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Well as some people might have read(earlier posts) the misses and I got our camper. A 1991 Palomino Filly. We looked on-line for good camping places around the Milwaukee area and found that every place around here is booked solid every weekend until Labor day weekend. We did find a site at Mill bluff state park for the weekend of August 1st. Our next trip is labor day weekend at Merrick state park. One thing I have not seen on the forums is a chat about state parks and what kind of experience people have had at these parks. or even a list of good and bad state parks. Another question I have is is there any good caches around Mill Bluff state park or Merrick state park that we should try to find. I only know of one at the Mill Bluff and that one is GCED6. If any one knows of any other good parks for us to stay at please let us know. I know of Copper Falls I think that one is next year. But any other parks that we should go and stay at. this will be our first time in a camper we usually tent camp but with me having sleep apnea I need to have a Darth Vader mask on so I can sleep.That is one reason why it is hard to find a site because we need electric to run the machine. we have been to Bong, Kettle Moraine Southern, Pine, and Ottawa. But we are open to some new area that we might not know about. again please let us know.
Thanks,
Team Outdoorsman-KevinNot to far from Copper Falls Park is Amnicon Falls State Park and Patterson State Park. Over by St.Croix Fall is Interstate Park. There is also a nice little campground that is part of the Brule State Forest in Brule, Wi. The Brule River goes through it. There is a few very nice Federal camp grounds up this way also. Day Lake. Mineral Lake, Two Lakes and a few more that I can’t think of off the top of my head.
I like Mauthe Lake (1 hour), Hartman Creek (2ish hours), Governor Dodge (2 hours), and Point Beach (2ish hours). Next year we are trying Mirror lake June 24-28 (hint, hint). I have some friends who love Kohler Andrea and High Cliff. Oh yeah, I forgot about Peninsula and Potawatomi (I didn’t stay here just did some hiking, but the sites looked nice). Roche-A-Cri was a nice park, but we didn’t have electric. Wildcat Mountain is also a great park, but I have never stayed at an electric site. I always group camped.
New Glarus woods was ok. It seemed like a small park. Having New Glarus brewery near by made all the difference. Ok, it was a great park.
I knew I should have kept a log of the state parks we camped.
@Team Outdoorsman wrote:
Well as some people might have read(earlier posts) the misses and I got our camper. A 1991 Palomino Filly. We looked on-line for good camping places around the Milwaukee area and found that every place around here is booked solid every weekend until Labor day weekend. We did find a site at Mill bluff state park for the weekend of August 1st. Our next trip is labor day weekend at Merrick state park. One thing I have not seen on the forums is a chat about state parks and what kind of experience people have had at these parks. or even a list of good and bad state parks. Another question I have is is there any good caches around Mill Bluff state park or Merrick state park that we should try to find. I only know of one at the Mill Bluff and that one is GCED6. If any one knows of any other good parks for us to stay at please let us know. I know of Copper Falls I think that one is next year. But any other parks that we should go and stay at. this will be our first time in a camper we usually tent camp but with me having sleep apnea I need to have a Darth Vader mask on so I can sleep.That is one reason why it is hard to find a site because we need electric to run the machine. we have been to Bong, Kettle Moraine Southern, Pine, and Ottawa. But we are open to some new area that we might not know about. again please let us know.
Thanks,
Team Outdoorsman-KevinThere are no bad state parks. Just bigger ones and smaller ones, and ones with a variety of terrain and fauna.
I have camped at both of the parks you mention, and both are fine.
Mill Bluff is pleasant, too close to the freeway for my taste, but has a nice swimming pond for kids. The cache that you mention is withing walking distance of the campground, so you can do like we did, set up the tent, and walk over to the cache. It gives you a taste of what the mound caches in the area are like. There are several good caches in that area, many on mounds, and many on bike trails, so pick your poison there. if you like mounds, there are 4 caches on Twin Bluffs 6 miles away. Look at GCHVBQ for details.
As far as Merrick goes, I put out 2 new ones there this spring, and they are the only 2 in Merrick. There are a number of caches along the Great River Road, going in both directions from Merrick. Make the drive to alma, which is a great town, and which now has a half dozen caches. Merrick park is smallish, scenic, and used primarily as a place for people to camp who are going to canoe the Mississippi backwaters. Great spot to camp, if a loud train going by every 30 minutes doesnt bug ya.
zuma
If you want to think about next year … Harrington Beach State Park, is currently being built. Plans are for it to open next spring. Should have about 75 sites and a shower/bathroom building.
Since it’s under construction … I can’t say it will be good, but at least it will be new.
Plenty of caches in the park … 10 of them … search zip code 53004 and look for caches names starting with “Harrington: …”
I was wondering when Harrington Beach would open it’s sites. Do you know off hand if they can be booked yet?
