Found · unverifiedIDNR · dispersedFree

Lost Grove Lake WMA

Drive-up · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA · 41.67771, -90.46266

We haven't personally camped here. Everything below is pulled from public land data, USGS maps and OpenStreetMap — a real place on Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources land, but not field-checked by us. Confirm road conditions, current access, stay limits and fire restrictions before you go.

Iowa DNR Wildlife Management Area — about 1,699 acres, Scott 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.

USGS topo — contours & terrain

USGS topographic map of Lost Grove Lake WMA

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Weather outlook

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 696 ft.

Fire & smokeNIFC · 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 camp

Straight-line miles · bearings approx · roads run longer

Nearest of each

FFuel8 mi
GGrocery8 mi
DDump8 mi
ShShower8 mi
@Mail9 mi
MMechanic9 mi
WWater13 mi
RxPharmacy13 mi
AAir-up13 mi
+Urgent care13 mi
HHardware14 mi
LLaundry21 mi
PPropane23 mi
OOutfitter51 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 8 mi out.

One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Open in Google Maps ↗

The site

Access

Drive-up

Land

Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · dispersed

Elevation

696 ft

State

Coordinates

41.67771, -90.46266

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply (OpenStreetMap)

Water featureLost Creek (stream) · nearby
Nearest townArgo · ~3.9 mi
Drinking waterDrinking water · ~6.9 mi
FuelFuel · ~4.6 mi
Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
Dump stationDump station · ~4.1 mi
GroceriesStore · ~4.6 mi
PharmacyHy-Vee Pharmacy · ~7.4 mi
Hospital / clinicUnity Point · ~7.1 mi
HardwareAce Hardware · ~6.0 mi

Nearby restrooms — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 38 · ~5.6 mi S
Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 39 · ~5.8 mi S
Highway rest areaWS I-74/280 EB Moline · ~15.5 mi S
Highway rest areaWS I-74/280 WB Moline · ~15.5 mi S

Open this spot elsewhere

Google satellite →Gaia GPS →CalTopo →Back to the map →

Other camps nearby

If this one is full, gated or washed out.

Goose Lake (Clinton) WMA~20.0 mi

How we know this

Source

Iowa DNR (wildlife management 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

Iowa DNR public ArcGIS, Boundaries/Public_Lands/MapServer/0 (programs.iowadnr.gov), TYPE=State Wildlife Management Area, MANAGER='DNR - Wildlife', all 1 parcel(s) OWNER='DNR'; outSR=4326, fetched 2026-07-20. Coordinate = centroid (verified inside boundary) of the largest parcel, so it is inside the official boundary. Independently cross-checked against OpenStreetMap/Overpass: matched 'Lost Grove Lake Wildlife Management Area' at 0.2 mi. Camping basis: Iowa Admin. Code r. 571-51.11(481A) (IAC 5/14/25, ARC 9226C, eff. 6/18/25) — primitive camping allowed on all game management areas, 14 consecutive days, unless posted; r. 571-51.2 puts all DNR land in that class. No per-area camping flag exists in the GIS, so this is a category-wide rule applied to a verified DNR-owned unit → confidence='med'. Corps/USFWS-owned units excluded on purpose. Batch 1 (top 50 by acreage) of 396 qualifying areas.

Field check

Not verified on the ground. Nobody from here has camped it. It stays at Likely until someone does.

What we don’t know

A land record can put you within a few metres 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

Before you go

Your first dispersed night →Fire rules & restrictions →Getting unstuck →Power off-grid →All field notes →

Been here? Tell us what changed. This page is built from public records, so the fastest way it gets better is somebody who has actually pulled in. Road washed out, site gone, gate locked, or it is exactly as described — all of it useful. Send a report →