Dudgeon Lake WMA
Iowa DNR Wildlife Management Area — about 2,047 acres, Benton County. Primitive camping is allowed statewide on Iowa DNR wildlife areas by rule — no permit, no camping fee — for up to 14 consecutive days, UNLESS that area posts restrictions on site (Iowa Admin. Code r. 571-51.11). The DNR can close any individual area to camping just by putting up a sign, and there is no statewide list of which ones have, so read the signs at the entrance and treat a posted restriction as final. Iowa DNR's own camping article also says to stay 100+ yards from parking lots, boat ramps and jetties; that sentence was dropped from the rule in the June 2025 rewrite, but it is still good practice and may be posted locally. These are working wildlife areas, not campgrounds: expect a gravel parking area and nothing else — no water, no toilet, no table, no fire ring. Pack water in and everything out. Fall is a hard time to use these: Iowa's shotgun deer seasons and waterfowl season put a lot of hunters on WMAs, and blaze orange plus a different destination is the smarter call. The pin is a representative point inside the official DNR boundary, NOT a campsite or a parking lot — scout the actual access off the DNR atlas before you commit to it after dark.
Everything you need — measured from Dudgeon Lake WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA
- FFuel2 mi
- GGrocery2 mi
- @Mail2 mi
- WWater7 mi
- RxPharmacy8 mi
- DDump9 mi
- LLaundry9 mi
- ShShower11 mi
- +Urgent care12 mi
- MMechanic13 mi
- HHardware16 mi
- AAir-up19 mi
- EVEV fast charger20 mi
- OOutfitter23 mi
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 2 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 — Dudgeon Lake WMA
Nearby & resupply — around Dudgeon Lake WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureCedar River · ~0.6 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Also mapped (OSM)Prairie Creek (stream) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townVinton · ~2.0 mi
- Nearest rail line~1.0 mi · main line
- Nearest highway~7.5 mi · Interstate 380
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~6.9 mi
- FuelFuel · ~1.9 mi
- Propane / LPGCasey's General Store · ~27.7 mi
- Dump station~8.8 mi
- GroceriesFareway Meat & Grocery · ~2.1 mi
- PharmacyWalmart Pharmacy · ~19.0 mi
- Hospital / clinicVirginia Gay Hospital · ~1.8 mi
- HardwareAtkins Lumber · ~16.3 mi
EV charging — from Dudgeon Lake WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger20.4 mi straight-line SE — McGrath Hyundai Hiawatha - DCFC · Blink Network · CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach6 within 25 mi · 28 within 50 · 112 within 100 · 218 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)23.7 mi — Waterloo, IA - Tesla Supercharger, Waterloo
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO23.1 mi — MAVERIK CEDAR RAPIDS DC, Cedar Rapids
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)22.1 mi — McGrath Chevyland, Cedar Rapids, IA (at a car dealership) · Non-Networked · J1772, CCS · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-07-15 · hours: Dealership business hours
- 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 388167 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Dudgeon Lake WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 18 · ~29.3 mi SE
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 17 · ~29.3 mi SE
Coming out here — Dudgeon Lake WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Cedar River as a perennial river, ~0.6 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 4.8% — gentle. 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 ~1.0 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.
- Interstate 380 is mapped ~7.5 mi from the pin. Straight-line, from the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025) — the divided, limited-access highways, which is why a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not appear here.
- 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 Dudgeon Lake WMA elsewhere
Who holds the land at Dudgeon Lake WMA
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Dudgeon Lake Wildlife Management Area, manager on record: a state department of natural resources. That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Dudgeon Lake WMA
What we don’t know about Dudgeon Lake 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