Agency-listedMunicipalFree
Chilvers Park (Plainview)
Drive-up · public land · NE · 42.35140, -97.79074
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.
Plainview offers four paved, level camper pads on the north side of its city park, and the city's own parks page says plainly that it offers them for free for a limited three-day stay. Each pad has a power pedestal (listings report 50, 30 and 20 amp), a picnic table and a trash can, and there are restrooms in the park. Plainview is a Highway 20 / Highway 13 town in northeast Nebraska and calls itself the Klown Doll Capital of the World -- the museum is worth the stop. Honest caveats: several campground listings mention a suggested $10/night donation, which does NOT appear on the city's page; treat it as a courtesy rather than a fee, and if there is a donation box, use it. Three days is the stated limit. The deal these towns offer is simple: camp free, and they hope you buy fuel, groceries or dinner in town. Be a good guest and it stays free for the next traveler. Town rules change often and we have not visited -- confirm current rules with the town before you go.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Chilvers Park (Plainview)
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,684 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Chilvers Park (Plainview)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 Chilvers Park (Plainview) · public land · NE
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel0 mi
- GGrocery0 mi
- @Mail0 mi
- MMechanic0 mi
- +Urgent care17 mi
- HHardware19 mi
- RxPharmacy20 mi
- WWater22 mi
- EVEV fast charger29 mi
- AAir-up29 mi
- ShShower31 mi
- DDump31 mi
- LLaundry40 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 22-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 0 mi out.
Not within 60 mi: 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 — Chilvers Park (Plainview)
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land
Elevation
1,684 ft
Ground slope
0.9% · flat
Nearest rail line
~0.3 mi · other track
State
NE
Coordinates
42.35140, -97.79074
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Chilvers Park (Plainview) · public land · NE (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureDry Creek · ~0.4 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townPlainview · ~0.2 mi
- Nearest rail line~0.3 mi · other track
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelJerry's Hilltop Services · ~18.6 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~31.0 mi
- GroceriesStore · ~0.1 mi
- Hospital / clinicCHI Health Clinic Plainview · ~0.6 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware · ~18.6 mi
EV charging — from Chilvers Park (Plainview) · public land · NE — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger28.8 mi straight-line SE — Norfolk, NE - Tesla Supercharger (at a grocery store) · Tesla · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to all vehicles. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 5 within 50 · 33 within 100 · 117 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO29.5 mi — NPPD EV STATION NORFOLK HYVE DC, Norfolk
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)29.1 mi — Courtesy Ford of Norfolk - Level2 · Blink Network · J1772 · 10 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 333469 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Chilvers Park (Plainview) · public land · NE — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- No mapped restroom within 30 miles — plan to pack it out.
Coming out here — Chilvers Park (Plainview) · public land · NE
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Dry Creek as a perennial stream, ~0.4 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 ~0.3 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 Chilvers Park (Plainview) elsewhere
Other camps near Chilvers Park (Plainview)
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Osmond City Park (Poolside Park)~9.7 mi
- Grove Lake WMA~16.2 mi
- Willow Creek SRA~16.5 mi · fee
- Red Wing WMA~21.1 mi
How we know this — Chilvers Park (Plainview)
Stay limit
3 nights (four fully equipped camper pads that the city offers for free for a limited three-day stay)
Source
municipal park records
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
Coordinates: OSM way 447597248 'Chilvers Park', leisure=park; pin verified INSIDE the way by point-in-polygon test against node geometry from api.openstreetmap.org/api/0.6/way/447597248/full.json, 2026-07-20. Camping rules: City of Plainview OFFICIAL page https://www.cityofplainviewne.com/gallery/parks-recreation , fetched 2026-07-20, which describes four camper pads 'the city offers for free for a limited three-day stay'. Site count/hookup detail (four paved pads, 50/30/20-amp pedestals, picnic tables) corroborated by campground listings; a suggested $10/night donation appears on those listings but NOT on the city page, so it is described as suggested, not required. Not visited. 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 Chilvers Park (Plainview)
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 — Chilvers Park (Plainview)
Finding water out here →Fire rules & restrictions →First-night troubleshooting →Getting unstuck →All field notes →