New Glarus Woods State Park is a 431-acre Wisconsin state park featuring rolling hills covered by a mix of forest and prairie. The Sugar River State Trail connects to the park, making the park accessible by bike. This trail also connects to the Badger State Trail.
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One star more than the minimum because of its location and convenience to downtown New Glarus. It's right down the path from the family campsites, literally couldn't be easier. Other than that, avoid this place. We have camped in Wisconsin state parks before and are always blown away by how nice their facilities (store, showers, bathrooms, fire grates) are. Being from Illinois, we have suffered through Starved Rock and Rock Cut facilities and have really enjoyed Devil's Lake and Blue Mounds camping facilities. This place is worse than Illinois parks. The bathrooms, pit toilets, are horrendous. There are no showers. No host to quiet down the wild parties that go until the next morning. No store to buy firewood (or any provisions). Being so close to the highway meant every truck and bike that went past woke you up. It was cheaper than the few hotels in the area, but the lack of sleep meant the hotel would be a...
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This is a small state park with primitive camping and pit toilets. We stayed in the campsites where you could drive up, rather than the walk to ones. There was some road noise from the road that is behind the sites, but it wasn't too bad. The toilets were not as bad as they have been in years past, so that's a plus. Not having camp hosts on site is a huge negative. There was one site that was up partying until 2 each night. This has also happened in years past.
Some of the sites are really sloped, so if you're in a tent you may have problems. It would be nice if they would let more grass grow at the sites, as they get pretty muddy when it rains.
Showers can be had at the pool in town, if it's open.
The trails were nicely maintained and we found they were well marked.
It's also nice that town is relatively close, so you can combine camping and support the local...
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Compared to all other state and county parks I've camped at around Madison, New Glarus Woods rates rather poorly. We stayed for one night in one of the walk-in camp sites, which are located along the bike trail into New Glarus. These are located very close to Highway 69, meaning there is a lot of noise from cars and occasional trucks using their air brakes. The sites themselves are well shaded, and most of them are slanted, which makes setting up your tent more annoying. There is a toilet facility near the walk-in sites (functional but has seen better days) but no showers. If you want to take a shower you have to to to the New Glarus pool ($5/day). What is nice about the park is its proximity to New Glarus with lots of restaurants, shopping, and sights. We also enjoyed the candlelight hike that happened to take place...
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