Agency-listedND Game and Fish · dispersedFree

Audubon WMA (McLean County)

Drive-up · North Dakota Game & Fish · ND · 47.63363, -101.19957
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North Dakota Game & Fish lists this site. Someone from the agency inventoried it, so it is a real camp — not a spot we guessed at. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.

IMPORTANT -- THIS ONE IS NOT OPEN EVERY NIGHT. North Dakota Game and Fish closes Audubon WMA to camping on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (except holidays); it is open to camping Thursday through Monday, and ALL your equipment must be off the area on the closed days. Plan around that or you will be moved along. Audubon Wildlife Management Area is 6,716 acres of state wildlife land in McLean County, managed by the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, and you may camp on it free. That is not a rumour off a listing site -- it is how the state rule works: North Dakota Administrative Code 30-04-02-01 opens every WMA to 'public hunting, fishing, and trapping, or other compatible public use', and 30-04-02-11 sets the only real limit, 'camping for longer than ten consecutive days on any wildlife management area is prohibited'. There is no camping fee and, unlike South Dakota and Oklahoma, North Dakota does NOT make you buy a license or a conservation pass just to be on the land. Now the honest part: this is primitive dispersed camping on a wildlife area, not a campground. Assume NO toilets, NO drinking water, NO tables, NO fire rings and no marked sites unless you happen to find them. You may gather downed wood for a campfire, but you may not mow or cut vegetation to clear a campsite, you may not leave a trailer or tent set up unless you are actually sleeping in it, and you may not dump holding tanks on the area. Vehicles must stay on the constructed roads, established trails and parking areas that a passenger car would normally use -- do not drive out across the grass. Camping is also prohibited on any WMA where it is posted as such at the road entry, so READ THE SIGN at the entrance you use; the posted sign beats anything we can tell you here. These are working wildlife areas, so expect hunters in season and plan your visibility accordingly. The pin is a representative point inside the unit boundary, not a campsite -- you will need to find your own spot off an established access. Confirm current rules with ND Game and Fish at (701) 328-6300 before you go.

USGS topo — contours & terrain
USGS topographic map of Audubon WMA (McLean County)
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Aerial image of Audubon WMA (McLean County)
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Weather outlook — at Audubon WMA (McLean County)
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,841 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Audubon WMA (McLean County)NIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.

Everything you need — measured from Audubon WMA (McLean County) · North Dakota Game & Fish · ND

15 MI30 MI60 MIYOUR CAMPN ↑Dump · 30 miDSinclair · Fuel · 3 miFScott's · Grocery · 15 miGCVS Pharmacy · Pharmacy · 40 miRxHwy 83 Lawn & Leisure · Hardware · 4 miHWashburn Auto Body · Mechanic · 25 miMLaundry · 59 miLAir-up · 40 miASanford Highway 2 · Urgent care · 40 mi+Six Mile Corner Bait Shop · Outfitter · 4 miOMail · 12 mi@Pinnacle Express · EV fast charger · 39 miEV
Straight-line miles · bearings approx · roads run longer
Nearest of each
  • FFuel3 mi
  • HHardware4 mi
  • OOutfitter4 mi
  • @Mail12 mi
  • GGrocery15 mi
  • MMechanic25 mi
  • DDump30 mi
  • EVEV fast charger39 mi
  • +Urgent care40 mi
  • AAir-up40 mi
  • RxPharmacy40 mi
  • LLaundry59 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: fuel & food sit about 3 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 39-mi run (and back).

Not within 60 mi: Water, Propane. Plan those before you head up.

One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗

The site — Audubon WMA (McLean County)

Access
Drive-up
Land
North Dakota Game & Fish · dispersed
Elevation
1,841 ft
State
ND
Coordinates
47.63363, -101.19957
Cost
Free

Nearby & resupply — around Audubon WMA (McLean County) · North Dakota Game & Fish · ND (OpenStreetMap)

  • Water featureWater · nearby
  • Nearest townColeharbor · ~6.3 mi
  • Drinking waternone within 10 mi
  • FuelFuel · ~14.6 mi
  • Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
  • GroceriesScott's · ~14.6 mi
  • Hospital / clinicCHI Saint Alexius Health Garrison · ~9.9 mi

EV charging — from Audubon WMA (McLean County) · North Dakota Game & Fish · ND — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)

Nearby restrooms — around Audubon WMA (McLean County) · North Dakota Game & Fish · ND — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

Open Audubon WMA (McLean County) elsewhere

Other camps near Audubon WMA (McLean County)

If this one is full, gated or washed out.

How we know this — Audubon WMA (McLean County)

Stay limit
10 nights (camping up to 10 consecutive days)
Area rules
Trailers, campers, motor homes, or tents may not be left on any wildlife management area unless used for daily lodging. Camping is prohibited on those wildlife or fish management areas where posted at public road entry points. Mowing of vegetation for campsites is prohibited on wildlife management areas.
Source
North Dakota Game & Fish (wildlife management areas)
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
Free primitive camping authorised by BINDING RULE, not by a listing: NDAC 30-04-02-01 & -11 (ndlegis.gov/information/acdata/pdf/30-04-02.pdf) + gf.nd.gov/wma. NDAC 30-04-02-01 grants open public use with no license/pass precondition; 30-04-02-11 permits camping up to 10 consecutive days and creates no camping fee (all dollar amounts in the chapter are violation penalties). Camping-prohibited and Thursday-Monday-only WMA lists taken verbatim from gf.nd.gov/wma (2025 PLOTS Guide text), downloaded raw and string-matched locally rather than via a search summary. THIS UNIT IS ON THE THURSDAY-MONDAY-ONLY LIST. Boundary/acreage/county: ND state ArcGIS Wildlife_Management_Areas FeatureServer/0 (6716 ac, 57 parcel(s); largest parcel used). Coordinate: representative interior point (centroid), verified point-in-polygon against the unit boundary, WGS84. NOT a surveyed campsite. Ingest 2026-07-20 15:25:23.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.

What we don’t know about Audubon WMA (McLean County)

A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.

Before you go — Audubon WMA (McLean County)

Been here? Tell us what changed. This page is built from public records, so the fastest way it gets better is somebody who has actually pulled in. Road washed out, site gone, gate locked, or it is exactly as described — all of it useful. Send a report →