Devil’s Lake State Park
Hiking & Camping in Devil’s Lake State Park, Wisconsin | April 2026
After a few days of driving across Wisconsin, we were ready to plant for a few days and do more walking and less driving. Devil’s Lake State Park seemed like a great place to do just that. We reserved a campsite for two nights in the Quartzite campground — the only campground that was open, as it was still considered the off season for a few more days — and were able to park and not have to drive anywhere during our time here.
On our first afternoon here, it rained for a few hours, so we relaxed at the campsite until it passed. After dinner, we set out on a little pre-sunset hike up the West Bluff Trail. In order to get to the trail, we walked up a steep road from the campground to the North Shore Drive, then took the rocky trail up onto the Bluff overlooking the lake. It was steep at times, made up of rock steps or sometimes slabs of pavement, but we took our time and enjoyed a couple of small lookouts on our way. We made our end point at a larger sized overlook with unobstructed views over the lake. It was about 2.5 miles round trip and 500 feet elevation gain when hiking from the campground, making it a very pleasant sunset walk, though we realized when we got there that we couldn’t actually see the sunset to the West. Oh well, we still got to see the clouds and opposite side of the lake change colors as the sun dipped below the West bluffs, and saw the moon rising to the East.
The next morning started out cool and cloudy, perfect for our planned longer hike for today. Today’s focus was on hiking up the East Bluff and checking out some side trails, and then making a loop around the lake. After a slow start, we gathered some snacks and set out on our hike, through the campground, over the hill, and into the main part of the park. As we walked to the East Bluff Trailhead, we spotted some morel mushrooms that we couldn’t help but harvest as a side to our dinner that evening.
The trail on the North side of the East Bluff was similar to the West Bluff trail we walked the night before, going between rocky steps and pavement that was steep and a little slick. Right away, we were noticing more views over the lake than the West Bluff had, and heard a group of rock climbers climbing up the bluff below us.
It was steep getting up the bluff, but once we were up on top we were mostly done with uphill for the day. We followed the trail heading South, enjoying the easy walking and great views over the lake. Towards the South end, we stopped for a snack break and to enjoy the views before starting on another side trail.
When we came to the junction with the Balanced Rock Trail which goes down the South side of the bluff, we first followed the East Bluff trail some more to hike the Devil’s Door loop. The trail going down to the lookout was more narrow and steep, but the views were worth the extra effort. The “Devil’s Door” is made up of tall rocks standing out, that look as though they were stacked together and are slightly balancing against each other with a gap in the middle. The viewing area for this is pretty narrow, so we were thankful to have it to ourselves for a few minutes before we continued on. We had been noticing more hikers on the South side of the bluff, and soon realized that there was a large school group here that was both hiking around and rock climbing along part of the Balanced Rock Trail.
After making our way back to the junction, Curtis wandered off to attempt a letterbox, then it was time for our descent down the Balanced Rock Trail. While I thought that the trails on the North side were steep, this one felt far steeper and mostly descended straight down rock steps all the way off the bluff. Unfortunately we couldn’t see the Balanced Rock well because there were so many people from the school group around it, but from what we could see, we preferred the Devil’s Door formation. It took a lot of focus for me to get down those steps, and I was thankful that we weren’t hiking down among all the students that were there and wrapping up their time on the bluff.
When we made it back down to the lake side, we found a picnic table on the South side to have lunch and relax after our long descent. The rest of our walk would be mostly flat, since we decided to walk the Tumbling Rocks trail that followed the West side of the lake rather than walk back up and down the West Bluff trail.
From the picnic area, we followed the South side of the lake on a sidewalk and over a boardwalk before making our way along a road to the Tumbling Rock Trail. The name “Tumbling Rock Trail” made me a bit concerned that we would be navigating around big boulders, but thankfully that wasn’t the case. There was a very easy to follow trail among the rocks, with pleasant views across the lake and of the bluff that we had just hiked across. We made it back to the North side, with the entire loop to and from the Quartzite campground being about 6 miles long, with over 700 feet of elevation gain.
We thought about going out that evening for another sunset walk, but it turned more overcast so we felt it wouldn’t be worth it. Overall, we really enjoyed our time in this state park. It had some great views and a good range of hiking trails, especially for a Midwest park. We were especially glad we could experience it in the off season, when camping was slightly less expensive and the trails were mostly empty!
