Agency-listedCity of WaverlyFree
Waverly Lake
Drive-up · City of Waverly · IL · 39.57557, -89.98599
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 →City of Waverly 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.
FREE primitive camping at Waverly Lake, the little city reservoir just WEST of Waverly, in Morgan County, west-central Illinois. The City of Waverly's own page says the lake 'is available for fishing and camping,' the camping is first-come, first-served and primitive -- no services, no electricity, no potable water, so come self-contained -- and you may stay up to four days and nights. There are pit toilets, trash bins, picnic tables, fire pits and a boat launch; it's a quiet spot (you'll hear the occasional train). ONE THING TO KNOW: the camping is free, but if you want to put a boat, canoe, kayak or paddleboard ON the water you need the city's lake-use permit ($25/year, from Waverly City Hall or the Water Plant) -- that's a boating permit, not a camping or entry fee, and you can camp and fish from shore without it being a paid pass to be there. This is the honest camp-free, shop-and-eat- in-town spirit -- Waverly hopes you'll spend a little in town. Please confirm the current rules (nights allowed, whether shore fishing needs the permit) with Waverly City Hall (217-435-4611) before you go, pack out everything, and leave it better than you found it.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Waverly Lake
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 627 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Waverly LakeNIFC · 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 Waverly Lake · City of Waverly · IL
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- @Mail2 mi
- FFuel10 mi
- MMechanic10 mi
- GGrocery12 mi
- AAir-up15 mi
- RxPharmacy16 mi
- HHardware17 mi
- +Urgent care17 mi
- EVEV fast charger18 mi
- ShShower19 mi
- PPropane19 mi
- LLaundry19 mi
- WWater19 mi
- OOutfitter20 mi
- DDump24 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 10 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 — Waverly Lake
Access
Drive-up
Land
City of Waverly
Elevation
627 ft
Ground slope
12.7% · noticeable
Nearest rail line
~1.3 mi · main line
State
IL
Coordinates
39.57557, -89.98599
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Waverly Lake · City of Waverly · IL (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureWaverly Lake · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townWaverly · ~2.1 mi
- Nearest rail line~1.3 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelShell · ~10.1 mi
- Propane / LPGAirgas · ~23.0 mi
- Dump station~23.7 mi
- GroceriesCasey's General Store · ~12.1 mi
- PharmacyWalgreens · ~16.8 mi
- Hospital / clinicFamily Medical Center of Chatham · ~16.9 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware · ~16.9 mi
EV charging — from Waverly Lake · City of Waverly · IL — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger17.8 mi straight-line E — Divernon, IL Rechargery Relay @ Circle K - W State Route 104 · IONNA · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach16 within 25 mi · 29 within 50 · 227 within 100 · 350 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO21.7 mi — GREEN AUTO FRONT CHARGE 1, Springfield
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)17.3 mi — CNB JAX EV CNB - JAX, Jacksonville, IL · 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 461078 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Waverly Lake · City of Waverly · IL — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomS-34 Visitor Center · ~23.7 mi NE · NPS
- RestroomHS-01C Lincoln Home Privy - Historic, Non-Functional · ~23.8 mi NE · NPS
- Highway rest areaCoalfield SB · ~23.9 mi SE
- Highway rest areaCoalfield NB · ~24.3 mi SE
Coming out here — Waverly Lake · City of Waverly · IL
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Waverly Lake as a perennial lake or pond, under 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 12.7% — noticeable. 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 ~1.3 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 Waverly Lake elsewhere
How we know this — Waverly Lake
Stay limit
4 nights (No person or persons shall camp overnight on Waverly Lake or marginal land surrounding Waverly Lake for a continuous period of more than four day and nights.)
Source
municipal park records
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
Source: the City of Waverly's OWN official site, waverlyil.com/parks-and-recreation (read 2026-07-27), verbatim: 'Waverly Lake, located west of Waverly, is available for fishing and camping. A permit is required for use on the lake (i.e. boat, canoe, kayak, paddle board, etc.) for a yearly fee of $25.00 ... Camping is first come, first served and is primative with no services available. No person or persons shall camp overnight on Waverly Lake or marginal land surrounding Waverly Lake for a continuous period of more than four day and nights.' FEE ANALYSIS (mission guardrail 2): the $25/yr permit is explicitly for USE ON the lake (boat/canoe/kayak/paddleboard) = a WATER-CRAFT/activity permit, NOT an entry/access pass to be on the land and NOT a camping fee (same shape as the WI State Trail Pass biking carve-out). Camping itself is stated free, first-come, primitive => FREE, banked, HIGH (city's own official page states the rules with no camping fee). Coordinate 39.575572,-89.985994 = the EAST shoreline node of reservoir polygon OSM way/1343515279 'Waverly Lake' natural=water (api.openstreetmap.org, read 2026-07-27; 47-node polygon, bbox 39.5740..39.5788 / -89.9912..-89.9860). Deliberately NOT the Nominatim reservoir CENTROID 39.5764238,-89.9888109 (that pins in open water -- the CO Lesson-3 trap); town sits E of the lake so the east shore is the accessible, town-facing marginal land where camping happens. Nominatim reverse -> Waverly Lake, Morgan County, IL. fee=0, dispersed=0, camp_type NULL, water='no' (no potable water/electricity), status pending. City Hall 217-435-4611. Ingest 2026-07-27.
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 Waverly Lake
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 — Waverly Lake
Camping near a reservoir →Finding water out here →Fire rules & restrictions →Gear & rig loadout →All field notes →