Mr. Jar and I are tent campers. We like fairly primitive sites (and when I say primitive I mean: probably in a state park where we won’t be eaten by bears, but also NOT RIGHT ON TOP of a family camping with their RV and television)
The Jars and the jar dog, marge are interested in going camping this summer for two or three nights and we’re thinking about going to Devil’s Lake (we’re thinking southern Wisconsin since we don’t want to drive for days just to camp two nights)
Any opinions, thoughts, different suggestions? We like big trees and quiet.
Oo, I’m a transplant from Wisconsin and go camping there yearly, I can advise. If I were you, I’d call soon to ask about availability and maybe if you can still reserve a site. I know the state parks have a certain number of sites that are non-reservable, sold to people who drive up that day.
Devil’s Lake is lovely, and extremely popular - so you might not get quite the isolated feeling you want. One that’s not as well-known around the state but still popular and pretty is Kohler Andrae State Park, about 50 miles north of Milwaukee in Sheboygan, WI. It’s located on Lake Michigan, has a ton of wooded sites, and among other attractions has a boardwalk through the dunes, as well as an educational nature center. It’s probably a 2.5 hour drive from Chicago.
Another you might want to look into, though it’ll be maybe a 3.5 hour drive, is Governor Dodge State Park in Dodgeville, WI - it’s a bit west of Madison. It doesn’t seem to have quite as many trees as the other two sites (it has a good amount of prairie), but enough that you’ll probably get a site with shade. Lots of hiking trails, though this is in a hilly region so none of them will be on very level ground, most likely.
All of these campgrounds will basically offer you a site with a place to park your car, a fire pit, and a short-ish walk to a faucet and a bathroom area. It may be a longer walk to a bathroom that has flush toilets and showers, depending on where your site is. (There are electric sites for people who like that sort of thing.)