Devil’s Lake State Park (Baraboo, WI)
The lake, quartzite bluffs, talus slopes, Elephant Rock, and the 1925 Chateau on the North Shore
Devil's Lake State Park sits near Baraboo, Wisconsin, within the Baraboo Range — a ridge of quartzite bluffs among the oldest exposed rock formations in North America, dating back roughly 1.6 billion years. The 360-acre lake at the park's center formed about 15,000 years ago when glacial debris blocked both ends of an ancient river gorge, leaving the water enclosed between bluffs that rise nearly 500 feet on either side.
The park covers more than 9,200 acres and draws over three million visitors a year, more than any other park in the Wisconsin State Park system. Its position within the Driftless Area — a region that glaciers largely bypassed during the last ice age — left the surrounding terrain with a rugged, deeply carved character distinct from much of the upper Midwest.
The East Bluff trails climb through fields of quartzite talus, boulders broken from the cliff face over thousands of years of freeze-thaw fracturing and slow erosion. Named formations like Elephant Rock punctuate the bluff, and the Ice Age National Scenic Trail passes through the park along these same ridgelines.
On the north shore, the Chateau — a stone building constructed in 1925 — still stands beside the old railroad tracks that once brought excursion passengers from Milwaukee and Chicago to the lake. The rail corridor remains, though passenger service ended long ago.
