Blue Mound State Park — Attraction in Town of Brigham

Blue Mound State Park is a great low-traffic parks just east of Madison, near Mount Horeb.

The camping area is well wooded and the sites are all spacious with tent pads, picnic tables, and generous amounts of wooded pace between sites. Many sites have electric hook-up, and you're never too far from toilets. There is also a hot shower facility and several small playgrounds throughout the camping area. Despite camping over Labor Day weekend with nearly ever site occupied it was surprisingly quiet (although there is a low din of nearby highway traffic) It is very easy to get from the camp to either the top of the mound or the pool area on well-marked trails.

The park features two observation towers, one facing each West and East, with good views. There are plenty of water fountains in the park area.

There are dozens of miles of hiking trails with a variety of vegetation and topography. Everything from mostly level hikes on wide trails through maple, oak and walnut forest; to moderately strenuous hikes up and down elevation over small bedrock outcroppings; and a few miles of trail in restored prairie. There is also a trail that follows a spring-fed creek through a cut in the bedrock for a couple miles, with limestone rock faces dripping with spring water.

There are also several mountain biking trails, most of them single-track and dedicated to riding. I did not bring my bike, so I did not experience the trails, but many people in the campground had their bikes.

The road biking in the region around Blue Mounds is excellent - the area was considered for the road biking events for the 2016 Olympic Bid by Chicago. Picturesque and low-traffic. Blue Mounds is also adjacent to the Military Ridge Trail, which is over 40 miles of crushed limestone that connects directly to the Madison area paths, and travels strait through Mount Horeb and Verona. Heading west, the trail terminates in Dodgeville after skirting Governor Dodge State Park.

The most unique feature of the Park, in addition to its elevation, is a nearly new pool and splash pad. The Pool is very inexpensive ($2/adult, $1/child) and is the only pool in a Wisconsin State Park. If it is really hot or you and the kids need a break from hiking, this a great feature.

Blue Mounds is a fun, low-key park for a great weekend of...

This is a lovely state park with a well-kept campground that offers many nice sites with decent privacy. Most sites have a feeling of seclusion from one another with lots of trees and bushes between them. On the whole, the sites are shady, clean, good-sized, have flat areas for tents, fire rings, and a picnic table, and you're not piled on top of your neighbors. It's hard to pick a bad one! There are clean restroom and playground facilities distributed throughout the campground, as well as easy access to different hiking and mountain bike trails that run throughout the park. It was peaceful in the campground with lots of empty sites on a Thursday night in late July and easy to book last minute online. Downsides: 1) There's a pretty significant raccoon population wandering around after dark. Make sure you store your camp food safely. 2) You can hear traffic noise from the highway pretty consistently throughout the night, even though you're almost a mile away from it! I was sad about this as the sound of semis and motorcycles coming through the trees kind of distracts from the bird songs and nature. Maybe there are more trails on the side of the park farther from the highway and farther from the campground that would be better for noise. All in all -- I'd say this is a good park for a pleasant camp overnight or two, or a day trip to enjoy the trails, but it's not so amazing that I'd plan long distance travel especially to come here or stay for several days.

Quick note: there's not much open in very nearby Blue Mounds in the way of restaurants/shops and there is no camp store in the park, so if you need to stop for supplies, best to pick up in...

Camp Site #22 is very nice and away from road noise. The sites are a little bit close together, so you will definitely see and hear your neighbors, so if you have good ones, great! If you have ones with dogs and kids, there's going to be noise. And this is a great campground for kids because there is the nearby Cave of the Mounds attraction, which is why we stayed here. We don't have kids and haven't been to this attraction, so we didn't know it is mainly meant for children. We hiked up to the towers and had great views. During fall when the leaves are changing this is a beautiful place to camp. There is a nearby general store that sells fire-starter, which came in really handy because most of the wood was wet and the Camp Host sign said they had fire-starter, but there wasn't any in the storage area where all the wood was kept. We had a great time biking the trails, going to nearby Military Ridge State Trail, and seeing one neighbor's starry light show at night in their campsite. The bathroom near Site #22 was the biggest, cleanest, and most well-maintained in all the State Parks we've camped in. All in all, a great...