Agency-listedIDNRFeeOpen today
Mason Ridge Campground (Morgan-Monroe State Forest)
Dispersed · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IN · 39.32786, -86.42487
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 →Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources 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.
Morgan-Monroe State Forest office, Martinsville IN area; nearest town not verified this fire.
Can I go now? — Mason Ridge Campground (Morgan-Monroe State Forest) · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IN
Open today Year-round per the agency record.
Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources record: “Year-round” 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 Mason Ridge Campground (Morgan-Monroe State Forest)
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 927 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Mason Ridge Campground (Morgan-Monroe State Forest)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 Mason Ridge Campground (Morgan-Monroe State Forest) · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IN
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel6 mi
- GGrocery6 mi
- RxPharmacy6 mi
- +Urgent care6 mi
- @Mail7 mi
- WWater9 mi
- LLaundry12 mi
- HHardware12 mi
- MMechanic12 mi
- EVEV fast charger12 mi
- OOutfitter13 mi
- ShShower16 mi
- DDump16 mi
- AAir-up34 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 6 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 — Mason Ridge Campground (Morgan-Monroe State Forest)
Access
Dispersed
Land
Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources
Elevation
927 ft
Ground slope
19% · steep
Nearest rail line
~5.6 mi · main line
State
IN
Coordinates
39.32786, -86.42487
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Mason Ridge Campground (Morgan-Monroe State Forest) · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IN (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureCherry Lake · ~0.3 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townMartinsville · ~6.0 mi
- Nearest rail line~5.6 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waterWater · ~8.7 mi
- FuelMarathon · ~5.5 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~15.8 mi
- GroceriesMarathon · ~5.5 mi
- PharmacyWalgreens · ~5.6 mi
- Hospital / clinicMartinsville Family & Internal Medicine · ~5.6 mi
- HardwareEllettsville True Value · ~11.9 mi
EV charging — from Mason Ridge Campground (Morgan-Monroe State Forest) · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IN — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger12.2 mi straight-line S — Bloomington, IN - East 3rd Street - Tesla Supercharger (at a shopping center) · 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 reach11 within 25 mi · 74 within 50 · 165 within 100 · 343 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS12.4 mi — Curry Auto Center, Bloomington
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO14.4 mi — ANDY MOHR HYUND SERVICE, Bloomington
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)6.7 mi — MORGAN COUNTY STATION 2, Martinsville, IN · 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 422578 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Mason Ridge Campground (Morgan-Monroe State Forest) · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IN — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletH.R. Cabins · ~21.1 mi S · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletH.R. Twin Oaks · ~21.3 mi S · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletH.R. Pine Loop · ~21.3 mi S · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletH.R. White Oak Loop · ~21.3 mi S · USFS
Coming out here — Mason Ridge Campground (Morgan-Monroe State Forest) · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IN
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Cherry Lake as a perennial lake or pond, ~0.3 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 19% — steep. 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 ~5.6 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 Mason Ridge Campground (Morgan-Monroe State Forest) elsewhere
Other camps near Mason Ridge Campground (Morgan-Monroe State Forest)
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- H.R. Pine Loop~21.3 mi · fee
- Hickory Ridge Roadside Dispersed Campsite 1 (Hoosier NF)~21.3 mi
- H.R. White Oak Loop~21.3 mi · fee
- H.R. Bluegill Loop~21.4 mi · fee
Who holds the land at Mason Ridge Campground (Morgan-Monroe State Forest)
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Morgan - Monroe State Forest, manager on record: Indiana DNR, Forestry Division (state). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Mason Ridge Campground (Morgan-Monroe State Forest)
Open season
Year-round
Source
public land records
Confidence
Agency-confirmed — The managing agency's own record names this as a campsite and puts it at these coordinates. About as good as it gets short of standing here.
How it was placed
NOT FREE. 19 primitive (Class C) sites, picnic table and grill on each, vault toilets, seasonal drinking water. IDNR: "Primitive camping is available for a fee; campers must register for camping at the forest office." Comparable Indiana state forest rate is $18/site/night for a family primitive site. Open year-round (the other two Morgan-Monroe campgrounds close Jan 1 - Mar 31). Located behind the fire tower north of the forest office. Source: https://www.in.gov/dnr/forestry/properties/morgan-monroe-state-forest/ (read 2026-08-14). Coordinate is Indiana DNR's own, unrounded, from the DNR hosted "Camping Sites" layer https://gisdata.in.gov/server/rest/services/Hosted/Camping_Sites_RO/FeatureServer/0 (read 2026-08-14). | auto:agency-trust 2026-08-18: state agency GIS record with a source URL and coordinates, confidence not low. Fee value is the agency's own, not field-checked. Not field-verified -- confirm access, road conditions and fire rules before you go.
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 Mason Ridge Campground (Morgan-Monroe State Forest)
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 — Mason Ridge Campground (Morgan-Monroe State Forest)
Fire rules & restrictions →Reading the aerial →Camping with a dog →Reading your camp page →All field notes →