Devil’s Lake State Park in Baraboo, Wisconsin has been on my list of places to hike for a LONG time and you will quickly realize why! It’s such a beautiful place! It’s about a 4 hour drive from where we are located so that is partially why it’s taken so long to finally get here. We couldn’t have picked a more perfect day to go! (here is an Instagram Reel I made from our adventures!) It was a Saturday in mid August and the sun was out the entire time! It was around 75-78 degrees which was the most ideal temp for hiking! It wasn’t too hot and was very enjoyable!
There are over 29 miles of trails through out the park that range from easy to very difficult so there is something for everyone! I wanted to see the Balanced Rock formation that was on the East Bluff trail so that is where we headed! Here is a link to their website with descriptions of all of the trails that are in the park that also include photos! The East Bluff trail is about 1.7 miles long and they say could take anywhere from 1.5 - 3.5 hours to complete! From the time stamp on the photos that I took through out the day, we started at the trail head at 11:00am and finished around 2:00pm. We took our time, stopped to take in the scenery during the hike and weren’t really rushing which took us around 3 hours.
Here is a map of the trail including photos from our hike to show what each viewpoint looks like along the trail! (I wish all hiking trails had something like this haha!)
I was SO inspired by all the shades of greens and blues!! It was so beyond beautiful and I loved all of the pine trees everywhere!
Okay, Balanced Rock. Not pictured here are the crowds and lines of people that were waiting to get a photo with the formation. We went on a prime Saturday in the summer months so it was to be expected that it would be crowded but MAN. We waited patiently, got our photo and continued on! Because there was a line of people waiting to get their photo, it made the experienced feel rushed and I couldn’t really soak in the moment of finally making it to the destination I was anticipating the whole hike which was kind of a bummer.
One thing that I was not expecting was the trail that leads to the actual formation was super challenging. It went straight down on a rocky staircase type trail for quite a ways and you had to hold on to nearby trees at some points. This trail was jam packed with people which also made it difficult to get around. This is a very popular hiking destination so next time we come, I might consider coming during their off season.
The view right after Balanced Rock was absolutely breathtaking!! You got a view of the entire lake and all the surrounding trees! This is the perfect spot to take a seat, soak it all in— and catch your breath haha! I wish I could of sat here longer!
The hike down the last bit of the trail was pretty challenging. There were many times that we would lose the trail and just started climbing down what we hoped was the trail because it’s all just huge rocks! Every once in a while there would be a small sign with an arrow to reassure you that you were on the trail. Once we made it all the way down, we walked along the inactive railroad tracks back to the beach area to refuel!
We ate lunch and got our kayaks ready to hit the water! There are a few buildings by the beach that have a huge gift shop, concession area and a place to rent water activities! After I purchased my post card and stickers for souvenirs, the ice cream stand was calling my name! I got a dish of chocolate ice cream and it hit the spot after a long hike in the sun!
It was so cool to see Devil’s Lake from a different perspective while out on the lake! We got to paddle up close to the other side and get a peek at the Tumbled Rocks Trail that goes along the shoreline. If we had more time I would have liked to take that trail.
It was a very fun and FULL day trip to Devil’s Lake! We spent approximately 9 hours there which was plenty of time for a day trip but I am already looking forward to going back and checking out the trails on the other side of the lake! I’ve also seen photos from here in the Autumn season and it looked incredible with all the changing leaves everywhere!
