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Picnic Point Beach House

Picnic Point Beach House

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Picnic Point Beach House

Name: Picnic Point Beach House
Rating: 2

Recommended by 1 hikers

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Location: Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin, United States

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Best Hikes to Picnic Point Beach House

5.0

(1)

hikers

1. Picnic Point Mound Group – Howard Temin Path loop from State-Langdon

10.6km

02:43

40m

Moderate hike. Good fitness required. Easily-accessible paths. Suitable for all skill levels.

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Moderate

5.0

(3)

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2. Lake Mendota – Picnic Point Mound Group loop from Shorewood

2.71km

00:41

10m

Easy hike. Great for any fitness level. Easily-accessible paths. Suitable for all skill levels.

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Easy

5.0

(1)

hikers

3. Picnic Point Mound Group – Howard Temin Path loop from South Campus

10.3km

02:39

50m

Moderate hike. Good fitness required. Easily-accessible paths. Suitable for all skill levels.

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Moderate

Tips

UrbanExolorer_Mando

June 5, 2025

Picnic Point Beach House (sometimes referred to as the Bath House or Change House) is located on the north side of Picnic Point just to the west of the Picnic Point Marsh along the Lake Mendota Lakeshore Path in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Lakeshore Nature Preserve.

UrbanExolorer_Mando

June 5, 2025

This single-story structure has a curious history. Its construction in 1968 was intended to provide swimmers with a bathroom facility and a place to change —yet it never opened for public use. The building was constructed using Athletic Department funds to compensate for an anticipated loss of public swimming access at Willow Beach because of a planned crew house project. (This Willow Beach crew facility was never actually constructed.)

The Picnic Point Beach House never opened because public access to the site was perceived to be too difficult and because algae blooms on Lake Mendota were becoming so severe by the late 1960s that swimming at this location came to seem much less attractive than it had been earlier in the century.

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Details

Informations

Elevation 260 m

Weather

Friday 21 November

8°C

-3°C

0 %

If you start your activity now...

Max wind speed: 7.0 km/h

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See hikes here

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Location: Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin, United States

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Picnic Point Beach House

1. Picnic Point Mound Group – Howard Temin Path loop from State-Langdon

2. Lake Mendota – Picnic Point Mound Group loop from Shorewood

3. Picnic Point Mound Group – Howard Temin Path loop from South Campus

Other Popular Places to Check Out

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