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Submission
Camping is available at Straight Lake State Park. There are 10 hike-in campsites at the park, with the distance to the sites ranging from a few hundred feet to 0.3 miles.
Campers need to practice carry-in/carry-out and should bring their own water. Glass containers are prohibited at Straight Lake. Supplies are available in the village of Luck.
Cons: There was no check-in hub to answer questions or confirm registration. Mosquitos were terrible. The canoe launch on Straight Lake closest to camp site one and rainbow lake was non-existent. There was limited/no structure on how to navigate the park (where to park, which trail to hike to get to the campsites, where boat launches were located, etc). Lacked signage.
Pros: Camp sites were very secluded and peaceful. Rainbow lake had an easy launch and was great for swimming. The bathrooms were very clean and simple. Whole state park was close to town in case you forgot anything. Wild life was very present (snakes, turtles, otters, beaver, swan, etc.). Trail around Straight Lake was well groomed! Overall, very nice park!
Beautiful remote State Park. Few amenities here but a great landscape. We were the only car in the parking lot at 11 am on a Saturday in July.
Wisconsin's youngest state park is a true gem - perfectly undeveloped for the person wanting to get (mostly) away. It is not too far from Luck and other towns, while still getting cell phone service (on Verizon as of May 2020). You need a state park sticker to visit, which is now available to buy online. In my pictures here I have uploaded images of the walk in camp sites. There are 10 of them and have picnic tables and fire rings. Several of these sites are near ponds and will probably be super buggy (though, it had just heavily rained before we were up there). I would suggest staying at sites closer to the lake if possible to avoid mosquitoes (as much as one can). No sites are right on the lake.
There is a canoe launch as well that is very sandy (my dog loved swimming here) and also a little picnic ground that was a little grown over.
The walking trails are nice and well maintained - they also intersect with the Ice Age Trail. There is a map at the entrance. We enjoyed the Rainbow Loop which was very easy and nice. Lots of people kayaking and swimming there when we visited.
Absolutely beautiful park! Camped in site 5 and it was an awesome site. We used both hammocks and a small tent. There were many trees able to hammock on (we stacked ours since rain was forcasted and we put up a rainfly). Fewer mosquitos then I expected with the pond being next to us. The hiking trails were very well kept and so beautiful. The pit toilet was also very clean! Will for sure be back to this park.
A hidden state park, the kind of park where you can feel secluded and away from others. No RVs. It's a park that makes backpacking feel easy. At the same time campsites are close enough to bring a cooler.
If you'd like to bring a boat to either lake (which I suggest) it is a very easy carry even a heavy one. There are carts for kayaks. This is only for the west side with the campsites. The boat launch to straight lake isn't really a thing. Very hard to get to and almost impossible to paddle through.
Access to or from the Ice Age Trail is a real bonus. Trail is very nice but haven't gone either way very far.
Both lakes are good, zero signs of humans outside of the launch sites, which are nice. Rainbow lake is faster to get to but very small. Straight lake is one of those hidden treasures of NW Wisconsin.
