Pattison State Park features the highest waterfalls in Wisconsin and the fourth highest waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains. Big Manitou Falls is 165 feet high and Twin Little Manitou Falls is 31 feet high. This 1,400-acre park also has a lake with a beach, a nature center, camping and scenic hiking trails.  Pattison State Park has 59 regular (family) campsites, 18 of them with electric hookups and three backpack sites. There is a sanitary dumping station but no sewer or water hookups. Showers and flush toilets are available during the summer. Pattison State Park is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2020.

Pattison State Park Campground

The area around Big Manitou Falls and the swimming area are too developed and close to the road for my taste and many of the less developed trails are still closed - but the backpack campsites are gorgeous and worth the trip. It’s only a 1.5 mile hike and there is a vault toilet so it’s a nice compromise between convenience and true backcountry camping. The White Birch site is almost right on top of Little Manitou Falls and it’s an easy trek from the campsite to some boulders where you can sit and watch the water. There is access to the opposite side of the falls from a parking lot so it’s not completely secluded but we only heard one or two visitors during our entire stay.


White Birch site is outstanding

Great friendly service from Rangers. Trails were well maintained. Stayed at both backpacking sites and campground. Both were clean and provided a great experience. 

Backpack the Falls

This was a really nice campground. Nice and quiet for its medium size. Wooded sites are nicely spaced (but never far enough away). Facilities were clean and maintained. Liked all the possibilities for hiking and the proximity to other State parks in Northern wisconsin. We visited Cooper Falls as well. Took a trail path out of the campground to the most amazing water fall. Showers available in season. Pit toilets but nicely maintained.

Loved this campground!

A great campground! There is a beach, playground, as well as drive-in and hike-in sites. The waterfalls are very cool, and they have nice signage and pamphlets to learn more about them. I recommend taking the time to read about the geology. I haven't stayed in a car camping sites, but we thought they looked very nice.

The hike-in sites are great, not too far to walk but you have privacy. One thing to note about the hike-in sites is that the trails aren't well marked. Once you're on the trail for a while, they start having regular signage, but the start of the trails themselves aren't marked. You park in an area behind the car camping sites, next to what I assume is a storage building or old house. There are two starts to the trail, the one I found best is down the service road maybe a couple hundred yards. There's also one on the other side of the lot, but it winds a bit, forks into another trail, and all in all seems a little more confusing. I'd recommend just talking to the campground host when you get there, they can explain everything. The walk is short enough (a mile and a half) that we hiked out and back a couple times when camping, either to access the beach or to fill up water. Another important note is that while it's in an area where hanging a bear bag is recommended, the woods aren't thinned enough to where there are strong branches low enough for a bag. It took quite a lot of looking to find a suitable spot for our bag. There's a fire ring and picnic table at each site, which was nice. The bathrooms outhouses, which was a nice surprise, as I was expecting an unenclosed vault toilet.

There's a separate trail to the beach from the sites as well, but I went back the main way anyway. The beach isn't anything special, but is nice enough. There's a nice, small playground near the beach as well.

Beautiful, quiet

Great clean campground. There were lots of pit toilets close to our campsite and then the shower house had nice real toilets. Showers were hot and clean. Each site has a fire pit and firewood available for purchase there was also a bench and picnic table at each site. We have at&amp;t and had great service but sprint didn’t have service. There was a flood June 2018 and a lot of the hiking and beach was closed but the waterfall was pretty. If we ever come back this way we will defiantly stay here again.

Great campground 

Bbeautiful spot. Great hikes. Nice showers and her peaceful.

Beautiful!

We have started at Pattinson State Park a total of three times. 

Our first time was at a backpacking site and we did not arrive till after the office had closed. We found a map at the park office and set off on our trek. The park had a major flood Father’s Day 2018 and we were staying in September 2018 which meant many trails were washed out. The trails leading into the backpacking sites were not marked and there was construction everywhere making it very difficult to find out site. Once we found the site we discovered the backpack site was a very secluded site with nobody else in site. The site has ample space with a two picnic tables and a nice bench. 

We returned this year in May to the backpack sites and found the trails were still as torn up as before and with just as little navigational markers on the trail to tell us where to go. At the backpack sites you can use whatever wood is down at the site for your fire. 

We again returned in June this time to stay at the Main campground with our camper. Our site was located on the left side of the loop. The site is designed as a pull through site however if you do this your door will facing the road and the back of the camper will be to the fire pit and picnic table. Other than that the site was great with LOTS of space. We could have parked two campers on the site and still had room for a tent. 

The hike to the falls is amazing as well. This park has the 4th highest waterfall east of the Rockies at 165 feet which is only 2 feet shorter than Niagara Falls. They have a nice selfie station where you can set your phone to take photos of you and whoever your with. 

There is a lot of construction at the park due to the flooding that occurred in 2018 but it is well worth it. 

Backpacking/RV life oh my!

Tallest waterfall in Wisconsin! We’ve camped here many times, a good place to try and snag a first come first serve site if you’re camping last minute. The fall colors are AMAZING to witness at this park!

Beautiful! 

Waterfalls, large well maintained sites, hiking trails, clean restrooms/showers.

One of my favorite campgrounds

Good hiking trails, beautiful nature, quiet and tucked away...I like it.

Nice park

Pattison state park has gone through some hard trials over the past few years. Heavy storm and food damaged washed out the main freeway to the park, destroyed the river side trails from Little Manitou to Big Manitou falls and shut down the public beach and campgrounds for some time. 

The state has been pouring a lot of money into the repair and improvement of the park since then. They undertook the building of a new shower house facility, repairing all the hiking trails and restoring the observation decks and trails around Big Manitou Falls. 

Pattison features the 4th highest waterfall east of the rockies (highest in WI/MN). Even the "Little" Manitou falls is 31 feet in height. It is also within a one hour drive to several other amazing parks with waterfalls. 

The family camp sites are small, sometimes not the greatest with tree coverage and a bit of a walk to the shower house facilities. 

The staff there are nice. There is lots of parking available. Easy and quick access to see both of the falls from parking areas. This is a nice weekend camping location. The trail system is limited in miles so more than two or three days may be too long for those that like to hike and explore.  

Beautiful surroundings

Very nice, clean park with easy trails. Sites were well spaced with brush/trees between. ATT &amp; Verizon both worked fairly well. One on the nicest night overs we encountered so far. Would return. Big rig friendly with decent roads.

Pattison State Park

Awesome state park! Right along side of State Hwy 53. All the amenities you would need. Clean restrooms, bathrooms etc.
All kinds of room to stretch out.
Playground in good shape and very large area's for BBQing.
Also nice trail system for hiking with a few site's for backpacking in.

Great!

We stayed in one of the 3 backpacking sites. Our site was closest to the little manitou falls and had a few little access points to take in the view. The site was tucked away and private, but could pick up the occasional sound of cars/hikers on the other side of the falls/river