Agency-listedNGPC · dispersedFree
Ballards Marsh WMA
Drive-up · Nebraska Game & Parks · NE · 42.59701, -100.55026
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →Nebraska Game & Parks 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.
Nebraska Wildlife Management Area (NGPC) — 1,562 acres, Cherry County. Free primitive camping is allowed — no park permit and no fee — for up to 14 days in any 30, unless the area posts otherwise. Facilities are minimal (parking, sometimes a boat ramp); bring water; fires only in provided rings/grills. Confirm on-site; the mapped point is an area centroid and may sit off the access point on long river-corridor WMAs.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Ballards Marsh WMA
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 2,875 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Ballards Marsh WMANIFC · 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 Ballards Marsh WMA · Nebraska Game & Parks · NE
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- @Mail9 mi
- FFuel19 mi
- MMechanic19 mi
- ShShower24 mi
- GGrocery28 mi
- EVEV fast charger36 mi
- HHardware44 mi
- RxPharmacy52 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: fuel & food sit about 19 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 36-mi run (and back).
Not within 60 mi: Water, Dump, 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 — Ballards Marsh WMA
Access
Drive-up
Land
Nebraska Game & Parks · dispersed
Elevation
2,875 ft
Ground slope
0.9% · flat
State
NE
Coordinates
42.59701, -100.55026
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Ballards Marsh WMA · Nebraska Game & Parks · NE (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureBallards Marsh · under 0.1 mi · USGS: swamp or marsh, no flow class
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~18.7 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesRosebud Casino Convenience Store · ~27.9 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
EV charging — from Ballards Marsh WMA · Nebraska Game & Parks · NE — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger35.7 mi straight-line E — NPPD EV STATION ANSWRT CONO DCN, Ainsworth, NE · ChargePoint Network · CHAdeMO, CCS · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 4 within 50 · 7 within 100 · 28 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)89.5 mi — Murdo, SD - Tesla Supercharger, Murdo
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)63.7 mi — FRONTIER MOTORS CP6K BACK, Winner, SD · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- 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 303016 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Ballards Marsh WMA · Nebraska Game & Parks · NE — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomFederal restroom · ~7.5 mi W · FWS
- RestroomWillow Cove Modern Restroom Building · ~16.0 mi W · BoR
- Vault / pit toiletWillow Cove Vault Toilet Building · ~16.0 mi W · BoR
- Vault / pit toiletFisherman's Boat Ramp Vault Toilet Building · ~16.0 mi W · BoR
Coming out here — Ballards Marsh WMA · Nebraska Game & Parks · NE
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Ballards Marsh as a swamp or marsh (no flow class in the record), under 0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). The record carries no flow class for it. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 0.9% — flat. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on 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 Ballards Marsh WMA elsewhere
Other camps near Ballards Marsh WMA
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Big Alkali Lake WMA~3.9 mi
- Schlagel Creek WMA~9.2 mi
- Rat and Beaver Lake WMA~11.0 mi
- Merritt Reservoir SRA~16.6 mi · fee
Who holds the land at Ballards Marsh WMA
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Ballards Marsh Wildlife Management Area, manager on record: Nebraska Game and Parks Commission (state). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Ballards Marsh WMA
Source
Nebraska Game & Parks (wildlife management areas)
Confidence
Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.
How it was placed
NGPC NPGCProperties FeatureServer (AreaType='WMA', Status='Active'), WGS84 centroid + acreage. Camping is category-wide (no per-site flag). Broad-scope ingest 2026-07-19 14:49:09.
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 Ballards Marsh WMA
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