Agency-listedIDNR · dispersedFree
Yellow River State Forest - Ridgetop Canoe Campsite
Dispersed · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA · 43.11271, -91.23033
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 →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.
Nearest town per agency page/address: Harpers Ferry.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Yellow River State Forest - Ridgetop Canoe Campsite
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 636 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Yellow River State Forest - Ridgetop Canoe CampsiteNIFC · 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 Yellow River State Forest - Ridgetop Canoe Campsite · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- @Mail5 mi
- FFuel5 mi
- GGrocery5 mi
- OOutfitter5 mi
- WWater6 mi
- RxPharmacy6 mi
- HHardware6 mi
- EVEV fast charger6 mi
- +Urgent care6 mi
- MMechanic17 mi
- ShShower24 mi
- LLaundry24 mi
- DDump28 mi
- AAir-up47 mi
- PPropane50 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 5 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 — Yellow River State Forest - Ridgetop Canoe Campsite
Access
Dispersed
Land
Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · dispersed
Elevation
636 ft
Ground slope
33.5% · steep
Nearest rail line
~2.5 mi · main line
State
IA
Coordinates
43.11271, -91.23033
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Yellow River State Forest - Ridgetop Canoe Campsite · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureYellow River · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Nearest townIon · ~1.6 mi
- Nearest rail line~2.5 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~5.5 mi
- FuelCasey's General Store · ~5.4 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~27.7 mi · also fills water
- GroceriesKwik Star · ~6.7 mi
- PharmacyWalgreens · ~6.1 mi
- Hospital / clinicMayo Clinic · ~6.5 mi
- HardwareWelsh's Village Farm & Home · ~17.2 mi
EV charging — from Yellow River State Forest - Ridgetop Canoe Campsite · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger6.4 mi straight-line SE — Prairie du Chien, WI - Tesla Supercharger (at a gas station) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. NACS partner enabled. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach2 within 25 mi · 11 within 50 · 110 within 100 · 313 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS23.7 mi — Brown's Sales and Leasing, Guttenberg
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO47.9 mi — DAHL HYUNDAI STATION2, La Crosse
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)5.4 mi — Marquette City Park · 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 302958 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Yellow River State Forest - Ridgetop Canoe Campsite · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomFederal restroom · ~2.8 mi SE · NPS
- RestroomFederal restroom · ~6.3 mi SE · FWS
- RestroomFederal restroom · ~28.4 mi N · FWS
Coming out here — Yellow River State Forest - Ridgetop Canoe Campsite · Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources · IA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Yellow River as a perennial river, 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 33.5% — steep. 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 ~2.5 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.
- 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 Yellow River State Forest - Ridgetop Canoe Campsite elsewhere
Other camps near Yellow River State Forest - Ridgetop Canoe Campsite
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Yellow River State Forest - Prairie Canoe Campsite~0.9 mi
- Yellow River State Forest - Brown's Hollow Camp~2.9 mi
- Yellow River State Forest - Camp John Schultz~3.3 mi
- Yellow River State Forest - Camp Glen Wendel~4.0 mi
Who holds the land at Yellow River State Forest - Ridgetop Canoe Campsite
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Yellow River State Forest, 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 — Yellow River State Forest - Ridgetop Canoe Campsite
Stay limit
14 nights (up to 14 consecutive nights)
Source
public land records
Confidence
Agency-confirmed — The managing agency's own record names this as a campsite and puts it at these coordinates. About as good as it gets short of standing here.
How it was placed
Primitive canoe/kayak-in campsite on the Yellow River Water Trail, in the Yellow River Unit. IDNR: "Kayakers can spend the night at the primitive Ridgetop campsite, only accessible by canoe or kayak. The site is available on a first-come, first-served basis, does not have restroom facilities, and requires 'carry in, carry out' of all trash." ACCESS: water access only - not reachable by road. Source: https://www.iowadnr.gov/places-go/state-forests/yellow-river-state-forest (read 2026-08-16). Treated as free under the project rule (state forest, undeveloped, no charge published); the DNR page states it is first-come first-served but does not print a price. Forest-wide: chainsaws prohibited, hand saws only for down-and-dead firewood, felling trees prohibited. Stay limit: "Campers may camp up to 14 consecutive nights in a state park, recreation area, or forest. Campers must then vacate the park (including removing the camping unit) for a minimum of 3 nights before camping in that park again." Source: https://www.iowadnr.gov/places-go/state-parks/make-reservation/overnight-camping (read 2026-08-16). Coordinates are Iowa DNR published points from the DNR Recreation Amenities GIS layer https://programs.iowadnr.gov/geospatial/rest/services/Recreation/Recreation/MapServer/8 (Type = Campground - Primitive / Campground - Remote), spatially joined to the DNR Public Areas layer https://programs.iowadnr.gov/geospatial/rest/services/Recreation/Recreation/MapServer/11 for the land manager. Both read 2026-08-16. | auto:agency-trust 2026-08-18: state agency GIS record with a source URL and coordinates, confidence not low. Fee value is the agency's own, not field-checked. Not field-verified -- confirm access, road conditions and fire rules before you go.
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 Yellow River State Forest - Ridgetop Canoe Campsite
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