Big Bay State Park

Big Bay State Park is a 2,350-acre property on Madeline Island, the largest island in the Apostle Islands Archipelago on Lake Superior in northeastern Wisconsin. Included in the park is a 1.5-mile-long sandy beach and a collection of picturesque sand bluffs and caves. The landscape is a mix of sphagnum bogs, lakeside dunes and old-growth forest. The state park is bounded on the north by the Big Bay Sand spit and Bog State Natural Area and on the southwest by Big Bay County Park.

Big Bay State Park offers camping (with drinking water, showers and flush toilets), picnicking (with tables, grills, running water and flush toilets), an outdoor group camp, an indoor camp for non-profit groups and about seven miles of hiking trails, including interpretive nature trails. The park does not have any boat launch facilities but a free public boat launch is available near Bayfield and a private (for fee) boat launch is available near La Pointe.

All vehicles entering Big Bay State Park need to pay an entry fee but bicyclists and pedestrians enter free. The ferry ride to reach the park takes about twenty minutes from Bayfield to La Pointe and once on Madeline Island, the road to the park entrance is about six miles long. The east shore of Big Bay Lagoon also offers a wildlife observation deck as there have been about 240 species of birds documented in the area.

The park is open year round but most visitors in the winter months come to hunt, snowshoe or cross country ski. The ferry generally runs from spring break-up to fall freeze-up so winter visitors tend to arrive on snowmobiles or in vehicles crossing the ice road once the lake ice is solid enough.