Wisconsin's fall colors are amazing, and Devil's Lake State Park is one of the best…
Opinion – Wow, what a weekend! Traffic was stacked up all around Devil’s Lake State Park on Saturday and to a lesser degree on Sunday, when the DNR limited auto access to manage the park’s capacity. Here’s what that looked like…
Outside of Devil’s Lake’s North Shore
Old Lake Road
Steinke Basin & Roznos Meadow
Steinke Basin 
Roznos Meadow
Some Context
When we talk about this craziness I think we’re losing a lot of context. Primarily, I don’t think Devil’s Lake State Park was necessarily all that busy for a summer weekend with great weather. (Free weekends are traditionally quieter at Devil’s Lake than other weekends.) However, due to capacity limitations, the cars that they used to stack up INSIDE the park, are now stacking up OUTSIDE the park. Although the current motivation is due to COVID19, the park had gone way overboard the last few years attempting to cram in as many visitors as possible. This had to stop. We were heading toward limiting capacity anyway (IMO) and COVID forced their hand. We will need to address capacity issues because ultimately like many national parks, we’re drowning here, the nature we all love is being crushed and we can’t keep stacking cars IN or OUT of the park.
Parfrey’s Glen OMG!
Seeing all the people parking and climbing over the fence at Parfrey’s Glen State Natural Area was maddening and sad all at the same time. Look, we knew it would happen. It happened on Memorial weekend too. Yes, we know it’s the fault of the people who do it, but the fact that the DNR didn’t station anyone there on Saturday was beyond disappointing. The scary thing is that when our natural areas are closed, it actually means that the only people not going into them is law enforcement. It seems to me that someone could have set up a campsite inside the gorge of Parfrey’s Glen for the weekend and got away with it. Think about that for a moment!
Tourism is Our Life’s Blood
Social media has been full of misinformation, oversimplifications, and just wrong information all weekend. (Don’t get your “facts” from Facebook groups.) It has also been awash with “locals” complaining about tourists. Meanwhile of course the local economy lives and dies on tourism dollars. It’s easy to sit here and bash people who come to our town and “trash everything”. Having worked in tourism and knowing Devil’s Lake State Park over a lifetime, I can tell you that many, many visitors have a deep love and generations of traditions built around Devil’s Lake State Park. I also know some locals who’ve never actually stopped in the park in their whole lives! You see, it’s not about being a local or a tourist… It’s like everything else, it’s about good people and jerks. Where you live doesn’t matter in the least.
I choose to welcome visitors to the Baraboo Hills in the same way I want to be welcomed in the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, or wherever we travel ourselves.
Change is Hard
Look, I found Saturday to be as crazy and disappointing as everyone else. But what I saw was a normal weekend worth of visitors dealing with a new normal at Devil’s Lake and the DNR folks in Madison getting an education on just how busy this park really is. My hope is that they realize that the park is and has been way understaffed in the summer. They will also have to work with the community to figure out how to limit capacity while at the same time not swamping our roads with the overflow. In addition, they need to decide what value they put on our natural areas. If they care at all, they need to talk about weekend patrols, volunteer docents, or other solutions to educate and manage weekend crowds at Parfrey’s Glen and Pewit’s Nest. Then we need to talk about how to maintain these special, but “crazy-busy” natural treasures.
Perspective
It’s interesting that we’re talking about the crowds at Devil’s Lake State Park over the weekend while at the same time tens of thousands of folks were protesting across the country about the important issues behind the #BlackLivesMatter movement. At the same time, 118,000 Americans now have died of COVID19. 626 of our friends and family members in Wisconsin alone. I’m sure there’s a deeper message getting lost in here somewhere.
Be safe. Stay well!
For nearly 2 decades the Skillet Creek blog has focused on 3 main goals; To inspire you to visit and explore the Devil’s Lake region, to help you get the most your visit by sharing tips, events, and other helpful information. Lastly to advocate for our environment & wildlife and talk about how we can keep our natural areas amazing now and into the future! That last goal can sometimes cause controversy, but it’s the only way we can accomplish the first two. – Derrick Mayoleth, Owner.
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Hey Derek,
Cristi and I spent a few months on the road out west last summer and were shocked at how busy the national parks were. Yellowstone in particular. Sad to see the Lake getting used this hard. And tough to see places that I always thought of as low traffic seeing so much use as parking is displaced outside the park proper.
Where did everybody come from? What sort of suggestions are people talking about to mitigate some of this impact?
B
Hi Brian,
I’ve heard many ideas around the country from reservations for busy trails (which some national parks are doing) to registration just to enter a park. Others talk about moving all parking outside of the borders and shuttling people in. Beyond that I don’t think anyone has good ideas. Everyone is so badly understaffed that they struggle to clean up or enforce rules, let alone do restoration or conservation work. There is a conservation bill going through the Senate right now that would raise funding (Here’s a good article from Gardner near Yellowstone NP – https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/ap_news/washington/a-lot-riding-on-conservation-bill-vote-for-gardner-daines/article_4989d54c-0041-5ba0-9700-b1998266802e.html) but I’m not sure it provides answers to overcrowding. Here in Wisconsin with the our parks self-funded I think we’re in even worse shape, honestly. I feel like the DNR really gave it their all last weekend and simply couldn’t handle it.
Permanently authorizing the Land and Water Conservation Fund will definitely free up a bunch of money to be used for upkeep of public lands. I’m hopeful it will go through. It has been a long time coming and is one of the rare pieces of legislation that just about everyone can get behind. There’s so much backlog to catch up on.
I guess the takeaway for me is that we need more public lands and parks in Wisconsin. We’re fortunate to have what we do but its obvious that demand is outstripping supply, especially where parks are in proximity to major urban centers.
What about expanding the boundaries of the park proper to include the Badger Ammo plant property and developing a system of trails that connect there? I’ve spent some time over there and, although it’s nice that it’s in a semi-wild state, it might make sense to develop it a little bit to improve access and divert some traffic from the Lake. Effectively make the park bigger.
B
Did you think opening the parks for free was going to give any other result??? Why couldnt folks just pay?? You also need to post no parking signs because folks will sneak in free and not pay. Once you get capacity or where you want, shut it down and close it. You had to know this was going to happen especially after Evers opened them for free. Do not do this again!!
Absolutely love this park I am happy to see it busy with people returning to and staying with nature look at all the positive. Be proud of bwhstbwe have here. And at least the crowds were civil and not out if hand protesters.