★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic landFree
Perry County
Drive-up · public land · Perry County, IN · 38.11994, -86.46557
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 →Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on public land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
A free campground on the hill above the Ohio River. Wooded area. Paved spurs with fire rings and picnic tables. Good cell service. Enough room for one vehicle. Porta-potty. Clean, and not too far south of I-70 if driving cross-country. Well-maintained. Small campground I had mostly to myself. Recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 4 June 2018. No agency publishes a season for this site, so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Perry County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 621 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Perry CountyNIFC · 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 Perry County · Hoosier National Forest · IN
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel7 mi
- GGrocery7 mi
- MMechanic12 mi
- @Mail12 mi
- RxPharmacy19 mi
- EVEV fast charger19 mi
- HHardware20 mi
- LLaundry20 mi
- WWater22 mi
- DDump22 mi
- ShShower22 mi
- +Urgent care24 mi
- OOutfitter29 mi
- AAir-up29 mi
- PPropane49 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 22-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 7 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 — Perry County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land
Elevation
621 ft
Ground slope
5.3% · gentle
Nearest highway
~8.0 mi · Interstate 64
County
Perry County, IN
Coordinates
38.11994, -86.46557
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Perry County · Hoosier National Forest · IN (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureOhio River · ~0.2 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Nearest townMagnet · ~1.6 mi
- Nearest rail linenone mapped within 10 mi
- Nearest highway~8.0 mi · Interstate 64
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~7.1 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~22.1 mi
- GroceriesThe Derby Market · ~7.1 mi
- PharmacyCVS Pharmacy · ~20.3 mi
- Hospital / clinicPerry County Memorial Hospital · ~17.9 mi
- HardwareHardware · ~19.6 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
Had a signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from Perry County · Hoosier National Forest · IN — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger19.1 mi straight-line NE — John Jones Chev Buick of Corydon · EV Connect · CCS · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach2 within 25 mi · 31 within 50 · 98 within 100 · 350 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)39.8 mi — Meijer - Tesla Supercharger, New Albany
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO19.4 mi — Corydon, Corydon
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)19.7 mi — Holiday Inn Express Cordyon, Corydon, IN · VIALYNK · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveNACS-only Level 2 — Quality Inn & Suites Brandenburg - Tesla Destination, Brandenburg, 18.4 mi · NACS (Tesla) · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · AFDC lists it “Free”
- 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 313070 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Perry County · Hoosier National Forest · IN — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletBuzzard Roost Campground · ~0.4 mi W · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletMano Point Boat Ramp · ~6.0 mi SW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletRainbow Lake · ~7.1 mi SW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletTipsaw Recreation Area · ~7.9 mi W · USFS
Coming out here — Perry County · Hoosier National Forest · IN
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Ohio River as a perennial river, ~0.2 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 5.3% — gentle. 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.
- No rail line is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) — abandoned, lifted and out-of-service track excluded, so a rail-trail does not count as one.
- Interstate 64 is mapped ~8.0 mi from the pin. Straight-line, from the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025) — the divided, limited-access highways, which is why a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not appear here.
- 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 Perry County elsewhere
Other camps near Perry County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Buzzard Roost Campground~0.4 mi
- Oriole Roadside Dispersed Campsite 5 (Hoosier NF)~2.8 mi
- Oriole Roadside Dispersed Campsite 4 (Hoosier NF)~3.6 mi
- Oriole Roadside Dispersed Campsite 3 (Hoosier NF)~4.3 mi
The unit that manages Perry County
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Perry County are set by Hoosier National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Perry County
Source
Dave's own travels
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Perry County, IN). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
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
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 4 June 2018. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Perry County
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.
- How many rigs actually fit
- 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 — Perry County
Finding water out here →Reading a forest MVUM →Fire rules & restrictions →Dispersed camping tips →All field notes →