Devil's Lake State Park

Devil's Lake State Park is a protected area in Sauk County that surrounds a lake with steep cliffs of purple quartzite, forests, and a network of trails. The lake sits between two rocky bluffs that rise directly from the water and form a basin where swimmers and climbers share the shoreline.

Wisconsin opened this park in 1911 and built facilities for visitors arriving by train from nearby cities. The site later gained a place on the National Register of Historic Places as one of the oldest state recreation areas in the Midwest.

The Ho-Chunk people called this place Tee Wakącąk and created burial mounds shaped like animals and symbols across the wooded slopes. Visitors today walk among these earthen shapes and can trace their outlines as they follow the trails near the shore.

The park remains open throughout the year, with swimming and climbing in summer and cross-country skiing and sledding in winter. Trails vary in length and slope, with routes along the cliffs requiring more effort than the paths near the shore.

The quartzite cliffs formed 1.6 billion years ago and rank among the oldest exposed rocks in North America. The lake itself appeared only after the last ice age, when glacial deposits blocked the ends of a river valley and trapped the water.