Eagle Lake State Game Management Area

When I started to pull in I saw a rig and knowing it’s a small gravel spot I almost headed to a hotel but pulled in anyway. Nice chill guy maybe 30 living his best van life I turned around pulled as far forward as I could to give us space and asked if it was cool I parked there. Calmed my protective shepherd down and settled in for night it was a little warm and humid but the peace of being surrounded by corn fields was no joke gas about 10 miles away any direction Starbucks 24 miles east near interstate in mason City.

It’s a dirt road leading up but a very smooth entrance. Arrived a little before sunset, which was lovely, it was totally empty and pretty clean (picked up a couple bits of takeout food trash). VERY quiet besides some wildlife. It’s a very marshy area so the mosquitoes were really bad but that’s not a huge issue…just don’t leave your car doors open as long as I did. Lol. GREAT Verizon cell service. One car drove through after dark but I think it might have been a local who saw my running lights on out here and came to see what I was doing. They pulled to the end of the drive, turned their car off and only stayed a few minutes. I already had my window covers on and minimal lighting so I’m sure I didn’t look like a threat. Probably trying to make sure some kids weren’t partying out here. Saw no one else though. Overall, very chill spot.

Took my 6x12 cargo camper out and had zero problems, corn was up so nobody could see my rig from the road, 2 local girls came out to camp overnight in their truck to watch the meteor shower, they were nice enough. Most activity I was was 3 different local guys who would come out Thursday and Friday evenings to catch frogs for fishing.AT&T 3-4 bars of LTE service.

Overall a good spot

As others have said, this spot is virtually in the middle of a field. There is a small clump of trees which is what we parked our 42' 5th wheel next to. This helped block some of the wind that howled the 3 days we were there. There is a boat ramp where you could put in some kayaks with a channel that leads to the lake. Verizon and AT&T both had good voice with 4G data. Eagle Lake State Park is just down the road and has a pretty picnic area and a deck that overlooks the wildlife area. There is also an easy hiking trail that goes partially around the lake.

There are three towns about 15 minutes away each. Garner has a HyVee, Hardee's, and cheap fuel. Britt has a couple restaurants including the Titanium Lunchbox which is pretty good. Britt also has the national hobo museum, but it was closed due to the COVID shutdown. Crystal Lake has the world's largest Bullhead, a statue of a bullhead fish. There is a very nice walking path that goes partially around the lake.

Note that this is free camping, but you are only allowed to stay for up to 14 days. Several locals came by to see our rig and several came to fish near the overflow gate that was about 500 yards away. Overall it was pretty quiet and we would definitely come back.

In Iowa all Wildlife Management areas can be used to camp primitively for up to 14 days. The dilemma is; it was incredibly difficult to find that info so pretty much nobody ever camps in these areas.

It's a dead end road but we would have people drive out to see why this RV is parked in the middle of the field. Overall it got clear that the locals weren't "okay" with our presence as they shook their heads and took photos/videos of our rig as they came by.

With that being said we never did have any issues with people getting upset directly to us so overall it was a very peaceful spot! We would definitely stay here again but probably for just a night or two

There are no physical sites but there's rules about where and how you park that can be found on Iowa's DNR site.