Agency-listedMunicipalFree
Bowbells City Park Campground (Bowbells)
Drive-up · public land · ND · 48.80164, -102.24457
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 →The land manager 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.
Bowbells is the Burke County seat up near the Canadian line, and the state tourism office lists its city park campground as free-will donation for overnight stays, with three RV hook-ups for water and sewer, an RV dump station, and outside bathrooms with showers at the town pool. It is described as an overnight stop rather than a place to settle in. One honest caveat you should weigh: this 'free-will donation' wording comes from the state tourism listing, not from the City of Bowbells itself, and we have seen a state tourism office in a neighbouring state describe a $20-a-night city park as free. Call (701) 377-2608 and confirm before you count on it being free. The mapped location is an unnamed campsite polygon in OpenStreetMap right by the town centre on Main Street, which matches the listed address, but it is not signed as such in the map data. The deal these towns offer is simple: camp free, and they hope you buy fuel, groceries or dinner in town. Town rules change often and we have not visited -- confirm with the city first.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Bowbells City Park Campground (Bowbells)
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,958 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Bowbells City Park Campground (Bowbells)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 Bowbells City Park Campground (Bowbells) · public land · ND
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel12 mi
- LLaundry34 mi
- GGrocery43 mi
- +Urgent care51 mi
- MMechanic52 mi
- EVEV fast charger56 mi
- RxPharmacy56 mi
- @Mail56 mi
- HHardware58 mi
- WWater58 mi
- AAir-up59 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 58-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 12 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 56-mi run (and back).
Not within 60 mi: 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 — Bowbells City Park Campground (Bowbells)
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land
Elevation
1,958 ft
Ground slope
0.9% · flat
Nearest rail line
~0.1 mi · other track
State
ND
Coordinates
48.80164, -102.24457
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Bowbells City Park Campground (Bowbells) · public land · ND (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureStony Creek · ~0.3 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townBowbells · ~0.1 mi
- Nearest rail line~0.1 mi · other track
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- Fuelnone within 30 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesCo-op · ~29.6 mi
- Hospital / clinicTrinity Kenmare Community Hospital · ~11.4 mi
- Mapping is thin out hereAn empty row means nothing is mapped within that radius — not that nothing exists. Small stores, seasonal resorts and single fuel pumps out here often never make it onto the map. Treat these as unconfirmed and ask locally.
EV charging — from Bowbells City Park Campground (Bowbells) · public land · ND — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger56.2 mi straight-line SE — ENERBASE VEC, Minot, ND · 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 · none within 50 · 5 within 100 · 7 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)59.2 mi — Minot, ND - Tesla Supercharger, Minot
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)59.2 mi — Ryan Buick GMC, Minot, ND (at a car dealership) · Non-Networked · J1772, CCS · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2025-06-06 · 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 164078 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Bowbells City Park Campground (Bowbells) · public land · ND — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomFederal restroom · ~6.8 mi SE · FWS
- RestroomFederal restroom · ~12.9 mi SE · FWS
- RestroomFederal restroom · ~26.9 mi E · FWS
Coming out here — Bowbells City Park Campground (Bowbells) · public land · ND
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Stony Creek as a perennial lake or pond, ~0.3 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.
- 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.
- Rail line mapped ~0.1 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as other track. 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.
- 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 Bowbells City Park Campground (Bowbells) elsewhere
How we know this — Bowbells City Park Campground (Bowbells)
Fee note
FREE-WILL DONATION
Source
municipal park records
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
FREE-WILL DONATION per ndtourism.com (Bowbells City Park Campground): '3 RV hook-ups for water and sewer', 'New pool with outside bathrooms with showers', 'RV dump station', the RV park 'is for overnights and is free-will donation'. Main Street, Bowbells ND 58721, (701) 377-2608. Confidence 'med': this is the STATE TOURISM listing, and NE Lesson 2 showed state tourism calling a $20/night city park 'free' -- the City of Bowbells has no campground page of its own to check it against, so this is unconfirmed by the town. Coordinates: OSM way/956068317, a tourism=camp_site polygon 0.12 mi from the verified Bowbells town centre (the OSM object carries no name tag). Verified 2026-07-20.
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 Bowbells City Park Campground (Bowbells)
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
Before you go — Bowbells City Park Campground (Bowbells)
Finding water out here →Dumping grey & black →Cold-weather camping →Dispersed camping tips →All field notes →