Yellowstone Lake State Park

About the Park & the Driftless Area

Glaciation in Wisconsin

Yellow Stone State Park is located in southwestern Wisconsin. For those of you not familiar with this area, a lake here is a bit unusual. Western Wisconsin (as well as NE Iowa, SE Minnesota, and some of NW Illinois) is referred to as the Driftless Area (in the La Crosse area it is often called the Coulee Region), which refers to the lack of glaciation in this area during the last Ice Age. What this means is unlike the eastern half of Wisconsin, which is characterized by flat land and the Great Lakes (a product of glacier movement), this region has steep ridges and bluffs, stunning rock formations, and deep river valleys. Due to this lack of glaciation and the resulting topography, there are very few natural lakes in the area.

Since there is a lack of natural lakes (and Wisconsinites LOVE lakes), there are several artificial lakes in the area, one of which is Yellowstone Lake. The lake is 450 acres and fed by the Yellowstone River which flows into the lake from the northwest side.

Boating on Yellowstone Lake

The lake has 3 boat launches, one of which is a canoe launch, all located within the State Park on the north and northeast side of the lake. The Yellowstone River is dammed on the southeastern end.

Since this is a man-made lake, it isn’t known for being particularly deep. It’s deepest point (located near the dam) is 14 feet. Due to this, most speedboats stay in that area. The northwestern area of the lake, which is where the canoe launch is located, is a no wake zone. Personally, due to the shallow waters found in most of the lake, I would recommend smaller boats (non-motorized or fishing). We did see 4 larger boats while on the lake (3 speed, 1 pontoon). They all seemed to stay in the southeastern corner, and only occasionally came up as far as the beach. The pontoon did putter out a bit further, but if you are looking to tube, you would be more limited.

Map of Yellowstone Lake State Park (map from WI DNR website)

We brought our kayaks on our trip and spent a Saturday afternoon on the lake. We put in and took out at the canoe launch, which is located almost immediately after you pass the park entrance station. The launch has a very small parking lot directly adjacent (only 4 spots + an accessible spot), but there is another lot right across the road. We parked in the other lot and brought our yaks across. There is a nice grassy shaded area between the adjacent lot and the launch that had a few picnic tables. The launch itself is nothing fancy, just a dug out area that allows for a canoe or yak to be dropped in, and a picnic table. It did look like you could drive right up to the launch to unload, but we decided to park in the lot and carry the yaks down.

The lake wasn’t particularly clear (see images below), but it wasn’t mucky. Since the lake is relatively shallow and has a sandy/muddy bottom, the lack of clarity isn’t a surprise. I do want to stress that the water quality was very good (don't let the lack of clarity fool you!).

After launching, we headed west toward the waterfowl area. This area gets very shallow; we actually got stuck in some muck. This area is beautiful, but my recommendation would be to not stay too close to the shoreline where it is shallowest. We paddled around this area before heading south/southeast. We paddled down the shoreline until we were across the lake from the boat launch to the east of the beach area. The shoreline is steep and rocky, but is covered in beautiful flora. Expect to see lots of trees and ferns. We chose to paddle north across the lake to the beach area to have our lunch. After our quick break, we paddled back across the lake and headed north/northwest back the way we came. We took out at the launch around 4 pm. While the lot had been packed upon arrival, we were the only remaining car in the lot across the road and only 2 cars remained in the adjacent lot.

Something to note: there were NO trash/recycling bins near the launch, so be prepared to pack out any garbage you have from your paddle.

The Beach

The beach was fairly busy, but it was a Saturday in July with temps in the 80s. The beach area was not roped off and was rather small. The "beach" itself was only a few feet wide, so don't come prepared to spread out in the sand all day. Most beachgoers had areas set up off of the beach due to how narrow it is. The beach area is tiered, so be aware. There were several picnic tables and a restroom. Parking seemed very limited. The boat launch is located to the east of the beach and seemed quite small.

There is a dog beach located to the west of the main beach (between the beach and the canoe launch). We didn't stop here, but it seemed very small. This might be why we saw several dogs at the swimming beach.

Hiking

The purpose of our trip to the park was to kayak, not to hike. We arrived quite late Friday night (around 8:30pm), and spent most of Saturday on the water. Due to this, we didn't get a chance to hike any of the trails and can't make any solid recommendations. While we were boating, we did get a good view of the Wildlife Loop, which is a trail around the waterfowl area. It had some great views of the lake.

Campground Review

Overall, we really enjoyed this campground. Most of the sites in our loop were shaded and relatively private (for a family campground at a state park).

We stayed at site 60. The site had a small driveway with a drop off, so parking multiple cars would be a challenge (but its only 2 cars per site, which would be fine). We had a nice stretch between the parking spot and our actual site. This was great to push us back and get some more privacy, especially since a water fountain was at next to our site. Our fire pit wasn’t the best: it was a bit deformed (especially the basic grill over the top) and pretty full of ash when we arrived.

the closest restroom to us was a full toilet + shower. There were several shower rooms and and the bathrooms had at last 6 stalls. We rarely camp near a real bathroom, so this was a nice treat.

Sitting at our campsite, we both decided we would come back to Yellowstone. It didn’t have the most thrilling or unique environment, but the nice sites, clean amenities, and access to a good quality lake make it worth the trip from Madison and even Milwaukee. If we came back, we’d probably look at the same site or one of the others in that loop.

Ratings

Campground: 6/10

Bathrooms: 7/10

Hiking: N/A

Water Activities: 6/10