Agency-listedUSACEFee
Nebraska Tailwaters Campground (Gavins Point)
Drive-up · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · NE · 42.84889, -97.47028
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 →U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 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.
US Army Corps of Engineers campground on the NEBRASKA bank of the Missouri River just below Gavins Point Dam. The Omaha District describes it as "nestled along the Nebraska bank of the Missouri River... 31 electrical sites featuring 20/30/50 amp electrical service and 13 non-electric sites. All sites have picnic tables and fire rings with grills. The campground has a modern comfort station with showers and there is a boat ramp and wheel chair accessible fishing dock." A fee is charged; the Corps has changed fees and reservation rules here more than once, so check recreation.gov for the current rate and season before you go.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Nebraska Tailwaters Campground (Gavins Point)
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,193 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Nebraska Tailwaters Campground (Gavins Point)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 Nebraska Tailwaters Campground (Gavins Point) · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · NE
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- DDump0 mi
- FFuel2 mi
- GGrocery4 mi
- RxPharmacy4 mi
- MMechanic4 mi
- HHardware5 mi
- AAir-up5 mi
- @Mail5 mi
- WWater6 mi
- +Urgent care8 mi
- EVEV fast charger27 mi
- LLaundry28 mi
- ShShower31 mi
- PPropane58 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 2 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 — Nebraska Tailwaters Campground (Gavins Point)
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Elevation
1,193 ft
Ground slope
30.5% · steep
Nearest rail line
~4.2 mi · main line
State
NE
Coordinates
42.84889, -97.47028
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Nebraska Tailwaters Campground (Gavins Point) · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · NE (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureMissouri River · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Drinking waterWater · ~5.7 mi
- FuelFuel · ~2.0 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~0.5 mi
- GroceriesChuck Stop · ~3.7 mi
- PharmacyYankton Rexall Drug · ~4.2 mi
- Hospital / clinicAvera Crofton Clinic · ~8.1 mi
- HardwareHarbor Freight Tools · ~4.6 mi
- Nearest rail line~4.2 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
EV charging — from Nebraska Tailwaters Campground (Gavins Point) · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · NE — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger27.2 mi straight-line E — COV CITY HALL PRINCETON ST, Vermillion, SD · 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 reachnone within 25 mi · 1 within 50 · 33 within 100 · 108 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)56.9 mi — Norfolk, NE - Tesla Supercharger, Norfolk
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)27.7 mi — COV CITY HALL CITY HALL, Vermillion, SD · 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 237698 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Nebraska Tailwaters Campground (Gavins Point) · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · NE — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomFederal restroom · ~1.8 mi N · FWS
- RestroomMulberry Bend Overlook Vault Toilet · ~27.9 mi E · NPS
Coming out here — Nebraska Tailwaters Campground (Gavins Point) · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · NE
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Missouri River as a perennial river, ~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 30.5% — 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 ~4.2 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 Nebraska Tailwaters Campground (Gavins Point) elsewhere
Other camps near Nebraska Tailwaters Campground (Gavins Point)
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Lewis and Clark Lake SRA~5.5 mi · fee
- Chalkrock WMA~5.9 mi
- Wiseman WMA~20.1 mi
Who holds the land at Nebraska Tailwaters Campground (Gavins Point)
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Lewis And Clark Recreation Area, manager on record: Army Corps of Engineers (federal). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Nebraska Tailwaters Campground (Gavins Point)
Source
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
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
Source: US Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, Gavins Point Recreation Areas, https://www.nwo.usace.army.mil/Missions/Dam-and-Lake-Projects/Missouri-River-Dams/Gavins-Point/Recreation-Areas/, read 2026-08-17. Coordinate from RIDB (https://ridb.recreation.gov/api/v1/facilities), facility 'NEBRASKA TAILWATERS'. NOTE: RIDB files this facility under a South Dakota mailing address (the Gavins Point project office in Yankton, SD), which is why a state=NE pull of RIDB does not return it -- the campground itself is on the Nebraska bank per both the Corps page and the RIDB description. Exact fee and open season are NOT quoted here because the Corps page does not state them; verify before publishing. | 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. | nightshift-verified 2026-08-18: Corps Gavins Point recreation-areas page re-read today (HTTP/1.1 required). It now carries a site-level description the earlier note lacked: "Nebraska Tailwaters, nestled along the Nebraska bank of the Missouri River, is a popular camping destination. A favorite of anglers, Nebraska Tailwaters has 31 electrical sites featuring 20/30/50 amp electrical service and 13 non-electric sites. The campground has a modern comfort station with showers and there is a boat ramp and wheel chair accessible fishing dock." That independently confirms the Nebraska-bank location which the RIDB South-Dakota mailing address obscures. STILL UNRESOLVED: the Corps page does not state a nightly fee or an open season for this campground, so neither may be published as fact.
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 Nebraska Tailwaters Campground (Gavins Point)
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 — Nebraska Tailwaters Campground (Gavins Point)
Fire rules & restrictions →Reading your camp page →Dispersed camping tips →Picking a spot →All field notes →