campsite basically backs into freeway. Very buggy in Jujy.

What a great place to go camping! Sites are private with lots of trees, so there is plenty of shade. We were on site 317 and it was very level which made setting up our travel trailer a piece of cake. Water spigot was right next to our site, and bathrooms with flush toilets were just a short walk away. The lake can be accessed by driving or walking via trails connected to the campground. Water was warm and clean, and just perfect for the 90+ degree days we were there. We could hear the road from our campsite, but it was pretty quiet most of the time. I was really surprised to see that the roads through the campground were not 1-way only. We thought maybe someone just didn’t know the first time we saw someone driving the wrong way, but throughout the weekend there were are least 6 other vehicles that drove the “wrong way.” That would be the only negative of our time there .

This was my first time camping with a couple friends. We loved everything thing about Ottawa Lake. Didn’t have any problems. Other campers were friendly and the campgrounds were well kept. We had site 353. Close to showers and bathrooms. Campsites were secluded in the trees away from others. I would highly recommend this campground.

No showers in winter but awesome