Black River State Forest is chock full o' awesome things to do!
You can bike, hike, snowshoe, ATV, ride horses, dive, swim, camp, paddle, fish, among many other options.
The staff at the main office at the Castle Mound Campground are friendly and helpful regardless of where you may be camping or recreating.
I frequently camp with my paddling groups at Castle Mound prior to paddling the Black River. The sites are well laid out, and if you reserve sites 12, 13, or 35, you are closest to both the outhouses and the wood house. Racks of wood are available for $3. Just load up the handy rack located next to the shelter, and deposit your $3 in the collection box. Each site has a fire ring with a cantilever grill grate. Be sure to bring some aluminum foil if you want to cook right on the grate! The showers located near the main office are fairly clean and easy to use compared to those at many other state parks. They have a good potable and non-potable water station you can hit on your way out for the day's activities.
The group campsite at the north end of the State Forest is very spacious. They only allow a relatively small amount of people to camp there, considering the space could host a county fair. It used to be a horse camp. Now it hosts group sites with large pads for RVs and campers. The rangers we dealt with at this location were very friendly, and the one high school kid who was assisting was a great help in finding where to access some of the local trout streams (a challenge in this watershed because almost every stream is in a box canyon).
The only drawback to camping at the group camp, the East Fork Campground, or the indoor group camp (which I want to try this winter) is that they are pretty far from the paddling locations we use. It's a hefty drive from the Interstate to the north end of the State Forest.
If you're in the area and the timing is right, stop in at the Ho-Chunk Pow Wow which takes place on the northwest edge of the State Forest. It's quite an experience, and the announcer is hilarious:
"We're doing the same thing tomorrow. The same... damn... thing." read more