Grand Trace State Forest

We stayed here on the Friday night of Labor Day weekend. We had no reservations anywhere, and most of the campgrounds were already full or required minimum stays of 2+ nights. We simply wanted to boondock for 1 night in our teardrop trailer. So we took a chance that we could get a site here, while wondering whether it might be a party spot for the locals. Easy to find using the info provided on the official website. The camp area had five fire rings. Only one site was occupied by a Class B van when we arrived at 6pm. Three of the sites were fairly level, while the other two were more hilly, better suited for tent camping. Being forewarned by another review, we used repellant and had no issues with bugs or ticks. No dumpsters, no water, no toilet, so be prepared. Quiet, good stargazing despite the bright moon!

Stayed one night on a Friday, June 25. As another reviewer mentioned, don't take the gravel road that google maps leads you down to get to these GPS coordinates. The "entrance" at the end of that road is blocked off. The actual entrance is off of W 155th Ave and there's an entrance sign.

Only one other car there. Pretty spot with both shade and open areas but be sure to wear your tick repellant. I was outside for less than an hour to cook food and was picking tiny deer ticks off of me all night, along with one larger tick. My fault for not wearing repellant, but be warned!

We love to boondock and cringe at the thought of paying for a campground just to sleep overnight when travelling cross country but the further east you get the harder it is to find good spots. We are not really fans of the Walmart or Truck Stop stays. We found this state conservation area on the map and called the office to insure it was open for dry camping and were told it is open all year. There was a fairly big open area that could accomodate a couple larger rigs and 4 or 5 smaller back in sites in some pite trees for medium or smaller trailers or class B / C. Be careful on the drive in as our GPS had us travelling some very narrow "jeep trail" roads and we had to back out of a guys driveway about 1/4 mile with our 5th wheel in 4wd to push the camper up the dirt hill without digging in but if you follow the asphalt roads any size rig can get there fine. We found deer parts in the area and it looks like this spot is used to field dress deer during hunting season.

40.324240, -94.123306