Agency-listedIDNR · dispersedFree

West Fork WMA

Drive-up · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA · 43.06753, -94.69864

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Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources 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.

Iowa DNR Wildlife Management Area — about 2,079 acres across 9 separate parcels, Franklin/Palo Alto Counties. 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.

USGS topo — contours & terrain

Aerial — USGS / NAIP

Weather outlook — at West Fork WMA

Loading the latest forecast…

Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,198 ft.

Fire & smoke — around West Fork WMANIFC · 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 West Fork WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA

Straight-line miles · bearings approx · roads run longer

Nearest of each

@Mail3 mi
EVEV fast charger3 mi
FFuel3 mi
GGrocery3 mi
HHardware4 mi
RxPharmacy17 mi
MMechanic18 mi
+Urgent care23 mi
LLaundry24 mi
WWater24 mi
OOutfitter29 mi
ShShower31 mi
DDump38 mi
PPropane57 mi

≤30 mi30–4545+water

The read: water is a real 24-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 3 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 — West Fork WMA

Access

Drive-up

Land

Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · dispersed

Elevation

1,198 ft

State

Coordinates

43.06753, -94.69864

Cost

Free

Nearby & resupply — around West Fork WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA (OpenStreetMap)

Water featureDes Moines River (river) · nearby
Nearest townEmmetsburg · ~3.2 mi
Drinking waternone within 10 mi
FuelConoco · ~3.4 mi
Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
GroceriesFareway · ~23.0 mi
PharmacyHy-Vee Pharmacy · ~23.3 mi
Hospital / clinicPalo Alto County Hospital · ~3.7 mi
HardwareWentzel's True Value · ~3.5 mi

EV charging — from West Fork WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)

Nearest public DC fast charger3.1 mi straight-line N — 2406 Main Street, Emmetsburg, 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 reach2 within 25 mi · 9 within 50 · 56 within 100 · 265 within 150
Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)41.1 mi — Sherburn, MN - Tesla Supercharger, Sherburn
Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)23.4 mi — Call Street Parking Lot, Algona, IA · Blink 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 152298 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center

Nearby restrooms — around West Fork WMA · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)

No mapped restroom within 30 miles — plan to pack it out.

Open West Fork WMA elsewhere

Google satellite →Gaia GPS →CalTopo →Back to the map →

Other camps near West Fork WMA

If this one is full, gated or washed out.

Hawk Valley WMA~18.5 mi

How we know this — West Fork WMA

Stay limit

14 nights (14 consecutive days, unless posted)

Source

Iowa DNR (wildlife management areas)

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

Iowa DNR public ArcGIS, Boundaries/Public_Lands/MapServer/0 (programs.iowadnr.gov), TYPE=State Wildlife Management Area, MANAGER='DNR - Wildlife', all 9 parcel(s) OWNER='DNR'; outSR=4326, fetched 2026-07-20. Coordinate = centroid (verified inside boundary) of the largest parcel, so it is inside the official boundary. Independently cross-checked against OpenStreetMap/Overpass: matched 'West Fork Wildlife Area' at 0.7 mi. Camping basis: Iowa Admin. Code r. 571-51.11(481A) (IAC 5/14/25, ARC 9226C, eff. 6/18/25) — primitive camping allowed on all game management areas, 14 consecutive days, unless posted; r. 571-51.2 puts all DNR land in that class. No per-area camping flag exists in the GIS, so this is a category-wide rule applied to a verified DNR-owned unit → confidence='med'. Corps/USFWS-owned units excluded on purpose. Batch 1 (top 50 by acreage) of 396 qualifying areas.

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 West Fork 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

Before you go — West Fork WMA

Finding water out here →Dumping grey & black →Stay limits →Camping with a dog →All field notes →

Been here? Tell us what changed. This page is built from public records, so the fastest way it gets better is somebody who has actually pulled in. Road washed out, site gone, gate locked, or it is exactly as described — all of it useful. Send a report →