West Point Campground on the Mondeaux Flowage

The Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest covers more than 1.5 million acres within 12 counties in northern Wisconsin. The Forest was established in the early 1930's and was home to many Civilian Conservation Corp camps. The Mondeaux Flowage is a little gem located within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest near Medford, WI.

There are four campgrounds; Spearhead Point, Eastwood, West Point and Picnic Point. West Point is only first come first serve, as the other three sites you have the option to reserve a site online for an extra $8 or take your chances with first come first serve. Picnic Point is unique as it is intended for large groups and you can rent the entire point for $75/night with up to 35 people.

We decided to take our chances and stay at the first come first serve West Point. When we were camping at Spearhead Point earlier this year, we thought West Point seemed more secluded and was further down towards the wild rice we wanted to harvest. We weren't exactly sure how many other campers there would be given we were camping Tuesday and Wednesday nearing the off season. We ended up nearly having the campground to ourselves - there were 2 campers that stayed one night while walking the Ice Age Trail. Day 2 was the campground was completely ours. No one in sight! 

Since we could pick any camp site, we went with number 10. It was huge and full of large pine trees which were perfect for the hammocks. We did not set up the tent this time, we wanted to sleep solely in hammocks. Right away we noticed a walking path, it appeared that all the campsites had a connecting trail to this longer path along the water. There are definitely some old trees here that we pondered on why they were missed when they cut the Wisconsin northwoods during the early lumber days. 

We launched our canoe right from our camp site. There is a great swimming hole and someone put up a rope swing here on the water as well. It was the perfect day for canoeing. We canoed from right after breakfast until dark. James fished a bit and caught some little blue gills. We had a goal to check out the south end where there is a wooden bridge. We had heard there is a fun paddle if you continue south past that bridge and wanted to see what the entrance to that area looked like. We may canoe that sometime in the future. Lots of bird activity on the Mondeaux Flowage, they can be very noisy, yet entertaining. 

The autumn colors were just starting to arrive on the Mondeaux. Only a few trees were starting to change color, but we did see a lot of these ferns that were bright yellow and orange.  

Although we were late to the wild rice harvest, it was an absolute peaceful and relaxing trip at West Point Campground. Having the campground pretty much to ourselves and the red squirrels was awesome. I love camping on the Mondeaux in the fall, there are so many colors, sounds and smells to take in and you really feel remove from the world and all its chaos.