The Apostle Islands sea caves are a summer boat day, sandstone cut at waterline on Devils Island, Sand Island, and the mainland near Meyers Beach. The boats leave from Bayfield. You sleep on Madeline Island once the ferry has carried the van across to Big Bay State Park.
From Big Bay you walk sandstone bluffs along 4 miles of Lake Superior shoreline, a 1-mile boardwalk, and a sandy swimming beach. You stay in the family campground, on electric if you can get it. The DNR's Big Bay page requires a Wisconsin vehicle admission sticker, as of September 2026. Showers and drinking water go down from early October through Memorial Day weekend, weather depending, on the campground page.
Book that Big Bay site before you book the van. The Madeline Island Ferry Line runs Bayfield to La Pointe and takes campervans. It does not take motorhome reservations, so you board first-come, as of September 2026. The national lakeshore does not allow drive-up car, tent, or RV camping on its islands.
The Northwoods around Minocqua
From Minocqua you camp in the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest, clear lakes and pine, boat landings on Crystal, Musky, Firefly, and Clear. The modern campgrounds are on paved roads under those trees, flush toilets and showers, and they stay open all year with limited winter plowing.
Those loops have no electrical hookups, as of September 2026. Dump stations are at Crystal Lake and Clear Lake only. A visit caps at 14 nights, and reservations open 11 months ahead through GoingToCamp. If the week needs more sleeping space than a campervan has, look at RV rentals in Wisconsin.
Copper Falls State Park
At Copper Falls State Park the Bad River cuts through sandstone, and you walk to the falls and the ledges in the shade. North Campground is the electric loop and South Campground is non-electric. Winter camping is a plowed, reservation-only electric loop, as of September 2026.
Pattison State Park is a day at Big Manitou Falls. You look at it and sleep somewhere else.
Wyalusing State Park and Perrot at Trempealeau
From Wyalusing State Park the Wisconsin and the Mississippi meet below the campground, overlooks on the rim and Prairie du Chien down the hill. Wisconsin Ridge and Homestead are the campgrounds, non-electric loops, with a sanitary dump station near the Homestead entrance. Perrot State Park continues the same bluff line at Trempealeau, showers and a dump station in season.
Willow River State Park, near Hudson, is a family campground beside Willow Falls and the gorge. Little Falls Lake is the swim and the paddle.
Mauthe Lake and Long Lake in the Kettle Moraine
You camp at Mauthe Lake and Long Lake in the Kettle Moraine's north unit, a swim beach and playground at Mauthe and a shallow warm-season beach at Long Lake. Mauthe Lake keeps an electric loop and a dump station open all year, as of September 2026. Long Lake is seasonal and non-electric, first weekend in May through mid-October.
The south unit of the same forest is a Milwaukee trip. Madison is the Devil's Lake week, quartzite bluffs over the lake and campgrounds that book out.
Green Bay is the Door County week, peninsula campgrounds and bluffs. Rock Island, off that tip, is a ferry from Memorial Day weekend through mid-October to the Pottawatomie Lighthouse and the stone buildings. No vehicles are allowed on the island, so the van stays on the mainland.
Appleton is High Cliff State Park on Lake Winnebago. Eau Claire is the Chippewa Valley.
If the trip crosses a border, Minnesota is the other side of this lake country and Michigan is the Upper Peninsula from Green Bay's direction. Illinois and Iowa pick up the Mississippi once you leave the bluffs.
