Three Mile Lake WMA
Iowa DNR Wildlife Management Area — about 2,675 acres, Union County. Primitive camping is allowed statewide on Iowa DNR wildlife areas by rule — no permit, no camping fee — for up to 14 consecutive days, UNLESS that area posts restrictions on site (Iowa Admin. Code r. 571-51.11). The DNR can close any individual area to camping just by putting up a sign, and there is no statewide list of which ones have, so read the signs at the entrance and treat a posted restriction as final. Iowa DNR's own camping article also says to stay 100+ yards from parking lots, boat ramps and jetties; that sentence was dropped from the rule in the June 2025 rewrite, but it is still good practice and may be posted locally. These are working wildlife areas, not campgrounds: expect a gravel parking area and nothing else — no water, no toilet, no table, no fire ring. Pack water in and everything out. Fall is a hard time to use these: Iowa's shotgun deer seasons and waterfowl season put a lot of hunters on WMAs, and blaze orange plus a different destination is the smarter call. The pin is a representative point inside the official DNR boundary, NOT a campsite or a parking lot — scout the actual access off the DNR atlas before you commit to it after dark.
Everything you need — measured from Three Mile Lake WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA
- OOutfitter4 mi
- FFuel5 mi
- GGrocery5 mi
- @Mail5 mi
- MMechanic5 mi
- HHardware7 mi
- LLaundry7 mi
- RxPharmacy8 mi
- +Urgent care8 mi
- AAir-up28 mi
- EVEV fast charger30 mi
- WWater34 mi
- ShShower35 mi
- DDump36 mi
The read: water is a real 34-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 5 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 — Three Mile Lake WMA
Nearby & resupply — around Three Mile Lake WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureThreemile Creek · ~0.1 mi · USGS: intermittent lake or pond
- Nearest townAfton · ~4.8 mi
- Nearest rail line~4.0 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelCasey's General Store · ~19.8 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesFareway · ~7.0 mi
- PharmacyHy-Vee Pharmacy · ~7.8 mi
- Hospital / clinicGreater Regional: Urgent Care · ~7.9 mi
- HardwareRamsey's Ace Hardware · ~22.3 mi
EV charging — from Three Mile Lake WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger29.6 mi straight-line NE — 101 E IA-92, Bevington, IA · CHARGELAB · CHAdeMO, CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 25 within 50 · 96 within 100 · 207 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)37.0 mi — Lamoni, IA - Tesla Supercharger, Lamoni
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)20.7 mi — HY VEE WINTERSET · 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 205882 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Three Mile Lake WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 13 · ~23.4 mi E
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop or Truck Facility 9 · ~23.6 mi E
Coming out here — Three Mile Lake WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Threemile Creek as an intermittent lake or pond, ~0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as intermittent — expect it dry for part of the year. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Rail line mapped ~4.0 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. The atlas also records Amtrak service on it. 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.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- 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 Three Mile Lake WMA elsewhere
Other camps near Three Mile Lake WMA
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Heritage Hills WMA~13.9 mi
- Sand Creek WMA~19.9 mi
Who holds the land at Three Mile Lake WMA
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Three Mile Lake Wildlife Management Area, manager on record: a state department of natural resources. That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Three Mile Lake WMA
What we don’t know about Three Mile Lake WMA
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