Agency-listedODWCFree
Lake Vanderwork
Drive-up · Oklahoma Dept. of Wildlife · OK · 35.16949, -98.82781
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 →Oklahoma Dept. of Wildlife 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.
Oklahoma Public Fishing Area (ODWC) — 446 acres. Primitive camping is offered free of camping fees at 5 designated sites, but ODWC land access requires an Oklahoma hunting or fishing license OR a Wildlife Conservation Passport (a paid annual permit for non-anglers). 16-day stay limit (21 days in any 30). Confirm current rules with ODWC before you go.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Lake Vanderwork
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,448 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Lake VanderworkNIFC · 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 Vanderwork · Oklahoma Dept. of Wildlife · OK
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel12 mi
- GGrocery12 mi
- HHardware13 mi
- @Mail15 mi
- MMechanic25 mi
- EVEV fast charger26 mi
- RxPharmacy30 mi
- AAir-up36 mi
- +Urgent care37 mi
- ShShower42 mi
- LLaundry46 mi
- DDump57 mi
- WWater58 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 58-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 12 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 Vanderwork
Access
Drive-up
Land
Oklahoma Dept. of Wildlife
Elevation
1,448 ft
Ground slope
under 0.1% · flat
State
OK
Coordinates
35.16949, -98.82781
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Lake Vanderwork · Oklahoma Dept. of Wildlife · OK (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureLake Vanderwork · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Also mapped (OSM)Lake Vanderwork Oak Creek Site 5 Reservoir (water) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townLake Valley · ~2.0 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~12.3 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesStore · ~12.3 mi
- PharmacyDeer Creek Pharmacy · ~29.7 mi
- Hospital / clinicCordell Memorial Hospital · ~12.9 mi
- HardwareSutherlands · ~24.5 mi
EV charging — from Lake Vanderwork · Oklahoma Dept. of Wildlife · OK — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger25.7 mi straight-line N — Walmart 392 (Weatherford, OK) · Electrify America · CHAdeMO, CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 10 within 50 · 90 within 100 · 123 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)27.2 mi — Weatherford, OK - Tesla Supercharger, Weatherford
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)26.1 mi — CK Energy, Binger, OK · FCN · CHAdeMO, J1772, CCS · 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 190419 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Lake Vanderwork · Oklahoma Dept. of Wildlife · OK — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomFort Cobb Wildlife Management Area -Restroom Building · ~18.8 mi E · BoR
- RestroomFort Cobb State Park Recreation Management Area-Block Restroom Building · ~20.0 mi E · BoR
- RestroomFort Cobb State Park Recreation Management Area-Precast Restroom Building · ~20.0 mi E · BoR
- RestroomDeer Run Campground-Precast Restroom Building · ~20.0 mi E · BoR
Coming out here — Lake Vanderwork · Oklahoma Dept. of Wildlife · OK
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Lake Vanderwork 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: under 0.1% — flat. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (3 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 Lake Vanderwork elsewhere
Other camps near Lake Vanderwork
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Fort Cobb WMA primitive camp #2~18.1 mi
- Fort Cobb WMA primitive camp #6~18.3 mi
- Fort Cobb WMA primitive camp #1~18.6 mi
- Fort Cobb WMA primitive camp #5~18.6 mi
Who holds the land at Lake Vanderwork
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Vanderwork Public Fishing Area, manager on record: a state fish and wildlife agency. That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Lake Vanderwork
Stay limit
16 nights (16-day stay limit (21 days in any 30))
Permit
OK license/Conservation Passport required -- this area is NOT fee-free
Source
Oklahoma Dept. of Wildlife (public fishing areas)
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
Location/acreage: ODWC Public_WMA_Boundaries FeatureServer (WMATYPE PFA/PFHA), WGS84 centroid. Camping: ODWC PublicWILMA camping layer, 5 on-site point(s). Access needs OK license/Conservation Passport (not fee-free). Pilot ingest 2026-07-19 13:12:50.
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 Vanderwork
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 — Lake Vanderwork
Camping near a reservoir →Finding water out here →Dumping grey & black →Off-grid communication →All field notes →