Hi!
As Zuma said there are no bad State Parks, and there many other camping opportunities throughout the state with state forest camping, county camp grounds, and many nice private camp grounds!
I know what you mean about keeping the sleep apnea machine going cause my wife uses one. When there is no electricity available we use a RV battery to run the machine. Most if not all machines do have or can get battery adapter cords to run on a 12 volt power source.
The deep cycle RV battery, (or any 12 volt battery) we use will run the sleep apnea machine 2 or 3 nights without charging it, but during the day while geocaching in our truck we charge it up with a 300 watt inverter hooked up to the cig lighter in the truck .
Don’t let the full state park camp grounds stop you from camping. If you use a Delorme Gazetter they show many other camping spots in any of the ares of the state you will be geocaching in. I look for the tepee’s used in the legend and if it has a number I look it up in the Parks, Campgrounds, or Forest/ Wilderness pages of the Gazetter. On the campgrounds I do a Internet search for any additional information and many have web sites to view there campground and what they have to offer. The same with State Parks & Forests, Wilderness Areas, and any
County Park Systems.
Hope this keeps you’s camping! srvive@nohandsgps wrote:
I was wondering when Harrington Beach would open it’s sites. Do you know off hand if they can be booked yet?
Not sure call the park at 262-285-3015 … if you get Ranger Andrew Krueger, tell him EnergySaver sent you.
Don’t bother going by what Harrington’s website says (http://www.harringtonbeach.org) … as the site is “frozen in times” as of early January … they guy that did the site died … I’m taken over the site design for the park, but we’ve yet to gain access to the account ID and password to allow me access, we’re in contact with family members who are looking for the information.
Thanks for all the help. We plan on going camping at least 5 more times this year. but I would like to hear what kind of experience people have had at state parks and if any one has a favorite park. We have camped at Mirror Lake in a tent back about 5 years ago but the one thing I did not like about it was it seemed to get a lot of teenagers there that would party all night then go to Wisconsin Dells during the day. So it was loud and it seemed we always had guest that would sneak into our site at night and use our tarp over our picnic table during rainy events for shelter. It was weird, but all in all it was a good time. Basically what I am asking is to hear about where people have camped what experience they have had and get ideas for future camping trips. It does not have to be a state park it could be anywhere private, National Forrest, anywhere.
Thanks for any information
Team Outdoorsman- Kevin
I think I might need to change the name for something that shows me and the wife.Not sure if your talking about the campground by itself, or the campground and the park. I enjoy Devil’s Lake, but the campsites I’ve used have been nothing special in my experience. The raccoons here are large and brazen. I’ve stayed at Pattison once and had a great trip. Wish I would have caching then. My wife is “afraid” of bears, so I heard about them daily. Yellowstone Lake SP is pretty neat due to the lack of flying insects. They have large amounts of bats that eat skeeters and the likes. I’ve been there twice and have yet to see a skeeter, though I haven’t been there this year. Bagley Rapids in the Nicolet NF near Mountain was great. As the name suggests, you sleep just yards from the Oconto river. This place is rustic and had only about 10 sites. This is my kind of place. Hope this helps.
If you camp at the parking coords for this cache GC1DFG7 you will have great camping and caching together. Not to mention fishing. It’s one of my favorite places. The campground is never too busy.
Most recently I camped at Interstate State Park and had a great time. Some good caches in the park (along with some great views), and there are tons of caches in the surrounding area. Another state park with breathtaking views is Wyalusing in far southwestern WI. I haven’t checked to see if there are any caches there, but the hiking is great. My all time favorite park is Devils Lake. The hiking is beyond compare, the views phenomenal, and its huge, so you will never run out of things to do or new trails to hike. Some of the best hiking can be pretty physically taxing, but they do a great job of posting terrain ratings for each trail. There’s room for alot more caches than are there now, but the surrounding area will keep you cache-happy. I always stay in the Ice Age Loop at Devils Lake. I’ve heard alot of great things about Governor Dodge, but haven’t been there myself.
This is great keep them coming I like to hear about other peoples camping trips. You know the who what when and wheres. my first trip in the camper is this weekend so i am getting pumped to go cant wait I am all excited I feel like a little kid at Christmas time. I will post how it went when I get back but I think it will be fun. Thanks again and keep them coming.
Team Outdoorsman- Kevin
well everyone we survived our first camping trip in the camper. we had a blast. the only problem we had was with the site we were at site 1 and it was bi-level and it was weird. we ended up backing in as far as we could then pushing the camper around until we got it were we wanted. other than that we had a great time learned alot about the camper and how things work. well just wanted everyone to know how it went pretty soon we will be experienced camper campers
Where did you go?
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