Agency-listedLoup River Public Power DistrictFreeOpen today
Lake North Park
Drive-up · Loup River Public Power District · NE · 41.49627, -97.35513
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 →Loup River Public Power District 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.
Free camping WITH FREE ELECTRIC HOOKUPS, four miles north of Columbus, Nebraska -- the Loup River Public Power District puts it in one sentence on its own site: 'Electrical hook-ups and primitive camping available during the summer at no charge.' That makes Lake North one of the genuinely rare ones, a powered site that costs nothing, and it is the reason to know about the Loup system at all. The park is on Lake North, a district reservoir popular for boating, water skiing and fishing, reached by heading four miles north of US Highway 30 on 18th Avenue. Read the limits before you plan around it: the Loup parks are open May 1 to November 1, weather permitting, no reservations are accepted, and there is a limit of seven days per month across the whole Loup park system -- that cap counts every district park together, not each one separately. There are no dump stations and no direct water hookups, so come with water aboard even though the power is there. All district facilities are alcohol free, and there are no lifeguards. If this one is full, the district runs three more parks nearby -- Loup Park on Lake Babcock, Powerhouse Park and Tailrace Park -- all free, with the same seven-day system cap. Columbus is a real town a few minutes south with groceries, fuel and repair, which is the bargain being offered here: camp free on the district's lake, and spend your money in Columbus. Confirm current rules with the district before you go and leave it better than you found it.
Can I go now? — Lake North Park · Loup River Public Power District · NE
Open today Season May 1 – Nov 1. Closes after Nov 1. Weather can shorten it.
Loup River Public Power District record: “Open to the public from May 1 to November 1 (weather permitting)” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-22; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Lake North Park
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,533 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Lake North ParkNIFC · 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 Lake North Park · Loup River Public Power District · NE
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel3 mi
- GGrocery4 mi
- RxPharmacy4 mi
- EVEV fast charger4 mi
- HHardware4 mi
- MMechanic4 mi
- @Mail4 mi
- +Urgent care20 mi
- OOutfitter38 mi
- ShShower40 mi
- WWater40 mi
- LLaundry41 mi
- DDump45 mi
- AAir-up58 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 40-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 — Lake North Park
Access
Drive-up
Land
Loup River Public Power District
Elevation
1,533 ft
Ground slope
1.4% · flat
Nearest rail line
~4.0 mi · main line
State
NE
Coordinates
41.49627, -97.35513
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Lake North Park · Loup River Public Power District · NE (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureLake North · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townCollege View Park · ~2.1 mi
- Nearest rail line~4.0 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelPump & Pantry · ~2.7 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesStore · ~3.8 mi
- PharmacyWalgreens · ~4.0 mi
- Hospital / clinicColumbus Community Hospital · ~3.3 mi
- HardwareMenards · ~4.2 mi
EV charging — from Lake North Park · Loup River Public Power District · NE — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger4.0 mi straight-line S — RUSS'S MARKET SUPER SAVER 1, Columbus, NE · 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 reach2 within 25 mi · 15 within 50 · 84 within 100 · 120 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)36.9 mi — Norfolk, NE - Tesla Supercharger, Norfolk
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)1.8 mi — CENTRAL CC CENTRALCCCOL, Columbus, NE · 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 300565 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Lake North Park · Loup River Public Power District · NE — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- No mapped restroom within 30 miles — plan to pack it out.
Coming out here — Lake North Park · Loup River Public Power District · NE
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Lake North as a perennial lake or pond, 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 1.4% — 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 ~4.0 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.
- No interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). That file holds the divided, limited-access highways only — a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not be in 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 Lake North Park elsewhere
Other camps near Lake North Park
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Loup Park / Lake Babcock~1.5 mi
- Powerhouse Park~2.7 mi
- Flat Water Landing WMA~6.7 mi
- Wilkinson WMA~7.2 mi
How we know this — Lake North Park
Open season
Open to the public from May 1 to November 1 (weather permitting)
Stay limit
7 nights (Limit of seven days per month (30-day period) in Loup Park system)
Source
public land 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
Source (FREE stated by the OPERATOR): Loup River Public Power District's own page, loup.com/recreation/lake-north-park/ (read 2026-07-28), verbatim: 'Electrical hook-ups and primitive camping available during the summer at no charge.'; '4 miles north of US Highway 30 on 18th Avenue.' District-wide rules printed on the page: 'open to the public from May 1 to November 1 (weather permitting)', 'Limit of seven days per month (30-day period) in Loup Park system', 'No reservations accepted.', 'There are no dump stations or direct water hookups.', 'There are no lifeguards on duty.', 'All facilities are alcohol free.' COORDINATE: OSM way/489436859 'Lake North Camp' (leisure=park). TRUE area-weighted polygon centroid from api.openstreetmap.org/api/0.6/way/489436859/full.json (5-node closed ring), ray-cast point-in-polygon inside=True -> 41.496266,-97.355126. NOT Overpass 'out center' (the CO lesson). Consistent with the district's '4 miles north of US-30 on 18th Avenue'. DEDUP NOTE: the DB already holds the district's LOUP PARK / LAKE BABCOCK (rowid 16611, 41.496499,-97.383674); this pin is 1.48 mi from it -- a genuinely separate park on a separate lake, comfortably outside the 0.5 mi radius. GUARDRAILS: camping expressly allowed by the operator; NO entry fee, access pass, day-use fee or permit to be on the land (utility land, not a state park -- no Discover-Pass-style trap). fee=0; dispersed=0 (designated sites); camp_type NULL for Dave to set on review. water NULL -- the district states 'There are no dump stations or direct water hookups'; the FREE ELECTRIC hookups it does state are recorded in the tags and field_note. SEASONAL: May 1 - Nov 1 only. Ingest 2026-07-28.
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 Lake North Park
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
- 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 — Lake North Park
Camping near a reservoir →Finding water out here →Dumping grey & black →How to read this page →All field notes →