Devil’s Lake’s 10 Busiest Trails Ranked

What trails at Devil’s Lake State Park are the busiest? This is a popular question every year, but now as we deal with Coronavirus and social distancing, finding the road less traveled is more important than ever for some of us. So let’s take a look…

# 1. East Bluff Trail

By far, the busiest trail at the park. The East Bluff trail travels from Devil’s Lake’s busy north shore up the east bluff past popular overlooks, the Devil’s Doorway rock formation and popular rock climbing areas as well. The East Bluff Trail just is busy year-around.

# 2. Balanced Rock Trail*

Balanced Rock is #2 with an Asterix. While other trails may have more hikers on a given day, Balanced Rock tends to get the most congested. The trail is mostly narrow, often including long stairways with little opportunity to step aside to let other hikers pass. There are two regularly congested areas; a popular climbing wall and Balanced Rock itself. On an averagely busy day, it is nearly impossible to maintain the social distancing guideline of 6 feet of separation from other hikers moving in both directions.

#3. Tumbled Rocks Trail

Following along the lakeshore at the bottom of the West Bluff, the Tumbled Rocks Trail is the “go-to” flat trail for hikers who want to see the lake but don’t want to or can’t climb the park’s 500-foot bluffs. Again, this trail is often too narrow to maintain “social distancing” when passing, especially on busy days.

#4. West Bluff Trail

The west bluff trail is the other popular “over-the-top” trail with lots of amazing overlooks. Where there are some constricted areas, especially on staircases, this trail seems to always offer more elbow-room than other popular trails.

#5. East Bluff Woods

Often thought of as an easier access to the top of the East Bluff, this wide, wooded trail is quite popular and is often used as a “loop” with the East Bluff Trail. Again, this wide gravel trail allows visitors to maintain a good distance and so is rarely congested.

#6. CCC Trail

The CCC Trail on the park’s south shore offers access to rock climbing areas and can be combined with other trails to create a loop. Again this is a short, (.3 mile) mostly vertical, staircase trail to the top of the bluff. While not busy in sheer numbers, the trail can get congested and often you have no choice but to brush by hikers going in the other direction.

#7. Potholes Trail

Like Balanced Rock And CCC, the Potholes Trail again is a staircase trail through boulder fields that quickly ascends the east bluff. The narrow trail can get congested and again often leaves you nowhere to go when passing hikers going in the other direction.

#8. Steinke Basin Loop Trail

This trail is east of the main north shore day-use area of the park. For many years people really didn’t know this area was still in the park. Well, that has changed. The generally flat, often muddy hiking trail has become a popular location for dog walkers and folks looking for a little more solitude. That said, it can get busy during peak hours. When it comes to “social distancing” however, you have plenty of room to make some space.

9. Grottos Trail

The Grottos Trail on the park’s south shore a wide, flat trail that connects and accesses the popular Balanced Rock, Potholes and CCC Trails. It can also be combined with the Group Camp Trail to create a loop. The trail is sometimes busy, but it’s wide enough that it’s easy to maintain some distance when need be.

10. Roznos Meadow

Similar to the Steinke Basin Loop, this trail has become more popular in recent years. However, even on a busy day, you’ll often feel like you’ve gotten away from it all on Roznos Meadow.

So that covers most of the main trails in the park. However, we should note that various trail connectors and sidewalks can get busy as well. The main examples would be the blacktopped trails that cross through the day-use/beach areas on both sides of the lake, and the sidewalk along the south shore. When thinking of social distancing, you can easily make room on the paved trails, but on the south shore sidewalk, you may be forced to step into the road to get around people.

Quiet Trails?

In the ranking above, we left out a few locations including the Uplands Trail, Johnson Moraine and the Sauk Point Trail. So it’s safe to assume these are the quietest trails in the park? Well, pretty much yes. The Uplands being the busiest of the 3, but still pretty quiet year around. If I’m looking for a quiet hike, even on a busy day I’ll be on one of these trails. Yes, you’ll still see a hiker here and there, but for the most part you’re on your own. (Well, at least until everyone reads this blog!)

And one final note on avoiding the “crowds”. The general statement that “Devil’s Lake State Park” is always “a madhouse” isn’t quite true and based on limited observation and sweeping generalizations. Yes, summer is busier than winter, weekend and holidays are busier than weekdays. BUT the park is NOT always busy. The key is “Time of Day”. Even on the busiest of days, Devil’s Lake is usually quiet in the morning from 6 am to 10 am. Then the park becomes quieter again from 6 pm to close. These are your social distance windows (COVID-19 or not).

So for everyone who’s asked, I hope this helps! Stay Well!