Agency-listedCounty ConservationFree
Fountain Springs Park (Holbert Area)
Drive-up · public land · IA · 42.61325, -91.31144
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.
A genuinely FREE, first-come/first-served primitive campground run by the Delaware County Conservation Board, tucked into the wooded Elk Creek trout-stream valley about two miles northeast of Greeley (2511 Oak Road). The camping area is locally called the 'Holbert' area; there are several rustic sites with fire rings and picnic tables, vault toilets, and NO hookups and no guaranteed drinking water -- bring your own. Multiple camper reports and the OpenStreetMap campsite record both say it is free, with a two-week (14-day) stay limit and no reservations. It is the free primitive outlier in Delaware County's system -- the county's developed parks (Bailey's Ford, Coffins Grove, Turtle Creek, Twin Bridges) charge and take reservations, so do NOT assume the free rule travels to them. The access road is dirt and can get tricky after rain. County rules and fees can change, and we have not visited -- confirm the current rules with Delaware County Conservation (563-927-3410) before you rely on it. Free camping is a courtesy: pack it in, pack it out, and be a good guest.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Fountain Springs Park (Holbert Area)
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 918 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Fountain Springs Park (Holbert Area)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 Fountain Springs Park (Holbert Area) · public land · IA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- @Mail2 mi
- ShShower5 mi
- FFuel9 mi
- MMechanic9 mi
- GGrocery10 mi
- WWater11 mi
- RxPharmacy12 mi
- DDump12 mi
- HHardware12 mi
- EVEV fast charger15 mi
- LLaundry16 mi
- +Urgent care18 mi
- OOutfitter18 mi
- PPropane30 mi
- AAir-up31 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 9 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 — Fountain Springs Park (Holbert Area)
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land
Elevation
918 ft
Ground slope
2.7% · flat
Nearest rail line
~9.3 mi · main line
Nearest highway
~10.0 mi · US Hwy 20
State
IA
Coordinates
42.61325, -91.31144
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Fountain Springs Park (Holbert Area) · public land · IA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureFountain Springs Creek · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Also mapped (OSM)Elk Creek (stream) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townGreeley · ~2.4 mi
- Nearest rail line~9.3 mi · main line
- Nearest highway~10.0 mi · US Hwy 20
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelBP Truck Stop · ~9.8 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~11.8 mi
- GroceriesFareway · ~11.7 mi
- PharmacyBremen Drug · ~11.6 mi
- Hospital / clinicRegional Medical Center · ~11.9 mi
- HardwareUngs Shopping Center · ~12.1 mi
EV charging — from Fountain Springs Park (Holbert Area) · public land · IA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger15.1 mi straight-line SE — Victory Ford, Dyersville, IA (at a public site) · FORD_CHARGE · CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach2 within 25 mi · 16 within 50 · 95 within 100 · 309 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)31.1 mi — Prairie du Chien, WI - Tesla Supercharger, Prairie du Chien
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO29.8 mi — Richardson Motors, Dubuque
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)11.6 mi — COMM SAV BANK STATION 2, Manchester, IA · ChargePoint 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 358360 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Fountain Springs Park (Holbert Area) · public land · IA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomFederal restroom · ~29.7 mi N · FWS
Coming out here — Fountain Springs Park (Holbert Area) · public land · IA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Fountain Springs Creek as a perennial stream, 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.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 2.7% — 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 ~9.3 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.
- US Hwy 20 is mapped ~10.0 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.
- 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 Fountain Springs Park (Holbert Area) elsewhere
Other camps near Fountain Springs Park (Holbert Area)
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Frenchtown Park~19.2 mi
- Sny McGill - North Cedar WMA~24.5 mi
Who holds the land at Fountain Springs Park (Holbert Area)
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Fountain Springs Creek Park, manager on record: Delaware County Conservation Board (local government). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Fountain Springs Park (Holbert Area)
Stay limit
14 nights (3114369), tagged fee=no + description '14 days limit', name 'Holbert Area - Fountain Springs Park'; sits inside OSM 'Fountain Springs Creek Park' nature_reserve)
Source
Iowa county 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
Delaware County Conservation Board primitive campground ('Holbert Area'), ~2 mi NE of Greeley (2511 Oak Road). Coordinate = OSM tourism=camp_site node/12762519054 (42.6132463,-91.3114369), tagged fee=no + description '14 days limit', name 'Holbert Area - Fountain Springs Park'; sits inside OSM 'Fountain Springs Creek Park' nature_reserve way/163964356. Coord cross-verified via Overpass AND Nominatim on 2026-07-27. FREE + first-come + 14-day confirmed by The Dyrt (thedyrt.com/camping/iowa/iowa-fountain-springs-county-park -- verbatim 'Camping is free... remain up to two weeks without fees'), corroborated by Wikipedia (Fountain_Springs_Park, Delaware County CB, 42.613/-91.310) and the Delaware County CCB parks page (lists its paid/hookup campgrounds separately). Manager Delaware County Conservation Board 563-927-3410. Standing-mission ingest 2026-07-27. Unvisited by us.
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 Fountain Springs Park (Holbert 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.
- 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 — Fountain Springs Park (Holbert Area)
Finding water out here →Fire rules & restrictions →Reading the aerial →Camping with a dog →All field notes →