Can You Hike Around The Lake?

Yeah but, no but…

One popular hike at Devil’s Lake State Park is hiking the circumference of the lake. It’s a flat, scenic 3 mile hike that only takes a couple of hours and that most visitors can do without being all that athletic. The problem with this popular route, is that to keep it easy, you have to walk the active train tracks along the eastern shore. This is illegal.

To play by the rules on the east side of the lake, you’d need to hike up the east bluff and back down again on the other side which takes much longer and isn’t at all easy.

But everybody does it…

Going all the way back to who knows when, park staff has always been strictly required to tell visitors that they can not walk the tracks. Usually this is when when it’s blatantly clear that people, right that moment, are indeed walking the tracks! Sometimes in government jobs, you have to state the facts without acknowledging the obvious, while knowing you look like a total fool.

So the bottom line is; No. You can not hike around the lake via the tracks. (You see, how I did that there?) Trains do use the tracks, sometimes a couple times a day. Through the park, they’re loud, rumbly and going slow, so you generally know when they’re coming. The trains are also constantly blowing their horns at all of the people walking the tracks.

A fix?

Ultimately everyone knows that there needs to be a trail along the tracks even if the tracks are active. (It does happen.) Eventually, there are many who hope that the tracks one day will be closed down and become part of the Great Sauk Trail. But until the powers that be do something… Well…