Kickapoo River in Wisconsin

Trip Overview

The Kickapoo River from Ontario, WI to LaFarge, WI is a wonderful place to visit. Our family spent a weekend at Mr. Duck's Canoe Rental in Ontario where we canoed, camped, swam, hiked and visited an Amish community nearby.

Our kids are 13, 11 and 5 and had no trouble on the water. There are a few places where the canoe can get stuck in brush along the bank of the river, however, the water is about 3.5 feet deep in most places. It was very easy to exit the boat and move it back into the current.

On Saturday there were lots of people on the river--mainly on the sandbars between Ontario and Wildcat State Park. On Sunday the river was pretty quiet. The scenery is wonderful with rock formations, crags, forest and the like. We saw lots of wildlife and even cows crossing the river!

Our camping experience at Mr. Duck's was great. The sites are primitive so there are only porta-potties there, but they are very reasonably priced and provide firewood for our campfire. There is also a natural spring on the property where we got the most wonderful spring water to drink!

Our weekend was a wonderful family experience that we will be sure to repeat again in the near future!

Accommodations:

We spent some time hiking in Wildcat State Park. The park has many beautiful trails to explore and has a wonderful evergreen smell to it.

Fees:

The fees for the canoes were $35 each and the camping was by donation.

Directions:

Ontario is located on WI Rt 131

Launches:

We put in at Mr Duck's Canoe Rental. The put-in was an easy launch right from Mr. Duck's property. Our Saturday trip we got out at Bridge 5 and on Sunday we got out at Bridge 7. We told the staff at Mr. Duck's where we wanted to exit, and they picked us up at that spot when we were finished with our trip.

Contact:

Mr. Duck's Canoe Rental website:

www.mrduckscanoerental.com/