Campgrounds and RV parks near Camp Douglas, WI

Mill Bluff State Park anchors the area with a 0.4-mile nature trail circling the base of Mill Bluff, a 2.5-acre spring-fed swimming pond with a 250-foot sand beach, and hand-pump water at a small rustic campground. The bluffs form part of the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve, giving families an easy geology lesson alongside the hike. Buckhorn State Park, on a peninsula in the Castle Rock Flowage of the Wisconsin River, covers more than 8,000 acres with two adjacent state wildlife areas and offers family and group campsites, cart-in camping, a canoe trail, and an accessible fishing pier. Wildlife includes sandhill cranes, otters, beavers, white-tail deer, wild turkey, and the occasional black bear, and bird blinds are situated around the property for viewing hawks, owls, and osprey. The Elroy-Sparta State Trail, one of the country's first rail-to-trail conversions, is a short drive west and runs through three long tunnels. Fishing, ATV routes, and river outfitters are widely available across the surrounding forests and rivers.

The primary camping season runs from late spring through early fall. Mill Bluff State Park is open from May to September, with reservations accepted for that window and day use available during open hours. Buckhorn State Park keeps its accessible cabin site available year-round, and its day-use areas draw visitors in winter for ice fishing and other cold-weather activity. Summer is peak season. Weekends and holidays around Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day fill quickly at both state and private campgrounds. Biting flies and mosquitoes can be intense in the warm months, and bug spray is worth packing. Fall brings cooler temperatures, thinner crowds, and color in the oaks and maples through late September and October. Winter closes most private RV parks and shuts down water systems at rustic state-park campgrounds, though snowshoeing, ice fishing, and winter hiking remain available at Buckhorn day-use areas and around Mill Bluff.

Mill Bluff State Park is rustic. The 21-site family campground is wooded or partially wooded with six sites offering electrical hookups, vault toilets, hand pumps, and no showers, and campsites 7 and 10-21 are very flat and accessible. Larger rigs relying on hookups will be more comfortable at a private park. Buckhorn State Park offers a wider range of options, including 69 family campsites that accommodate tents or trailers, 17 standard electric sites, 3 accessible electric sites, a shower and toilet building, and a dump station near the park office. Bears can be present at the property, so food storage matters. Highway noise from I-90/94 carries into Mill Bluff, and freight trains and occasional military aircraft from nearby Volk Field are also audible in the area. Cell coverage is generally reliable near the interstate but weaker in the more remote pockets of Buckhorn.