Agency-listedKDWPFree
Cowley State Fishing Lake
Drive-up · Kansas Dept. of Wildlife & Parks · KS · 37.09844, -96.80311
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 →Kansas Dept. of Wildlife & 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.
Kansas State Fishing Lake — 84 acres, managed by the Kansas Dept. of Wildlife & Parks. Free primitive camping is allowed (no camping fee), first-come, first-served, with a 7-day stay limit; a fishing license is required only if you fish. Camping is in designated areas only — confirm the current rules and where camping is allowed with KDWP before you go.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Cowley State Fishing Lake
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,161 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Cowley State Fishing LakeNIFC · 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 Cowley State Fishing Lake · Kansas Dept. of Wildlife & Parks · KS
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- HHardware13 mi
- MMechanic13 mi
- +Urgent care13 mi
- FFuel13 mi
- GGrocery13 mi
- LLaundry13 mi
- RxPharmacy13 mi
- @Mail13 mi
- WWater14 mi
- DDump18 mi
- ShShower21 mi
- EVEV fast charger28 mi
- AAir-up45 mi
- OOutfitter47 mi
- PPropane52 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 13 mi out.
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 — Cowley State Fishing Lake
Access
Drive-up
Land
Kansas Dept. of Wildlife & Parks
Elevation
1,161 ft
State
KS
Coordinates
37.09844, -96.80311
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Cowley State Fishing Lake · Kansas Dept. of Wildlife & Parks · KS (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureCowley County State Lake · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Also mapped (OSM)Grouse Creek (river) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townVinton · ~1.3 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelCenex · ~13.1 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~17.8 mi
- GroceriesCountry Mart · ~13.1 mi
- PharmacyGraves Drug Store · ~14.5 mi
- Hospital / clinicSouth Central Kansas Medical Center · ~13.2 mi
EV charging — from Cowley State Fishing Lake · Kansas Dept. of Wildlife & Parks · KS — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger28.1 mi straight-line SW — Nifty Car Rental, Ponca City, OK · Blink Network · NACS (Tesla) · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 16 within 50 · 85 within 100 · 196 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS31.3 mi — GoPonca, Ponca City
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO31.3 mi — GoPonca, Ponca City
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)13.1 mi — Evergy - Arkansas City Service Center (at an utility) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2025-01-13 · 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 353143 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Cowley State Fishing Lake · Kansas Dept. of Wildlife & Parks · KS — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- No mapped restroom within 30 miles — plan to pack it out.
Coming out here — Cowley State Fishing Lake · Kansas Dept. of Wildlife & Parks · KS
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Cowley County State 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.
- 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.
- 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 Cowley State Fishing Lake elsewhere
Other camps near Cowley State Fishing Lake
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Kaw WMA primitive camp #1~10.0 mi
- Kaw WMA primitive camp #6~12.0 mi
- Kaw WMA primitive camp #4~12.0 mi
- Kaw WMA primitive camp #2~12.1 mi
Who holds the land at Cowley State Fishing Lake
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Cowley State Fishing Lake, manager on record: a state agency PAD-US does not name. That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Cowley State Fishing Lake
Stay limit
7 nights (Free primitive camping is allowed (no camping fee), first-come, first-served, with a 7-day stay limit; a fishing license is required only if you fish)
Source
Kansas Dept. of Wildlife & Parks (state fishing lakes)
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
Location & acreage: KDWP Fishing Atlas GIS (Res_SFL_CFAP_NoFee, CLASS=SFL, NAD83). Free-camping status: KDWP regulations + Boondocker's Bible KS SFL roster. Pilot ingest 2026-07-19 10:36:50.
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 Cowley State Fishing Lake
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 — Cowley State Fishing Lake
Camping near a reservoir →Finding water out here →Fire rules & restrictions →Reading the aerial →All field notes →