Peninsula Is State’s #2 Campground

There are many different ways to camp, as a visit to Peninsula State Park will show. The park’s campground had the second-highest number of bookings in the state this year, second only to Devil’s Lake. Photos by Rachel Lukas.

Peninsula State Park was the second most-popular camping destination in the Wisconsin State Parks system in 2023. Through Nov. 28, campers had filled 42,593 nights at the park’s 460 campsites. Those nights came across 19,282 bookings at the campground, up from 18,698 in 2022 and nearly as many as the record 19,601 bookings in 2021. 

Only the sprawling Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest, which includes 225,000 acres in Vilas, Oneida and Iron Counties, registered more occupied nights, with 52,358.

Only Devil’s Lake Campground reported more bookings than peninsula, at 21,780. 

Peninsula tied with Copper Falls for highest summer occupancy rate at 91%. Newport was fifth at 88%.

Potawatomi registered 5,481 camping nights, down from a high of 6,006 in 2021. Rock Island booked a record 1,774 nights in 2023, Newport State Park logged 1,402 nights, down from a high of 1,715 in 2021. 

–Source: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources