Kellerton Bird Conservation Area WMA
Iowa DNR Wildlife Management Area — about 2,034 acres across 3 separate parcels, Ringgold 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 Kellerton Bird Conservation Area WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA
- @Mail2 mi
- GGrocery8 mi
- RxPharmacy9 mi
- FFuel9 mi
- MMechanic10 mi
- HHardware11 mi
- EVEV fast charger11 mi
- DDump12 mi
- +Urgent care17 mi
- LLaundry18 mi
- OOutfitter23 mi
- ShShower31 mi
- AAir-up47 mi
- WWater48 mi
The read: water is a real 48-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 8 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 — Kellerton Bird Conservation Area WMA
Nearby & resupply — around Kellerton Bird Conservation Area WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurenone named within 1 mi (USGS NHD)
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~11.2 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesLove's · ~16.8 mi
- Hospital / clinicEagleville Medical Clinic · ~16.6 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
EV charging — from Kellerton Bird Conservation Area WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger11.1 mi straight-line SE — Lamoni, IA - Tesla Supercharger (at a restaurant) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 12 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. NACS partner enabled. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach1 within 25 mi · 7 within 50 · 81 within 100 · 210 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS29.9 mi — BETHANY EV CHRG BETHANYDC1, Bethany
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO29.9 mi — BETHANY EV CHRG BETHANYDC1, Bethany
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)11.1 mi — Lamoni, IA - Tesla Destination · Tesla Destination · J1772, NACS (Tesla) · 4 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-08-27 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to all vehicles.
- 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 367746 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Kellerton Bird Conservation Area WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaEagleville SB (WC) · ~12.2 mi SE
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 8 · ~12.3 mi E
- Highway rest areaEagleville NB (TPF) · ~13.6 mi SE
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 13 · ~26.6 mi NE
Coming out here — Kellerton Bird Conservation Area WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA
- No named surface water mapped within 1 mi of the pin in USGS's National Hydrography Dataset (data refreshed October 2022), and none within about a mile and a half in our OpenStreetMap pull — which is not proof there is none, only that neither map has one. Plan to carry washing water as well as drinking water.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 1.7% — 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.
- 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.
- 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 Kellerton Bird Conservation Area WMA elsewhere
Other camps near Kellerton Bird Conservation Area WMA
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Ringgold WMA~7.8 mi
- Sand Creek WMA~12.1 mi
- Mt Ayr WMA~12.8 mi
- Dekalb WMA~15.1 mi
Who holds the land at Kellerton Bird Conservation Area WMA
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Kellerton Bird Conservation Area 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 — Kellerton Bird Conservation Area WMA
What we don’t know about Kellerton Bird Conservation Area 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