Elk Creek Marsh WMA
Iowa DNR Wildlife Management Area — about 2,666 acres across 8 separate parcels, Worth 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. Much of this unit is marsh, river bottom or seasonally flooded ground — dry, level tent ground can be genuinely scarce and access roads can be under water in spring. 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 Elk Creek Marsh WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA
- @Mail3 mi
- FFuel4 mi
- GGrocery4 mi
- EVEV fast charger4 mi
- HHardware14 mi
- WWater17 mi
- DDump17 mi
- RxPharmacy17 mi
- AAir-up17 mi
- MMechanic18 mi
- LLaundry18 mi
- +Urgent care19 mi
- ShShower21 mi
- OOutfitter29 mi
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 4 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 — Elk Creek Marsh WMA
Nearby & resupply — around Elk Creek Marsh WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureElk Creek · ~0.2 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townSomber · ~1.9 mi
- Nearest rail line~2.6 mi · main line
- Nearest highway~4.1 mi · Interstate 35
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelKum & Go · ~4.5 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~16.8 mi
- GroceriesBP Shop · ~4.7 mi
- PharmacyWalmart Pharmacy · ~18.4 mi
- Hospital / clinicAlbert Lea Medical Center · ~17.1 mi
- HardwareBomgaars · ~14.2 mi
EV charging — from Elk Creek Marsh WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger4.5 mi straight-line NE — MAVERIK NORTHWOOD DCFC2 · 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 reach13 within 25 mi · 21 within 50 · 110 within 100 · 322 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)18.1 mi — Albert Lea, MN - Happy Trails Lane - Tesla Supercharger, Albert Lea
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)4.6 mi — Holiday Inn Northwood (at a public site) · RED_E · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed
- 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 169874 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Elk Creek Marsh WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 16 · ~4.6 mi NE
- Highway rest areaAlbert Lea Travel Information Center · ~8.4 mi NE
- Highway rest areaHayward · ~19.5 mi N
- Highway rest areaOakland Woods · ~23.6 mi NE
Coming out here — Elk Creek Marsh WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Elk Creek as a perennial lake or pond, ~0.2 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 13.4% — noticeable. 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 ~2.6 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 35 is mapped ~4.1 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 Elk Creek Marsh WMA elsewhere
Other camps near Elk Creek Marsh WMA
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Good Neighbors Marsh WMA~16.0 mi
Who holds the land at Elk Creek Marsh WMA
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Elk Creek Marsh 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 — Elk Creek Marsh WMA
What we don’t know about Elk Creek Marsh 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