Agency-listedTWRAFreeSeason: check first
Eagle Creek WMA - Primitive Camping Area
Drive-up · Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency · TN · 35.34494, -87.81523
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 →Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency 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.
Nearest town: Waynesboro. Camping on a Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency wildlife management area. TWRA publishes no camping fee. TWRA's per-area pages say "License fees may apply" and require a hunting/fishing licence or a High Impact Habitat Conservation Permit for horses, bicycles and OHVs - which implies arriving on foot or by car to camp needs neither, but TWRA does not say that in so many words and we have not confirmed it. Camping is legal ONLY in the designated area.
Can I go now? — Eagle Creek WMA - Primitive Camping Area · Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency · TN
Season: check first Season stated, but not plainly enough to read as a date.
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency record: “Camping - Open during deer and turkey seasons to any hunters who are actively hunting the WMA.” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-27; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Eagle Creek WMA - Primitive Camping Area
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 922 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Eagle Creek WMA - Primitive Camping AreaNIFC · 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 Eagle Creek WMA - Primitive Camping Area · Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency · TN
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- GGrocery3 mi
- FFuel4 mi
- @Mail4 mi
- MMechanic12 mi
- HHardware13 mi
- +Urgent care13 mi
- LLaundry18 mi
- DDump20 mi
- EVEV fast charger20 mi
- WWater23 mi
- RxPharmacy25 mi
- ShShower31 mi
- AAir-up32 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 23-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 3 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 — Eagle Creek WMA - Primitive Camping Area
Access
Drive-up
Land
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
Elevation
922 ft
Ground slope
2.9% · flat
State
TN
Coordinates
35.34494, -87.81523
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Eagle Creek WMA - Primitive Camping Area · Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency · TN (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureEagle Creek · ~0.1 mi · USGS: intermittent stream
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelHasti-Mart · ~3.6 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~19.7 mi
- GroceriesPiggly Wiggly · ~3.4 mi
- PharmacyCVS Pharmacy · ~24.8 mi
- Hospital / clinicFast Pace Urgent Care · ~12.6 mi
- HardwareCollinwood Hardware · ~12.6 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
EV charging — from Eagle Creek WMA - Primitive Camping Area · Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency · TN — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger20.3 mi straight-line NE — MLEC STATION 1 (L) H, Hohenwald, TN · ChargePoint Network · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach2 within 25 mi · 22 within 50 · 158 within 100 · 350 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO20.3 mi — MLEC STATION 2 (R) H, Hohenwald
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)18.8 mi — Commodore Hotel Linden · Blink 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 261404 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Eagle Creek WMA - Primitive Camping Area · Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency · TN — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomML Lower Glenrock Comfort Station Bldg. #153 · ~12.1 mi SE · NPS
- RestroomML Jacks Branch Comfort Station Bldg. #188 · ~17.5 mi E · NPS
- RestroomML Educational Center Comfort Station Bldg #348 · ~23.0 mi NE · NPS
- RestroomML Campground Comfort Station Site 4 ADA Bldg. #265 · ~23.8 mi NE · NPS
Coming out here — Eagle Creek WMA - Primitive Camping Area · Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency · TN
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Eagle Creek as an intermittent stream, ~0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as intermittent — expect it dry for part of the year. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 2.9% — 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.
- 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 Eagle Creek WMA - Primitive Camping Area elsewhere
Who holds the land at Eagle Creek WMA - Primitive Camping Area
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Eagle Creek Wildlife Management Area, manager on record: Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (state). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Eagle Creek WMA - Primitive Camping Area
Fire rules
No warming, camping or any type fire shall be allowed except at designated camping areas.
Open season
Camping - Open during deer and turkey seasons to any hunters who are actively hunting the WMA.
Stay limit
21 nights (Camping shall not exceed 3 weeks in length from the beginning to the end of the camping stay)
Area rules
Owner's contact information (name, phone number, address) or TWRA ID number and date of arrival must be displayed on camper, tent, vehicle, etc., at all times.
Source
public land 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
Primitive camping area on the 22,000-acre Eagle Creek WMA, Wayne County, which TWRA leases rather than owns. The coordinate is TWRA's own, printed in the body of its WMA page: "In designated campground only, primitive camping at 35.344943, 87.815234." NOTE: TWRA omits the minus sign on the longitude; -87.815234 is the only reading that lands in Tennessee, and it plots on Eagle Creek WMA, so I supplied the sign. TWRA describes the site elsewhere on the same page: "Across Copelan Rd from the cabin is the primitive camping area for hunters, which is first come, first served, no sign-in required." The camping regulation is hunter-only: "Camping - Open during deer and turkey seasons to any hunters who are actively hunting the WMA." No water, toilet or table is claimed by TWRA and none is asserted here. Sources: https://www.tn.gov/twra/wildlife-management-areas/middle-tennessee-r2/eagle-creek-wma.html (read 2026-08-16). FEE BASIS: TWRA's own licence price list (https://www.tn.gov/twra/license-sales.html, read 2026-08-16) lists no camping fee for any Tennessee WMA or state forest. The only camping line on the whole price list sits under the heading "Land Between the Lakes" - "Annual Hunt/Camp Permit (Age 18 and over) ... $50.00" - which is the federal LBL permit, not a state charge. Rule 1660-01-14-.13 sets WMA camping rules and prescribes no fee. This is an absence-of-fee finding, not a published "free" statement. STATEWIDE WMA RULE, Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 1660-01-14-.13 (https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/rules/1660/1660-01/1660-01-14.20240415.pdf, read 2026-08-16), verbatim: "Overnight camping may be permitted on designated areas by permission from the Area Manager"; "Camping shall not exceed 3 weeks in length from the beginning to the end of the camping stay"; "Owner's contact information (name, phone number, address) or TWRA ID number and date of arrival must be displayed on camper, tent, vehicle, etc."; "No warming, camping or any type fire shall be allowed except at designated camping areas." HUNTER RESTRICTION - READ BEFORE PUBLISHING: TWRA's camping line for this area restricts camping to hunters and/or to hunt dates (quoted per row above). This is NOT unrestricted public camping. A reviewer should decide whether it belongs on a general free-camping map at all, or belongs there only with the restriction shown on the pin. | auto:agency-trust 2026-08-18: state agency GIS record with a source URL and coordinates, confidence not low. Fee value is the agency's own, not field-checked. Not field-verified -- confirm access, road conditions and fire rules before you go.
Season
Read from the agency's own season / closure text in this record (data/conditions.py) and checked against the calendar. The words we read are printed under the verdict at the top of the page.
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 Eagle Creek WMA - Primitive Camping Area
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.
- Whether the fire rule stated above still stands today — what we have is a dated reading of the agency's listing, not a live restriction feed
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- 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 — Eagle Creek WMA - Primitive Camping Area
Finding water out here →Fire rules & restrictions →Power off-grid →Gear & rig loadout →All field notes →