Pattison State Park — Attraction in Town of Superior

Date of visit: 1st week of August 2022 Nice state park for day hiking as well as a nice campground. Campsites can be reserved online. There are sites with and without electricity. I highly recommend one with electricity, especially if you have devices that need to be charged. Campsites are roomy; if camping with a tent, two vehicles fit comfortably at a site. All sites have a fire pit and picnic table. There are also water stations (faucets) through the park so campers can access water for washing or camp use. Main bathrooms have toilets and showers. The showers could use a serious update, paint is peeling off the walls and they look dirty. Water in the showers is hot though and each shower stall is roomy so you can keep your towel and clothes dry while showering. Bathrooms also have outlets by sinks for hair drying as well as a separate area with just two mirrors and outlets; you can be out of the way of people needing the sink use, while you dry or curl hair, apply makeup, charge your phone, etc. There is a private shower/toilet for handicap. There are also buildings with dump toilets available. Bring your flashlight for those night time visits! Trash is dropped off near the campground exit in dumpsters. When we were there the dumpsters were overflowing. Stop in at the camp office for brochures and activity books for the kids; kids have the opportunity to earn real badges with the activity booklets. There were also camp themed word search and trading cards with wildlife information. All of these items would be cool keepsakes for any age camper. Firewood is available at the camp office during normal business hours for $6. If you arrive after the office hours, there is no wood to purchase. (Wood can be purchased within a few minutes of the park, just look for signs. One guy on the way toward Superior offers a large washtub full for $10; you fill it your self). There is also a dump station for RVs near the trash dumpsters. Cell phone coverage was very minimal in the park and surrounding area. Once we got into Superior, we had good coverage and reception. Superior is about 21 miles away via WI-35 N. Pattison State Park has Big & Little Manitou Falls within hiking (walking) distance of the campground. They are also accessible via car, with plenty of parking and a short walk to view them. There is also a trail around Interfalls Lake, about 2 miles. We started from the campground and came back around ending up near the beach. The beach is quite nice and was not very crowded at all. It leads up to a good sized park, with play equipment for the kids. There is lots of parking for people who just want day access to the beach and picnic area; this parking is also available for campers who have no more room for cars at their campsite. Bathroom is within walking distance of the beach for beach goers. If you deem this review helpful, please...

If you're visiting Pattison State Park, you MUST take the time to visit the nearby Amnicon State Park as well. If you're making the 6.5 hour drive from Milwaukee for just a weekend trip, then it's only worth it if you hit at a minimum these two parks; see if you can squeeze in Copper Falls, too.  In July the Pattison waterfalls aren't much to look at, but the hiking trails are gorgeous. We did the easy trails that are well groomed. There is no bicycling on the trails however. You can only bike around the campground on the paved roads (watch out for children zipping around; they aren't too careful and we got hit by one 8-year-old as he was trying to bike past us on the narrow bathroom trail). The campsite markers don't require posted reservation slips anymore, each one has a QR code you use to check-in/reserve a site. The campground was very clean and had lots to do for families - horsehoes, basketball, swingsets, beach complete with movable, motorized coyotes to scare away the geese (which did not work, the geese just walked all around them). The campsites are kind of close together, so you definitely get to know your neighbors. We could hear the conversations of all the campers on every side of us, and we even got serenaded a couple of times by groups singing, and one fellow playing his guitar and singing John Denver's "Country Roads." We played pickle ball on the basketball court, saw Limpy the gosling trying to keep up with the family, saw a hummingbird bathing in the spray at Little Manitou Falls, and took the geology self-guided walk to learn about the fascinating history of the miners and Native Americans to see what they'd left behind. Blue Jays are smart here; they go from campsite to campsite looking for tidbits from your meals. They watched us eat potato chips and swooped down to pick up any chips that fell to the ground. The chipmunks and the red squirrels are fun to watch as they, too, scour your campsite for scraps. There was a wedding going on in the pavilion and they decorated it beautifully. The bathroom buildings could use some updating, and it would be nice if more than half of the stall doors had locks on them. If you're looking for a nice family park, a good place to bring the kids, this is the park for you. Skip overnight camping though if you're looking for privacy. Just do a day visit to see the falls and hang on the beach. The water is shallow, no more than 3.5 feet deep at the deepest part. It was quite buggy, so bring bug spray for sure. Cell...

We camped at an electric site the weekend of July 12, 2019. We were very impressed with the campground, cleanliness, and staff. We didn't use the shower or bathroom facilities so I can't comment on those. I appreciated the trex-type picnic table and bench at our campsite, which seemed cleaner and probably holds up better in the long run than wood.

The beach area is very nice and features a sandy beach and soft lake bottom with little vegetation - can walk barefoot without getting hurt. The water is quite shallow for a ways out, so it's a nice place for small kids.

Some of the trails are closed due to severe flood damage, but both waterfalls are still accessible and we were able to hike many miles on the open trails. The hike to the bottom of the gorge below Big Manitou Falls is worth the trek. The viewpoints for the waterfalls were well maintained. In the summer I highly suggest going to the lookout on the north side of the Black River below Big Manitou Falls in the evening where you can watch the sunset to the NW alongside Big Manitou Falls!

My only suggestion for the campground is to move the garbage and recycling center to a different exit lane than the RV dump to keep cars moving out faster, rather than having to wait for an RV to finish dumping just to get to the garbage...