Audubon WMA (McLean County)
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.
Everything you need — measured from Audubon WMA (McLean County) · North Dakota Game & Fish · ND
- 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
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)
Nearby & resupply — around Audubon WMA (McLean County) · North Dakota Game & Fish · ND (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureAudubon Lake · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townColeharbor · ~6.3 mi
- Nearest rail line~3.4 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 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)
- Nearest public DC fast charger39.4 mi straight-line N — Pinnacle Express, Minot, ND (at a gas station) · Non-Networked · CHAdeMO, CCS · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2025-06-06 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 5 within 50 · 15 within 100 · 24 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)40.6 mi — Minot, ND - Tesla Supercharger, Minot
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)24.1 mi — Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, Washburn, ND (at a museum) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2025-07-03 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast charger$0.39 per minute (as listed by AFDC)
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 256632 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Audubon WMA (McLean County) · North Dakota Game & Fish · ND — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomFederal restroom · ~13.9 mi SW · FWS
- RestroomRomtec, Vault Toilet @ Two Rivers Trailhead · ~21.0 mi SW · NPS
- RestroomRomtec, Vault Toilet @ Awitixa Trail Head · ~21.9 mi SW · NPS
- RestroomVisitor Center · ~22.6 mi SW · NPS
Coming out here — Audubon WMA (McLean County) · North Dakota Game & Fish · ND
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Audubon Lake as a perennial lake or pond, under 0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Rail line mapped ~3.4 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). That file holds the divided, limited-access highways only — a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not be in it.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Audubon WMA (McLean County) elsewhere
Other camps near Audubon WMA (McLean County)
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Custer Mine WMA (McLean County)~4.7 mi
- Wolf Creek WMA (McLean County)~7.1 mi
- de Trobriand WMA (McLean County)~8.3 mi
- Coal Lake WMA (McLean County)~14.7 mi
Who holds the land at Audubon WMA (McLean County)
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Audubon, manager on record: a state fish and wildlife agency. That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Audubon WMA (McLean County)
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.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it