Twin Lakes WI

About this Map

Frankly, I love this map.

From a cartographic standpoint, the Twin Lakes map hits a sweet spot for me in terms of balance and legibility. I love how the depth contours and water colors turned out, and how the fish graphics, roads, lakes, and other elements all seem to fall naturally into place on the page. Sometimes a map just comes together particularly well, and I think this is one of those maps.

The map features North Twin Lake and South Twin Lake in Vilas County, along with nearby Camp One, Manuel, and Baker Lakes. Expansive North Twin Lake dominates the landscape, while smaller South Twin Lake connects at its southwestern end. Together, the lakes form a distinctive pair surrounded by the forests, wetlands, smaller waters, and communities of Wisconsin’s Northwoods.

There’s plenty to explore beneath the surface as well. Detailed bathymetric contours reveal deep basins, underwater humps, drop-offs, shelves, and other lake-bottom features across both lakes. The complexity of the bathymetry is part of what makes the map so visually interesting, especially when combined with the soft water colors I use throughout this series.

The Twin Lakes also support a diverse Northwoods fishery, including Muskellunge, Northern Pike, Walleye, Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass, Bluegill, Crappie, Yellow Perch, and other species. Several of these fish are illustrated on the map, adding both useful information and, I think, another nice visual element to the overall design.

As usual, I wanted to show more than just the lakes themselves. Roads, homes, boat launches, wooded areas, wetlands, surrounding land use, smaller lakes, and other subtle geographic details help place the Twin Lakes within the larger landscape. The community of Phelps is also included, providing additional context for this corner of Vilas County.

This map really captures what I was hoping to accomplish when I started my Lakes of Wisconsin mapping project. I wanted to create maps that provide useful information about a lake, including its depths, fish, access points, roads, landmarks, terrain, and surrounding landscape, while still being something you’d genuinely want to frame and hang on a wall.

For me, the Twin Lakes map checks all of those boxes. The colors are soft and relaxing, there’s plenty of detail to explore without the map feeling cluttered, and the whole composition just feels balanced. It’s meant to bring back fond memories of time spent at the lake, or maybe make you wish you were there right now.

Like I said, I love this map.