Agency-listedMunicipalFree
Roadside Park Campground (St. Francis)
Drive-up · public land · KS · 39.77024, -101.81308
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 →The land manager 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.
St. Francis, up in the northwest corner on US-36, runs a city campground where the NON-ELECTRIC sites are free -- if you want one of the 5 electric pedestals it is $25 a night, so read the sign before you plug in. Three-day stay limit. There is a dump site, and water hydrants around the park (the city notes there are no site water hookups). Quiet hours 11pm-7am, check-out 1pm, two vehicles per site, pets leashed. It sits on the south side of Hwy 36 behind the emergency services building. The deal these towns offer is simple: camp free, and they hope you buy fuel, groceries or dinner in town. Be a good guest and it stays free for the next traveler. Town rules change often and we have not visited -- confirm current rules with the town before you go.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Roadside Park Campground (St. Francis)
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 3,293 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Roadside Park Campground (St. Francis)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 Roadside Park Campground (St. Francis) · public land · KS
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel0 mi
- GGrocery0 mi
- +Urgent care0 mi
- RxPharmacy1 mi
- HHardware1 mi
- @Mail1 mi
- MMechanic1 mi
- LLaundry30 mi
- DDump31 mi
- EVEV fast charger31 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: fuel & food sit about 0 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 31-mi run (and back).
Not within 60 mi: Water, 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 — Roadside Park Campground (St. Francis)
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land
Elevation
3,293 ft
Ground slope
3% · gentle
State
KS
Coordinates
39.77024, -101.81308
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Roadside Park Campground (St. Francis) · public land · KS (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureSouth Fork Republican River · ~0.2 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Also mapped (OSM)Keller Pond (water) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townSaint Francis · ~0.7 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~0.5 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~30.8 mi
- GroceriesSt. Francis Super's · ~0.7 mi
- PharmacyPharmacy · ~0.6 mi
- Hospital / clinicCheyenne County Hospital · ~0.5 mi
- HardwareHeritage Lumber · ~0.6 mi
EV charging — from Roadside Park Campground (St. Francis) · public land · KS — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger31.0 mi straight-line S — Goodland, KS Rechargery Relay - Commerce Rd · IONNA · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 10 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 11 within 50 · 25 within 100 · 57 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO31.0 mi — 24/7 Travel Store #9, Goodland
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)30.4 mi — BONANZA LV2 BONANZA LV2, Wray, CO · 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 394189 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Roadside Park Campground (St. Francis) · public land · KS — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- No mapped restroom within 30 miles — plan to pack it out.
Coming out here — Roadside Park Campground (St. Francis) · public land · KS
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps South Fork Republican 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 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 and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on 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 Roadside Park Campground (St. Francis) elsewhere
Other camps near Roadside Park Campground (St. Francis)
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Rock Creek SRA~22.3 mi · fee
How we know this — Roadside Park Campground (St. Francis)
Stay limit
3 nights (Limited three (3) day stay)
Source
municipal park 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
Camping rules: City of St. Francis official site, https://stfranciskansas.com/directory/roadside-park-campground/ , fetched 2026-07-20, quotes: 'No fee for non-electric sites', 'Campground fee $25 a night for electric hookups', 'Limited three (3) day stay'. Corroborated by freecampsites.net. Coordinates: OSM way 989486638, tourism=caravan_site, 0.71 mi from the St. Francis place node, consistent with the city's 'south side of Highway 36, behind the new Emergency Services facility' description -- but the OSM element carries NO name tag, so the coordinate-to-park identity is inferred from position, not proven. Confidence 'med' for that reason. Verified 2026-07-20.
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 Roadside Park Campground (St. Francis)
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 — Roadside Park Campground (St. Francis)
Finding water out here →Fire rules & restrictions →Reading the aerial →Camping with a dog →All field notes →