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The Midwestern United States is a land well-endowed with natural beauty and opportunities for outdoor adventure. Pleistocene ice sheets ensured that the region today is strewn with innumerable lakes, from tiny sylvan kettles to the inland seas of Superior, Michigan and Huron. Crane and goose multitudes throng freshwater marshes in spring and fall, while true wilderness resides in rolling northern hardwood forests. For the camper -- whether piloting a recreation vehicle or toting all her gear on her back -- the Midwest’s lakeshores, aspen groves and prairie glades are blissful getaways.
Voyageurs National Park
- Northeastern Minnesota’s Voyageurs National Park presents a primal landscape more extensive to the north in Canada: the ancient, rocky Canadian Shield, an exposed portion of North America’s continental core. Campers here access farflung sites by boat, as these forests -- the southern frontier of the boreal zone -- are best navigated via their extensive lake networks. Lakeside camps offer ideal spots to scan for big common loons, an iconic Northwoods species with an unforgettably stirring call.
Isle Royale
- From the rugged Porcupine Mountains to the stone beaches of Lake Huron, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is rife with tremendous camping opportunities. One of its true gems is Isle Royale National Park, a blissfully remote island in the cold, unruly waters of Lake Superior. The ridge-creased island is reachable only by ferry or plane, and its campsites, spread between more than 35 campgrounds, accommodate the overnight or multi-day visits best for this wolf- and moose-haunted wilderness. For individual parties -- groups of six people or fewer -- sites are first-come, first-served, while parties of seven or more may make reservations for specially designated group sites.
Devil's Lake
- Devil’s Lake State Park protects the heart of the deeply wooded Baraboo Hills of south-central Wisconsin: the namesake lake, cupped by soaring quartzite cliffs and boulder aprons in one of the Midwest's most impressive geologic scenes. Devil’s Lake occupies an old river channel and is plugged by Ice Age moraines, ridges of glacial deposits. More than 400 campsites, the majority reservable, are spread between three developed campgrounds: Quartzite, Northern Lights and Ice Age. You can rent a boat to admire the cliffs from the water, or hike up to their pine-studded scarps on long, rigorous trails. Be sure to ponder the effigy mounds on the lake’s southern and northern shores, shaped by pre-Columbian Mound Builders: a reminder that these shimmering waters have been a landmark for regional cultures for centuries.
Indiana Dunes
- The Lake Michigan shoreline may not be as wild as that of Lake Superior, but it has its own unique beauty -- not least in stretches of grove-dotted dunes. One of the finest is protected in Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, a beautiful and precious complex of undeveloped beach, open dunes, oak savanna, marshes, prairies and lakeshore forest east of the big industrial and urban mosaic of Chicago and Gary. The park’s Dunewood Campground, just 1.5 miles south from the Lake Michigan breakers, hosts 78 first-come, first-served campsites, 25 of which are walk-in.
Shawnee National Forest
- Southern Illinois marks a transition from the Central Lowlands that dominate so much of the Midwest to the old, weathered uplands of the Interior Low Plateaus. Deep ravines and rocky hilltops define the Shawnee National Forest, a fine destination for camping of all kinds. Pitch a tent, for example, at the developed Pharaoh Campground on the edge of the Garden of the Gods, a remarkable tract of sandstone hoodoos, or backpack deep into the rough woods of the Bald Knob Wilderness.
