Two lakes in the Northern Unit have swimming beaches, and people pick between them almost at random. That is a mistake, because Mauthe Lake and Long Lake are not the same kind of day out. The difference comes down to one rule: gas-powered motors are prohibited on Mauthe, and it is a no-wake lake.
That single restriction changes everything about the water. No wake, no engine noise, nothing crossing your bow at speed. If you are bringing a paddle, a rod or small children, it is the better of the two lakes by a distance. If you are bringing a speedboat, it is the wrong one entirely.
Where Mauthe Lake is and what is there
Mauthe Lake Recreation Area sits at N1490 County Road GGG, Campbellsport, inside the Kettle Moraine State Forest Northern Unit, 9.2 miles west-south-west of Cascade.
The recreation area holds a swimming beach, a boat launch and a campground. The forest around it is open 6am to 11pm daily and a Wisconsin state park admission sticker is required on the vehicle, the same as everywhere else in the unit.
Everything about the lake is modest in scale. It is not a resort, there is no restaurant, and the facilities are the ones a state campground has. The appeal is the water and the quiet.
Swimming and the beach
The beach is sand, shallow at the edge, and unsupervised. There are no lifeguards anywhere in the Northern Unit, which catches out families who are used to a municipal pool.
Because nothing is running a motor on the water, the lake stays clear and calm in a way the bigger lakes in the area do not. On a weekday in July you can be one of four groups on the whole beach.
Camping: 135 sites, 51 of them electric
Mauthe Lake Campground is the largest thing at the recreation area and it is bigger than people expect. There are 135 sites in total, 51 with electric hookups and 84 without, laid out in loops running north to south along the shore.
The site types vary more than a state campground usually manages. Some sit in open pine, some are tucked into deciduous trees and brush, and a few are close to the beach without being on it. Campers who have stayed repeatedly say the loops are easy to get lost in, so note your site number before you wander off.
There is one shower building with flush toilets, on the 300 loop, and vault toilets distributed through the rest. If hot water matters to you, book the 300 loop or accept the walk. A sanitary dump station and a recycling and rubbish station are provided for registered campers, and accessible sites are available.
The campground is open year-round, which is unusual and makes it one of the few places in the unit you can legitimately camp in February.
Booking, check-in and the fourteen-night rule
Reservations go through the Wisconsin DNR system at wisconsin.goingtocamp.com, and they can be made from same-day up to eleven months ahead. Autumn weekends go early. Turning up hoping for a site in the first half of October is optimistic.
Check-in is 3pm and checkout is 1pm. Maximum stay is fourteen nights within any twenty-one day period, which catches out people planning a long summer base.
The forest number is (262) 626-2116.
One detail the booking page does not lead with: firewood is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from a vending machine at the campground. The same arrangement runs at Long Lake, Greenbush and the New Prospect horseriders' campground. If you have ever arrived at a state site after dark with nothing to burn, you will know why that is the most useful sentence on this page.
Take five-dollar bills. The machine wants them and there is nothing nearby that will break a twenty after hours.
Fishing, and the walk along the shore
There is an accessible fishing pier, and the spillway dam is the other spot people work. Because nothing is throwing a wake, fishing from a small boat is a calmer business here than on the bigger lakes in the area.
The Tamarack Nature Trail runs along the lake from the campground, a two-mile route with lake views and a detour to the pier. East of the campground the Ice Age National Scenic Trail passes through, which is the longer option.
Bike trails connect the campground directly into Dundee, which is the nearest settlement and closer than Cascade.
What to be aware of before booking
Two honest cautions. Swimming restrictions can apply during algae blooms, which happen in warm still spells and are posted at the beach rather than announced anywhere you would see in advance. And the beach is unsupervised, as every beach in the Northern Unit is. There are no lifeguards anywhere in the forest.
The other thing regular campers mention, cheerfully, is the frogs. In spring the chorus off the water at night is genuinely loud. Bring earplugs or enjoy it.
Mauthe or Long Lake? The honest comparison
This is the question the official pages never answer, because answering it means preferring one.
Pick Long Lake if you have a group, a cooler and no intention of walking far from the car, or if you want a motorboat on the water. Pick Mauthe if you want to paddle, fish or read without an engine going past. The Lake to Lake Bike Trail runs 6.5 miles between the two, so on a long day you can have both.
Paddling an 83-acre lake with no wake on it
Mauthe Lake runs to 83 acres, which is small enough to paddle the shoreline in a morning and large enough that you are not going round in circles.
Kayak and canoe rentals are available seasonally from the concession at the beach, along with food, drink and camping supplies. That is worth knowing because most write-ups of the lake do not mention it and people arrive assuming they needed to bring a boat.
What the no-wake rule buys you is a lake where a paddle is genuinely pleasant rather than a matter of timing the gaps between wakes. On a weekday morning the water is usually glass.
Other places to camp within ten miles
If Mauthe is booked, the area is unusually well supplied. There are nine campgrounds and resorts inside ten miles, split between state sites in the forest and private lakeside resorts on the Cascade side.
Hoeft's Resort & Campground on Crooked Lake runs tent sites through to cabins with an arcade and a snack bar. Larson's Resort takes a 38-foot fifth wheel on a powered site and keeps a lending shelf of books and games. Out on the Campbellsport side there are three more, and Badger Camp & Resort sits nine miles south-east. The full list, state and private together, is in the other eight places to sleep nearby.
Where to eat, because there is nothing at the lake
No food is sold at Mauthe Lake. The nearest kitchens are a drive, and worth planning rather than discovering at six in the evening.
Closer to the lake itself, Parnell Tavern holds the crossroads of County A and V. In Cascade village, Sipp's does perch and bluegill dinners and Nevvo'z does a cracker crust.
The rest of the forest around the lake, including the tower and the visitor centre hours that catch people out, is covered in the forest the lake sits in.
And for what there is to do once you come off the water, there are nine things worth an hour in Cascade village itself.
Frequently asked questions
Published August 24, 2026
