April 11-12, 2014 Devil’s Lake State Park, Baraboo, WI

Desperate to get out camping for the first time this year after a hard winter, we chose Devil’s Lake State Park as one of the closest parks open to camp for a couple nights. We took off work half a day on Friday to get there in time to finish packing and setup before dark. The only campground open so early in the year was the Quartzite campground, so we reserved site 44 for two nights. I chose this site because it was one of the few wooded ones available. Unfortunately, site 44 was basically flooded with a few inches of water in the fire pit. We tried to find another wooded site, but most of them were reserved. Site 45 seemed to be one of the best. We also wanted site 38, but it too was taken. Finally, we settled on site 75 but should have taken 72 since it at least had a couple trees we could have used for securing a tarp.

After searching for campsites and getting setup, it was getting pretty late, but we did get a chance to stop by the lake to let Amber cast a line with her new fishing pole. We made a fire and cooked supper consisting mainly of Mountain House Beef Stew, which was surprisingly good. On Saturday we had obligations for the kid, so we took her back to the Madison area for ice skating lessons and a birthday party. The weather was terrible, but after a break in the rain we decided to try to stick it out for another night. Shortly after arriving and preparing for another evening camping, the ranger came around warning of severe thunderstorms and hail, so we took it as a sign to get out while it was still relatively dry. We ended up finishing the packing right after the rain came but before the heavy storms.

The Quartzite Campground was quite disappointing as most of it was open with little or no shade or trees, but we were glad to get back out to nature.