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i want to go camping. im lost. even tho im from iowa. im used to camping in national forests. i will not pay to camp. id like to stay within an hour of des moines. i dont want to see people while im camping. i dont care about a kybo. i want somewhere i can park and start walking and disappear for a couple of days. ive tried looking online but im blocked outta so much and what ive found close is ledges but it says i gotta pay. cant i just not camp within the designated boundaries? liek the campsites they pay for?

any suggestions?

I don't mind paying (maintaining those kinds of parks isn't free, you know) but I've been wondering about a good place to camp that isn't a campground with a ton of people within close proximity too.

El Rhino wrote:I don't mind paying (maintaining those kinds of parks isn't free, you know) but I've been wondering about a good place to camp that isn't a campground with a ton of people within close proximity too.

im just used to the black hills and pulling off the road and walking(i dont hike) until i feel like hanging out for the night. im used to national forests where its legal to do that as long as you dont start a campfire. i camp to get away from people. i dont wanna sit in a parking lot with grass and listen to people swill bud light and burn cheeseburgers otherwise id go to easter lake

there are some state parks around here i never knew existed. but, here's what i have done dozens of times: below the saylorville damn, south of the emergency spillway and west of the river, there's tons of forest. you can build a fire. it's people free except boats coming by. I spent many good summers in those woods. just follow the deer trails.

If you have a canoe/small boat or can find a friend with one, my favorite place(s) to camp in all of Iowa are rivers on a nice sandbar out in the middle of nowhere.

One of my favorite places is on the Des Moines river, across from Ledges State Park and those giant limestone cliffs. There is a GREAT sandbar there and because the river bottom there is mainly limestone, the water isn't as muddy and is great for swimming. There is always plenty of logs and shit to gather for firewood and it is perfectly legal to camp anywhere along a river/sandbar. If you don't have a canoe/boat, then it is pretty easy to find any local river access point/boat launch and follow the edge of the river until you find a nice sandbar. I have a secret spot that I like to go to out in the country west of Dallas Center along the Raccoon river.

I hate campgrounds.

Actually....I'll share my "secret" spot, as it really isn't all that secret I guess. I mean anyone can find it, but I have always loved camping here and wouldn't want to see it overrun with a bunch of people. I highly doubt that would be the case from posting the spot on here anyway?

And I'm sure Servo knows of this place, having grown up in Dallas Center?

Anyhow. It is just northwest of the junction of Iowa Highway 44 and US Highway 169 (or North of Adel and West of Dallas Center). It is the first gravel road on your right if you turn west onto Hwy. 44 from Hwy. 169. The road is called "Midland Trail." Basically take I-80 west to the Adel/Hwy. 169 exit (110) and go north on 169 until you get to Hwy 44. take a left and then your first right onto Midland Trail. It is about 1/2 mile or a mile down the road on your left....you'll see a small opening in the trees and a small parking lot/turnaround. Park there and walk west to the river. You'll see a HUGE fucking log jam down by the river. That is how you'll know you are at the right place. It is the remnants of an old Pioneer Dam that was built there a long time ago. I mapped it out in Google Maps. Check it out at the link below.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?source=s ... 9b8f6ff1a0

The first blue placemarker is where to park. The 2nd is where to camp (on that river). The line drawn is the path to take to get down to the river. In Google, the river water looks high, but it will be dry this time of year and you'll encounter no water getting down to the river.

I just updated my Google Maps link to include an alternate spot (green placemarker) to camp south of that other location near Dallas Center. It is by a boat launch/river access point south of Hwy. 44...along the Raccoon River. There is a pretty decent wooded spot to camp right along the river, immediately north of the parking lot of the boat ramp. You may encounter boaters/fisherman at this spot, but they'll leave you alone.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?source=s ... 33603&z=15

go to the louess(hills) in western iowa...beautiful, its a lil bit further away than where you'd like to camp, but they have camp grounds that you have to hike 1 mile or so into, and the sites are set up way far away from one another..a lot of the sites run by honor system by just putting money in a rinky box...also the region is so vast that you could just park somewhere you felt comfortable with and walk on in to the area and set up shop wherever...theres a lot of neat old cemetaries and rinky 20 people towns....absolutely beautiful though...

TooManyHumyns wrote:go to the louess(hills) in western iowa...beautiful, its a lil bit further away than where you'd like to camp, but they have camp grounds that you have to hike 1 mile or so into, and the sites are set up way far away from one another..a lot of the sites run by honor system by just putting money in a rinky box...also the region is so vast that you could just park somewhere you felt comfortable with and walk on in to the area and set up shop wherever...theres a lot of neat old cemetaries and rinky 20 people towns....absolutely beautiful though...

thats so fucked. i had a dream last week about living in a camper van driving around a loess and didnt know what a loess was when i woke up.

thanks

quality thread.

also, very nice use of google maps.

Loess is basically a type of soil formed from winds blowing fine grained silt. Its a pretty unique area in that it was formed only in that part of western iowa and in china. There are some pretty big sections of the Loess hills, I think in total of like 10,000 plus acres. Its made up a lot of native prairie, oak savanah habitats and forests.

Other good size public forest land is Stephens State Forest, a total of 15,000 some acres broken up in different sections. Its located down around Charition. They have some public camping there but there are huge tracts of lands so you can wander around a find nice spots.

A little further is Shimek State Forest (9,000 acres) in Lee and Van Buren counties, and then Yellow River State Forest (8500 acres) in Allamakee.

Around Saylorville and Red Rock are also decent chunks of forests.

All of these sites have public camping areas, but are all large enough that you can wander and find a decent little area to do some no trace camping and noone will ever know.

I work up at Ledges and they also have some areas that might work as well, but that park gets used so much your more than likely going to run into someone.

I'm not sure if you'd be willing to drive four hours, but Yellow River State Forest is my favorite spot to camp/hike in the state. They have numerous backpacking trails with four different remote campsites. The sites are pretty simplistic, but have fire pits, wooden benches, and a few of the sites are supplied with wood from the ranger station too. Two streams flow through the forest that are good for trout fishing and there's an old lumber mill and a fire tower in the forest as well. Some of the hikes are steep (for Iowa) but there are some good views. You do have to register at the ranger station for overnight stays, but everything is free.

Overall, it's a nice place to camp and hike if you want to see a part of Iowa that looks completely different from the rest of the state.

Great info Nick.I hope I wont invade the spots, I will head down the trails


I occasionally prefer camping along side the bums downtown under the bridges. Great times and always a decent fistfight.

Shamone Jackson wrote:Great info Nick.I hope I wont invade the spots, I will head down the trails


I occasionally prefer camping along side the bums downtown under the bridges. Great times and always a decent fistfight.

Eh....whatever. I guess it might be strange that I think camping along an isolated stretch of river rules? Is it the most picturesque place in Iowa to camp...nope, but it is free, close by, away from people and always a good time. I guess I enjoy fishing as much as camping, so that is why I tend to camp along a river as well, in Iowa anyway.

Hank Fist wrote:there are some state parks around here i never knew existed. but, here's what i have done dozens of times: below the saylorville damn, south of the emergency spillway and west of the river, there's tons of forest. you can build a fire. it's people free except boats coming by. I spent many good summers in those woods. just follow the deer trails.

because nick made a sweet map:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie ... 5e308b8618

so, joseph, where are you going to go?

i cant afford to drive out of dsm this week. if i drove to ames i wouldnt have enough gas to get back.

im still looking for a spot, i appreciate the suggestions as well. will probably go next weekend