I’m going to start off by saying, Shell Lake is absolutely amazing as a off-roading base camp, the community is just the right size offering everything you need while staying and some extras to push the community “over the top”.
Shell Lake is a small community in Central Washburn County in North-western Wisconsin. It’s located near on Corridor 39, a main State-funded trail in western Wisconsin running from roughly Rice Lake To Superior, This puts Shell Lake somewhere close to the middle of this trail corridor and makes the town a perfect destination for off-roading because you can either go north or you can go south and spend days exploring either way you go.
The Community offers full access to downtown and the trails via road routes. As mentioned, Corridor 39 is nearby and a trail (branch) enters the community from the north and you are able to park downtown and enjoy the great dining options or do some shopping, all while utilizing your ohv, no need to ditch your ride and walk, although, you can do that too!
I’ll get more into the dinning further in this article, but I wanted to let you know there are fuel stations and there is a grocery store in town, so if you forget something, you can likely find it there.
Downtown Shell Lake, Looking East on fifth street toward Shell Lake…
Looking west on fifth street, away from the lake.
St Josephs Catholic Church, Shell Lake
Things to do…
Beach area in Shell Lake…
For as small as this community claims to be, it has a lot going for it. The town get very busy during the summer, with two campgrounds located within the boundaries, beautiful beach area and more!
County trail into Shell Lake…
Shell Lake offers a lot of things to do, as it is the County Seat of Washburn, the town offers a wide range of events during the year. So, while you are camping here, you don’t have to feel as secluded, if you don’t want to.
Shell Lake…
Camping…
Shell Lake ATV Campground…
Camping options abound in and around Shell Lake, there are several public and private campgrounds in the area.
In this article, I’m focusing on two campgrounds, both are municipal campgrounds (owned by the city) and they offer two very different camping experiences.
If you’re camping with your ohv, I would recommend the ATV campground for some obvious reasons, Mainly being attached to the atv trail. The other reason would be for the incredible feeling of being secluded, while still being within the community boundaries.
OHV or not, this would be my pick and you can’t really go wrong anywhere within the campground, every campsite is great and I saw no issues with any of the sites.
For a full review, check out my blog for details about Shell Lake ATV Campground.
Shell Lake Municipal Campground…
Shell Lake Municipal campground is located in Downtown and right on the lake, but there is no ohving from this campground. You are not able to drive from the campground to the trail, even though it’s right in town.
The campground is incredible for campers, not so much for ohver / campers like me. It does offer all amenities, with the addition of the lake and access to downtown within walking distance.
Overall, a really nice campground.
Dinning…
Lake View Bar & Grill…
In the area of dinning, Shell Lake exceed my expectations again, the town offers many restaurants and they all are great.
Fish Dinner At Lake View Bar & Grill…
You can see the fish dinner I had at Lake View in the photo, very tasty.
The Lunchbox in town, was my go-to for breakfast, great breakfasts!
There are several more and even a place to get ice cream and shakes!
The Lunchbox Cafe…
Two issues…
Issue 1: Trail leading to busy parking area…
For as great as this town is, I do have two small gripe and one that could become a major issue if not addressed.
In this photo here, you can see the trail as we head into town, The trail goes right through the main parking area of town, near the lake. It is very tight, and extremely busy and there are children running all over, it’s hard to see when they are flying out from between the parked vehicles.
I understand ohvers are crawling through here, as a precaution, but this needs to be re-routed at some point. I hope the community has some plans to allow for ohv access into downtown as there is currently but without having to mingle with the parking area.
- Once you get the that parking area, it’s difficult to see where to go, to get into downtown. You really have to look and you end up crossing the main road and traveling in the alleys westbound as you can see in the photo below.
Hopefully these minor issues can be addressed to help make the area safer for everyone…
Issue Two: Lack of obvious signage once getting to the parking lot, alleyway access to downtown…
Conclusion…
As you can see in this article and others that I have created in my blog about this area, It’s great. Aside from a few minor issues, it really should a bucket list destination!
The trails are well taken care of by the local clubs as you can see here, while I was out, I came across one of the clubs out cutting back the vegetation around the corners of the trails, helping with visibility.
The community is welcoming to ohvers and campers and it’s an all around great place to be, whether camping, ohving or just traveling through!
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