Summer of Camping - Yellowstone Lake State Park

Faelyn straddles the line between Wisconsin and Ilinois.

Our family just got into camping in the last year and this year we are visiting four different campgrounds in Wisconsin. Our first trip was to Yellowstone Lake State Park.  Yes, there is a Yellowstone Lake in WISCONSIN. It was lovely and we were with lovely people, one other family of longtime (pre-kid!) friends.

Elaine with the Mug and Me with the glass.

Pros:

• Awesome bat viewing. They came out at sundown and we had hundreds swooping around, eating mosquitoes and enchanting the children and adults. 
• Therefore, very few mosquitoes found their way to my skin. 
• Awesome fireflies. All over the place like Christmas lights in the trees. 
• Canoe/Kayak rental on site was easy, accessible and the kayaking was fun, and pretty easy while still being a decent workout. 
• Swim beach - totally not yucky, warm, sandy well defined area and fairly large swimbeach. Not stinky. 
• It was just really pretty. 
• Nice easy hikes for littles - we had a 3,5,6, and 9 year old with us. 
• No civilization noise. People, yes, traffic? No.  

No rain! This view above my bed! Lovely!

Cons

• Pit toilets. There was a shower room, but even those toilets were non-flushable and there was no running water for tooth-brushing. We were mostly ok with this, but our 9 year old did not like it. Nope. Not at all. 
• No Wi-fi. Now, its totally ok to be disconnected from the world, and, had I known, I would have printed google maps to get us back home at the end of the run. The most worrisome part about remote campsites is getting back to the interstate. We got lucky with our memories on the way home. My phone ran out of juice and I have few pictures. But it was also totally ok to be out of touch. Maybe I should move this to the Pros? 
• No wagons for walk-in site. We aren't backpacking. We are car-camping with a young family and that means STUFF. Most of the other campgrounds I have been to that have walk in sites also offer wagons. So... there was a lot more to set up and breakdown than I would have liked and we forgot to put all of our food away. A racoon ran off with a bag of corn chips. 

Overall, I would totally go to this one again. It was about a three-hour drive from our place in Chicago, and the pros totally outweighed the cons. I might pack a bit differently or reserve a different type of site, but nothing really surpasses the amazing bat experience and the lovely sounds of the woods.  And of course, these gorgeous kids. 

 

Faelyn 9, Julia 2, Ben 5, Lenora 6. Mine are the two on the outside.