If you're looking for a place to dispersed camp in Wisconsin, look no further. It's easy to find a Wisconsin campground with dispersed camping with the Dyrt. Whether you're looking for a quiet location in the woods or wide open spaces, The Dyrt makes it easy to find the perfect dispersed campsite.
PLEASE NOTE: HORN LAKE IS NOT A DESIGNATED CAMPGROUND
Overnight camping, including tents, trailers, cars and trucks may be permitted in the County Forest without charge for a period of no more than 14 days cumulatively in a calendar year. Any camper who violates the rules of good conduct, including cutting or defacing timber, carelessness with fire, violation of game and fishing laws of the State, or improper disposal of garbage and litter shall be subject to ejection from the County Forest and subject to the penalties provided by County and State laws.
When camping on the County Forest, blocking roads, parking areas, or lake access is not permitted.
Foster Falls (access via Sullivan Fire Lane, Saxon) – 1 campsite, privy (no ATV access)
Rustic campsites (no water or electricity) have been established at Foster Falls (1 site). Camping is allowed at these sites or set up camp anywhere in the County Forest for up to two weeks at no charge. Everyone is always welcome to explore the entire forest on foot.
Primitive shoreline campsites scattered along the St. Croix and Namekagon rivers offer the opportunity to move from campsite to campsite for multi-day trips. These campsites are often only accessible from the water and are relatively isolated. Campsites are on a first-come, first-serve basis and are easier to secure mid-week and during non-holiday weekends. There are no fees or reservations required. However, a camping permit is required on the St. Croix River below Highway 8.
River camping - dispersed options on the river Primitive campsites with river views
Scout
Nice clean and quiet site. No facilities or cell service. Easy access to mountain bike trails. Keep it clean if you use it 🙏
Guide
We camped here in May not much for skeeters, good sites on the lake with a fire pit on a dead end road with a boat landing.
ScoutAs a primitive camper who hates paying to sleep on the ground somewhere, this is my new favorite spot. Two sites, fire rings, no bathroom, water, electric.
Traveler
8 Mile drive off the main road. Mostly paved, some gravel, but all smooth. We had the place to ourselves. A short walk down to the waterfall. Quiet and serene, towering trees and only a few mosquitoes.
Guide
There are three sites two small one large site which you can fit larger camper or RV in. Entrances need a lot of TLC washed out and large drop from paved road. Middle camp site has best access to brook I put a 8 foot pop up in it you could go bigger 20 foot max. One site I would say is tent only very tight. Wilderness toilet but they look pretty full.
Guide
Small pull off little ways off 64 on mountain lakes Rd. Pick nik table and fire ring. Big site for ATV campers right off trail can probably get toy hauler in here easy.
Guide
Small site little rough to get into a lot of trash left. Short path to river this is a two site spot good distance between them.
GuideSmall parking lot located off well-maintained gravel roads. Nice and quiet flat no facilities.
GuideA single campsite can park next to tent only. Access to lake
Guide
Tents only. Short walk to campsite only one on lake. 5 dollar parking national Forest.
Guide
This campsite is about an hour away from where I live. The listing here on The Dyrt seemed promising, and I hoped that by getting out there early I would find a nice spot. I first went to the National Park Service Scenic Riverway Visitor Center in St. Croix Falls to obtain a permit and learned that I don't need one for Sandrock Cliffs, I was already there so I got one anyway. About 40 minutes later I arrived at Sandrock Cliffs. The campsites all have a fire ring and are decently spaced apart, but most of the sites were full of trash and broken tent poles. There was a large group of kids that arrived by canoe/kayak just after I did. Soon the parking lot was also full of cars of some shady looking people who appeared to be looking for a spot to party. The kids seemed to have deterred these people from staying. I set up my camp and started to read a book. The kids began running through my campsite and upset my dog. After 3 times of them running through my campsite I just packed up and went home. Since this spot is accessible by road I'm assuming that its best not to visit in the summer, it seems to be a place that gets abused by the locals as a party area. I may consider visiting again in the fall when it is hopefully less busy.
TravelerA few mosquitoes, but the wind kept them to a minimum! Great view of the lake and very private. About 2 miles of dirt road to get there. Turn right when you get to ATV trail. Two camp sites 10 yards apart.
Traveler
We camped here on our way to the badlands starting from michigan. It was easy to find, and the spot itself was good and had restrooms. The only problem was the mosquitoes.
