Brunet Island State Park

Located near Chippewa Falls in northern Wisconsin, Brunet Island State Park is a small park with a lot to offer. People love it for its easy access to the water, and it’s also only a half hour drive from Lake Wissota State Park, so it’s easy to see both in one day if you’re short on time.

The drive into this island is really and reminded me a little bit of driving into Buckhorn State Park (not an island but you drive over water to get to it).

One hike, four trails!

It is really easy to explore the four main trails on the island part of the park in one hike, as they are quite short: Parking at the beach, you can hike the Timber Trail and connect to the Jean Brunet Nature Trail with a short road section, and from there hop on to the Pine Trail and the Spruce trail to get back to the beach.

The trails are well marked and offer a good mix of woods and views of the Chippewa River. My favorite was probably the Jean Brunet loop. Too bad it’s only .6 miles!

This loop is just over two miles.

To see a video of this hike, click here!

The beach is really small, but there are several benches by the water, and several picnic tables as well as a shelter above it for a perfect spot to take a break or eat and enjoy the view.

The beach as seen from above.

There is also a 5k loop that starts at the Park’s headquarters, but I didn’t explore it on this visit. A good excuse to come back!

From this park, you can also access the Old Abe biking Trail.

For a full map of the trails, click here.