WI State Parks - Lake Wissota

Lake Wissota is located near Chippewa Falls in the central North Western region of the state. The drive was just over 4 hours. We visited here over 10 years ago so I don't have a recollection of it at that time thus nothing to compare. I took my time trying to figure out how I'd write about this park. There were things both good and bad about it and sometimes the bad was also the good. It's complicated when it comes to our preferences.

Let me begin by stating that we were scheduled for 10 days but we left day 7. We were on site 98 which included a very large open "back yard" where the fire pit and picnic table were located. The stone drive was divided from this area by a cement parking stop so the camper was only able to go back so far. The drive was narrow, made worse by the extremely overgrown underbrush. This was one of those things that was both good and bad. It was bad because it reduced the amount of space available and was loaded with poison ivy. It was good because it provided almost total privacy and a decent wind block when storms came through. As it was we had to back the side of our trailer as close to the brush as possible in order to still put out our canopy. Together this went from brush wall to brush wall. We've had worse (Devils Lake) but this did not allow us cover for the picnic table and it made for that wide open yard to be mostly useless to us. We had some heavy rain two of the days we were there and quite the mud hole where we'd walk out of the door. It wasn't terrible but again a simple added layer of stone would have made all the difference in the world. Some of the grass wasn't cut, the pits were not cleaned out and quite full of ash showing signs that general maintenance was definitely lacking. We did not see a camp host in this park (this doesn't mean there wasn't one, we just didn't see one) and the small number of rangers on site for such a large park, they are the ones who often handle those matters. I'll blame it on our governors appointee of the DNR administrator and his taking the parks out of the state budget. I firmly believe this is leading to the destruction of our beautiful state resources (end rant).

Because we were in closer proximity to the vault toilets those were the ones I used. They could have used a bit of cleaning. A sweeping out would have been sufficient and made a huge different. They provided TP once in the week we were there though there was always some available as was there sufficient hand sanitizer.  I never did use the flush toilet building so I cannot speak to the cleanliness of those.  The ADA bathroom was small and all one room which means it had no division between shower and toilet sink area. It too was in need of a regular cleaning. There was a bench near the hand held shower and plenty of perfectly located hand bars which made showering Adam easy but because there wasn't any division the toilet paper got wet rendering it unusable and there was no adequately dry area to put clean clothes nor was there a bench or room for a chair to help us dress him. The handle to work the shower was off and sitting on the window sill beside a screw driver. We had to put it on in order to use the shower. Because not many campers have access it was not not filthy but you could tell none of it received a proper cleaning. It did not appear that anyone had cleaned the toilets, sink, floors or walls the entire 8 days of our vacation. Again we've experienced worse but with a few simple additions it could have been so much better.

While the park was quiet we had experiences with what we called psycho birds. We suspect it had a good deal to do with the proximity of the thick underbrush but 3 mornings in a row we had a particular bird trying to fly into the glass of our windows and who repeatedly used his beak to tap, tap, rap on the window for hours, unfortunately beginning at 3:30 am often going on until after 8. I could not stop reciting Poe's Raven as it was the first and last thing that came to mind over the many sleepless hours. It refused to stop no matter what we did. Finally the hubby beat back the brush from the side of the camper in the hopes of it stopping but it only worked partially. The very next morning there it was again. Sigh.... I am a nature lover and this even tested my patience.

This is not our favorite part of the state so I don't know that we'd return on a regular basis. I didn't dislike the park but a week is too long to spend here. There just isn't enough to do. What was sad to me is that with a little bit of minor upkeep it would be a wonderful park. I fear that this is, again, the first sign of things to come and have little hope that those issues will be addressed before they become much worse.

If we were to return we'd keep a few things in mind. There were sites available with "side yards" that we might have preferred so it's something we'd keep in mind and look for.  We also wished we'd brought our easy up to cover the table from the weather and provide more shade. It's not something we usually travel with as it is a bit weighty and our canopy is adequate for us most of the time but it is available and we'd certainly bring it to this park.