ScoutVery cool spot right on the river. In ground fire pit. Decent amount of off-road vehicle traffic. No service :)
Guide
Paddle trip in early June 2023. From Prairie du Sac to Spring Green, about 21 miles? Went mid week, saw one Boy Scout troop but generally nobody else.
Campsite was beautiful with a fire pit and some left over wood from the previous group. BUT, even though you couldn’t see the road you could hear it. It’s a truck route so at 6:30am it was busy with trucks and noisy which definitely took away from the vibe of dispersed camping.
Water levels were good. Weather was beautiful.
Only camped one night. We rented the canoe and they ran the shuttle for us, which was very easy to arrange. Would do this again!
GuideThe McCauslin Brook runs through Townsend and Lakewood. There are a total of 3 sites in this location and all are on the Brook.
RangerGreat spot right on the water. There are 2 camp spots with stone rings. They are about 40' apart on a cul-de-sac at the end of the road where the boat launch is. I'd suggest using your own firepit/ grill if you have one as some moron decided burning tires in the firepit was a good idea.
It's a beautiful spot. Very quiet. Land to the north is private property, so keep that in mind. You'll see a few houses on the way in.
If you travel to the left where the road "T's" off, take care. The road is tight and very twisty. There are numerous spots to camp, but no pits to the left. I would not recommend going to the left unless the max your hauling is a teardrop. Anyone up to 20' would be OK going to the right where the established 2 sites are.
GuideSo much fun. Bring dry wood! Don’t forget your meat ( obviously we did)! I Great time regardless. Canoe and then camping on the river. There was a storm, it was a rough summer (2023) many storms. So much fun.
Highly recommend.
TravelerLoved this spot. Stayed two nights, and the first night was almost absolutely silent other than the waterfall (difficult to access) about a mile away. The campsite is right along a deep, and steadily moving stream. Water is very cold, and flows from an aquifer upstream.
There is an outdoor toilet, and I've attempted to point it out in the pictures.
The entrance was doable for my sedan, but was tricky. I believe a camper could make it going slowly. The second campsite entrance may have an easier time in.
Do not follow road past campsites, either way unless your vehicle is lifted my sedan would have gotten stuck if I tried.
Both campsites are accessed from the main road and have a brown "campsite" sign.
AT&T: No Service.
GuideWe arrived in the late afternoon and drove all the way down the road, there are a few spots near the boat ramp and bathroom, but we parked near the trailhead and it was perfect! There were a few hunters out but they weren’t anywhere near us, I’d definitely recommend this spot
GuideI pulled into the campsite late at night and was really confused where to go. There are bathrooms and 1 bar of Verizon (no T-mobile service). We ended up staying in the parking lot near the boat ramp and woke up to amazing bird calls and left before 6am. Pretty campsite with boat ramp to St Croix river.
GuideThis is literally just a roadside pull off not really a campsite (and the road was kinda busy), two girls traveling did not feel comfortable spending the night here and went somewhere else
TravelerOutside peaceful
TravelerIt was the most relaxing, peaceful, enjoyable campsite. I love the wilderness.
Traveler
The spot is along the ice age trail. Well managed gravel trail to the south and single wide footpath to the north.
There is a pad at the bottom of the path up to the open air vault toilet, a fire ring, and a table. The table has an extra long side for those in a wheelchair. The crushed gravel path to the south makes travel to the nearby Lions park easy.
The ease of access probably makes this a hangout spot as we saw a good amount of refuse around the pad. The pictures are probably worst case scenario. We visited in April after historic snowfall and thaw causing the river to flood. I'd imagine when the river is lower with the fire ring and table where they're supposed to be this would be a nice place for the night. Right on the beautiful st.croix river.
Ranger
Big parties in the cove. No bathrooms no showers, just sand and water. Very busy on weekends in the summer, as long as there is no dredging operations going on, otherwise it’s closed. If it is closed, there are plenty of islands and beaches near by to set up for camping.
TravelerThis is a nice, secluded site about 100 feet from the falls. We did get several visitors to the falls each day, but most were only there for a few minutes and left us alone. The mosquitoes were somewhat bad. Also got a bit nervous hearing timber wolves in the distance for a few hours at night then again in the early morning. But we practiced good camp hygiene and they left us alone.
