Ottawa Lake Amphitheater — Hotel in Town of Ottawa

Ottawa Lake is quickly becoming a favorite destination for our family. It started with one of our first camping experiences with our new-to-us vintage motorhome. We loved our stay here, and assumed that all state park campgrounds had the same great set-up. Since then, we have found this not to be true. Ottawa Lake has a huge, sandy beach with almost NO rocks. It's shallow enough in the whole swimming area that you can relax and let your kids have fun. There are plenty of picnic tables at and near the beach. You can still find a spot when it gets crowded, and there are even more tables off to the side if you want more privacy. The campsites are a short walk away, past a playground and small amphitheater (who knew how much fun the kids would find that!?) Another great thing about Ottawa Lake campground is the privacy of the sites. Many of the other state park camp grounds we've been to are wide open, but Ottawa Lake has dense trees and undergrowth separating most of their sites. Clean bathrooms, hot showers, freshwater pumps round out the amenities. About the only con I see is that the dog area was quite a ways away, on the other side of the boat launch. There are picnic tables there, too, and plenty of fish...

Compared to other WI DNR campgrounds in the area, the sites are small and not ideal (like having to back a camper up a fairly steep incline) and some of the campsites you can SEE the loud highway through the trees. But the most disappointing problem is that the park is not dog friendly. There is a minuscule (15 ft wide) dog beach, but dogs aren't allowed on any of the main paths or trails- they mowed a 5 ft wide strip along the road to the parking lot where the dog beach is, next to the fishing pier, and call it a trail and that is the only ones dogs are allowed on! They even only allow dogs on one side of the parking area next to the dog beach! It's the most pet unfriendly park I've experienced so far in the...

The campground is clean and the staff is very nice. Our campsite was so close and open to the site next to us that it felt like we were camping with them. Our site also had such an open area to the street that it didn't really feel like camping. Our friends rented the site on the other side of us (not the one we could see/hear) and theirs was much more secluded and you couldn't see any of the neighbors and barely saw the street - so we hung out at theirs the whole time and it was really nice. I guess it's just luck of the draw if you get a more secluded site, or one that is open to other campers. Overall it was good, but I'd suggest you do a little research on which campsites have what you want/need before you...