BARABOO – It wasn’t even 9 a.m. on this chilly Saturday in August and Devil’s Lake State Park was already coming to life.
People flocked to the park’s namesake lake with beach towels and kayak paddles. Others headed to the hiking trails on the steep quartzite cliffs that surround it. Grills were already reserved for midday hamburgers and hot dogs, and cars circled the nearest parking lot, waiting to snag a coveted spot.
The energy is typical – if not somewhat subdued – for a summer weekend, said Chelsea McCoach, the park’s deputy director, adding that the most popular parking lots are usually full around noon, indicating that visitor numbers have peaked for the day.
Then McCoach said, “Just take a deep breath.”
Although Devil’s Lake State Park, about an hour northwest of Madison, has long been one of Wisconsin’s most popular public parks, visitor numbers have exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic. The site is visited by around 2.5 million people annually – making it by far the most visited park in Wisconsin, rivaling even popular national parks like Bryce Canyon in Utah.
More: Your guide to Devil’s Lake State Park, from the best hiking trails to camping information
People describe the nearly 10,000-acre park as a “gem.” The spring-fed lake is clear and cold, the towering bluffs are part of the Baraboo Range – one of the oldest rock formations in North America – and the grounds include several miles of the Ice Age Trail. There are ample opportunities for any outdoor enthusiast, from strenuous hikes and rock climbing to a peaceful paddle to a picnic on the shore. And, importantly, it can be enjoyed at affordable prices.
But the park’s increasing popularity is a double-edged sword. The small staff – fewer than a dozen of them full-time – is almost entirely occupied with managing the crowds. That crowd has changed how the grounds are cared for and raised difficult questions about how many people it can handle before it is irreparably altered.
However, its protection is now being entrusted to a group of dedicated volunteers who see it as their duty to look after a place they love.
They include people like Kari Labansky of Reedsburg, who has been coming to the park her whole life but showed up as a volunteer for the first time that morning.
“I think it’s really important that the community is involved if we want it to be there for our kids,” she said.
On busy days, employees struggle to keep up
The park’s peak season runs from May to October, but it really gets going around Father’s Day, McCoach said. Last July alone, the busiest month of 2023, saw more than 467,000 people visit.
There are 11 full-time positions and up to 30 summer employees. The size and funding of the staff is determined by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, which funds the state park system largely through fees people pay when booking a campsite or buying a park pass. Wisconsin’s spending on state parks was the lowest in the country in 2017, according to a 2023 report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
By comparison, Bryce Canyon and Hot Springs National Parks – which have about the same number of visitors as Devil’s Lake – have 54 and 40 permanent and seasonal employees respectively.
This means there is a lot to do on particularly busy days.
Restrooms must be stocked and refilled with toilet paper and soap. Lawns and other green spaces must be mowed 40 hours a week. Campgrounds must be clean and ready for campers. Maintenance must be kept up: doors get ripped off their hinges, grills rust, toilets get clogged, picnic tables break. And parking lots must be carefully managed to control the flow of traffic into the park.
This year, cleaning up storm damage has been a challenging task, McCoach said.
More: “The raccoons are fearless”: We found the worst reviews of Wisconsin’s state parks and natural wonders
Park management has developed some creative approaches. The shower buildings are scrubbed during lunchtime when most visitors are outside.
Still, McCoach says her colleagues often feel like they can barely keep up. In addition to their main duties at Devil’s Lake, they also manage recreation at the Parfrey’s Glen, Pewit’s Nest and Gilbratar Rock state natural areas, as well as at Natural Bridge State Park and Sauk Prairie State Recreation Area.
“We always feel like we’re behind and understaffed,” McCoach said. “With the visits we get, it never feels like it’s enough.”
Residents who have used the park as a garden for decades say they rarely visit on weekends anymore, reporting long lines at the entrances and hiking trails so crowded they are almost impossible to walk on.
McCoach said the state Department of Natural Resources has even stopped advertising Devil’s Lake during the summer months. On the park’s website, a bright orange banner warns that visitors should expect long wait times and full parking lots from May through October. A page with tips for avoiding crowds asks visitors to seek recreation at another park.
