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Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 10")
Drive-up · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI · 44.21233, -90.31231
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 →Wisconsin 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.
SEASONAL, FREE, PRIMITIVE. This is FREE camping, but ONLY during the property's open camping windows -- the Wisconsin DNR's own page says Meadow Valley Wildlife Area camping is "Only open Sept. 1 through Dec. 31 and during the spring turkey seasons"; it is closed to camping the rest of the year. Within those windows the DNR page states: "Primitive camping is permitted at designated sites, free of charge during the open seasons. Campers are required to self-register." There is no fee and no camping permit fee, and Wisconsin does NOT require a vehicle admission sticker on a wildlife area (that sticker is only for state parks, forests and recreation areas). Under Wis. Admin. Code NR 45.10 you may camp on a wildlife area ONLY in a designated area, so pitch only at a marked/self-register designated site. Primitive conditions: no electric, no hookups, bring your own water, and pack out all garbage; some of the property's sites have a pit toilet. There are 9 designated primitive camping areas spread across this ~50,000-acre property (Juneau/Wood counties, in the central Wisconsin sand country near Necedah). CAVEAT ON THIS PIN: the coordinate is an OpenStreetMap-mapped camp site that was confirmed to lie on DNR-managed Meadow Valley land, but the site number shown in the name comes from OpenStreetMap and may NOT match the DNR's on-site sign or property map (OSM even labels two different areas "MVWA 6") -- when you arrive, self-register and follow the posted numbering and the DNR property map. HEADS UP: this is working wildlife land and the open season overlaps fall hunting and spring turkey seasons -- wear blaze orange or plan around it. Rules can change or a site can be closed by posting -- confirm the current camping rules, the designated-site locations and any stay limit with the DNR before you go.
Can I go now? — Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 10") · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI
Open today Season Sep 1 – Dec 31. Closes after Dec 31. The record adds conditions — read it.
Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources record: “Only open Sept. 1 through Dec. 31 and during the spring turkey seasons” 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 Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 10")
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,010 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 10")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 Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 10") · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel11 mi
- @Mail11 mi
- ShShower11 mi
- GGrocery12 mi
- WWater13 mi
- EVEV fast charger16 mi
- +Urgent care17 mi
- HHardware17 mi
- DDump19 mi
- OOutfitter23 mi
- MMechanic26 mi
- RxPharmacy27 mi
- LLaundry27 mi
- AAir-up43 mi
- PPropane52 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 11 mi out.
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 — Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 10")
Access
Drive-up
Land
Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources
Elevation
1,010 ft
Ground slope
1.9% · flat
Nearest rail line
~8.7 mi · main line
State
WI
Coordinates
44.21233, -90.31231
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 10") · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureWest Branch Beaver Creek · ~0.8 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Also mapped (OSM)Portion of Meadow Valley Flowage 14 (water) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townMeadow Valley · ~4.5 mi
- Nearest rail line~8.7 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelWarrens Mall · ~10.9 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~18.8 mi
- GroceriesWalmart Supercenter · ~16.4 mi
- PharmacyDaly Drug · ~26.7 mi
- Hospital / clinicTomah VA Medical Center · ~17.0 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware · ~26.9 mi
EV charging — from Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 10") · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger16.5 mi straight-line SW — Tomah, WI - Tesla Supercharger (at a restaurant) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 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 reach2 within 25 mi · 27 within 50 · 110 within 100 · 308 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS16.5 mi — Walmart 965 (Tomah, WI), Tomah
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO16.5 mi — Walmart 965 (Tomah, WI), Tomah
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)23.9 mi — Ho-Chunk Hotel & Gaming, Black River Falls, WI (at a hotel) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2025-05-12 · 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 201312 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 10") · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomFederal restroom · ~4.5 mi E · FWS
- RestroomFederal restroom · ~4.8 mi SE · FWS
- RestroomFederal restroom · ~12.9 mi SE · FWS
- Highway rest areaRest Area #53 · ~19.6 mi W
Coming out here — Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 10") · Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources · WI
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps West Branch Beaver Creek as a perennial lake or pond, ~0.8 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 1.9% — 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 ~8.7 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 Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 10") elsewhere
Other camps near Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 10")
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 9")~1.9 mi
- Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 6")~4.0 mi
- Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 6")~4.5 mi
- Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 4")~4.8 mi
Who holds the land at Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 10")
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Necedah Wildlife Management Area, manager on record: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (federal). Our own record names WDNR as the manager. The two sources disagree, and we have not checked which is right. That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 10")
Open season
Only open Sept. 1 through Dec. 31 and during the spring turkey seasons
Area rules
Primitive camping is permitted at designated sites, free of charge during the open seasons. Campers are required to self-register.
Source
public land records
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
Wisconsin DNR Meadow Valley Wildlife Area page, https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/lands/wildlifeareas/meadowvalley.html (Recreation section, read 2026-07-22), which states VERBATIM "Primitive camping is permitted at designated sites, free of charge during the open seasons. Campers are required to self-register.", "There are 9 dispersed/primitive camping areas throughout the property", and "Only open Sept. 1 through Dec. 31 and during the spring turkey seasons". Legal basis: Wis. Admin. Code NR 45.10(1)(a) (camping allowed only in designated areas) with fees only "where required" per NR 45.10(1)(b) -- and here the DNR page affirmatively says free. No access gate: WI's vehicle admission sticker (s. 27.01 Stats.) applies only to state parks/forests/recreation areas, not wildlife areas (dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/parks/admission), and no licence is needed for general recreation on a wildlife area. COORDINATE: OpenStreetMap node 12169339976 (tourism=camp_site, backcountry=yes, name="MVWA 10"), CONFIRMED on DNR-managed 'MEADOW VALLEY WILDLIFE AREA' by an authoritative point-in-polygon against the DNR managed-lands cadastre (dnrmaps.wi.gov/arcgis/rest/services/LF_DML/LF_DNR_Managed_Lands_Dissolved_WTM_Ext/MapServer/0/query, spatialRel=Intersects, 2026-07-22). NOTE the OSM site NUMBER is unreliable (two nodes are both labelled 'MVWA 6'; one is truncated to 'Meadow Valley W'), so it is carried for reference only, not asserted as the DNR's number -> confidence='med' on per-site identity (free-status is high). OSM node 12169339978 ('MVWA 3') was EXCLUDED this fire because the DNR intersects query returns no DNR land at its coordinate. Juneau and Wood counties (Pin = the OSM node lat/lon). | 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 Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 10")
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 — Meadow Valley Wildlife Area – Designated Primitive Camp Site (OSM "MVWA 10")
Finding water out here →Cold-weather camping →Fire rules & restrictions →Camping with a dog →All field notes →