Susan Knower, a Baraboo resident who has been visiting Devil’s Lake for 30 years and is volunteering in 2020, recalled a Facebook post she saw asking people to vote for their favorite park – ostensibly to give it some love on social media and encourage others to visit.
“Everyone said, ‘Vote for Devil’s Lake!’ And I said, ‘Don’t vote for Devil’s Lake!'” she joked.
Large crowds overwhelm the area surrounding the park
As the number of visitors increases, so does the ecological footprint they leave behind.
Like everywhere else, bad behavior is common. The trash in the park is “endless,” McCoach said, and volunteers have had to scrub graffiti off rocks, lugging water and a substance called “elephant snot” up the cliffs.
But normal, everyday use is also changing the environment. McCoach said all the trees in the park’s day-use areas are showing “tremendous” signs of stress, in part because the soil is so compacted by footprints that water in the soil has difficulty reaching the tree roots. Sometimes the grass on the south side of the lake is so trampled that it doesn’t need to be mowed.
“Ultimately, we have to manage a lot more staff,” she said.
More: Take a conservation tour to 5 locations in the Baraboo area
Everything in nature has a certain carrying capacity, McCoach said, and there have been conversations in the past about what happens if Devil’s Lake exceeds that capacity. But the economic benefit the park system derives from it is hard to ignore.
More: Wisconsin’s least popular state parks offer more than just a quiet experience away from the crowds
Still, Jessica Tripalin, executive director of Friends of Devil’s Lake State Park, said she would like to implement a “leave no trace” policy at the park to encourage people to respect nature by picking up their trash, staying on designated trails and otherwise behaving well.
Volunteers help protect a beloved resource
When you divide the number of visitors to Devil’s Lake by the number of employees, it becomes clear that they cannot handle the work alone. They rely on volunteers who come from near and far to take on some of the unglamorous work that keeps the park running.
On a recent Saturday, a small group was laying mulch around trees on the north shore of the lake. Tripalin showed them how to create a mulch ring that won’t smother the tree roots.
Mulching and removing graffiti are just two of the tasks assigned to people when they show up for the Friends’ monthly work day. Volunteers paint picnic benches, push back vegetation that grows over the paths, water trees and pick up trash. The challenge is getting this work done when so many people are in the park.
Austin Ross of Sauk City started volunteering in 2022 when he moved to the area. He recalled one day when the task was to pick up trash on the Tumbled Rocks Trail – but there were so many people on the trail that volunteers couldn’t enter it. Still, he feels like what he does is important.
Some volunteers had a long-standing connection to the park, such as Jeff Sederstrom of Baraboo, who joined the Friends group in May after purchasing a memorial stone for his wife at the park.
Others just wanted to pitch in. Even a group of Colorado teenagers on a church trip recently spent a day helping out.
The park’s beauty has drawn a lot of interest from across the U.S. The Friends group has about 280 members in 18 states, said board president Jayne Englebert. That’s especially important when it comes to funding the park. Although Devil’s Lake brings in far more money than other state parks in Wisconsin, the parks share the funds equally, so popularity isn’t directly relevant. The Friends want to fill that gap by directly funding park projects.
More: Use of Wisconsin’s state parks remains strong and growing, but there are warning signs about conservation land funding.
More: Report: Wisconsin lags behind in conservation and parks spending
While interest in the park has grown tremendously, one thing hasn’t changed: People love spending a day there, says Dave Barger, vice president of the Friends group who coordinates volunteer efforts. It makes him happy to see such a diverse crowd enjoying the same activities he did as a child visiting from the Madison suburbs.
But he also sees the park’s most pressing needs and is looking for more help. About 125 people volunteer each year, Barger said, a number he called “surprisingly low.”
Still, the people who come are committed. On the Monday after the Fourth of July, McCoach said, people she had never met before showed up with their own trash pickers and gloves to clean up the North Shore. This kind of help from the community is crucial to making things work.
“Without them,” she said, “we would recognize it immediately.”
Madeline Heim is a staff reporter for Report for America covering environmental issues in the Mississippi River basin and Wisconsin. Reach her at 920-996-7266 or [email protected].
