Agency-listedUSFSFree
Alder Springs
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · OR · 43.86959, -119.50843
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 →U.S. Forest Service lists this site. On most of their ground you can camp away from developed sites pretty much anywhere — so treat this as a known-good spot, not the only one allowed. The unit sets stay limits and how far off road and water you must be. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — Alder Springs · Malheur National Forest · OR
No road within 1 mi of the pin in the national MVUM layer — and that layer carries no data at all for this forest (unit 0604), so this is the layer's silence, not the ground's. Access may be a county road or unmapped.
From the Forest Service's own Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW, Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026), straight-line from the pin to the nearest mapped segment. The nearest segment is not necessarily the way in, a maintenance level is the agency's class and not a report on today, and a road's season is the road's — it is not a campground order. What the levels mean → What an MVUM is →
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Alder Springs
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 5,483 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Alder SpringsNIFC · 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 Alder Springs · Malheur National Forest · OR
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel23 mi
- @Mail23 mi
- GGrocery23 mi
- +Urgent care28 mi
- MMechanic30 mi
- EVEV fast charger30 mi
- RxPharmacy30 mi
- ShShower31 mi
- DDump43 mi
- WWater45 mi
- LLaundry47 mi
- HHardware47 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 45-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 23 mi out.
Not within 60 mi: Propane. Plan those before you head up.
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 — Alder Springs
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
5,483 ft
Ground slope
16.8% · steep
State
OR
Coordinates
43.86959, -119.50843
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Alder Springs · Malheur National Forest · OR (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureBear Canyon Creek · ~0.3 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townIzee · ~14.9 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelThe Riley Store · ~22.6 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesThe Riley Store · ~22.7 mi
- Hospital / clinicHarney District Hospital · ~29.6 mi
EV charging — from Alder Springs · Malheur National Forest · OR — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger29.8 mi straight-line SE — OTEC HARNEY CHAMBER, Burns, OR · ChargePoint Network · CHAdeMO, CCS · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 4 within 50 · 30 within 100 · 81 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)29.8 mi — Hines, OR - Tesla Supercharger, Hines
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)29.8 mi — Harney County - Chamber of Commerce, Burns, OR (at a municipal building) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-14 · hours: 24 hours daily; Tesla adapter available
- 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 154070 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Alder Springs · Malheur National Forest · OR — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletEmigrant · ~4.5 mi E · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletFalls · ~5.0 mi E · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletDelintment Lake · ~6.4 mi W · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletTip Top · ~6.6 mi W · USFS
Coming out here — Alder Springs · Malheur National Forest · OR
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Bear Canyon Creek as a perennial stream, ~0.3 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 16.8% — 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.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- 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 Alder Springs elsewhere
Other camps near Alder Springs
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Emigrant~4.5 mi
- Falls~5.0 mi · fee
- Delintment Lake~6.4 mi · fee
- Tip Top~6.6 mi · fee
The unit that manages Alder Springs
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Alder Springs are set by Malheur National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Alder Springs
Source
U.S. Forest Service recreation data
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
Free but developed (not dispersed) - review
Nearest MVUM road
US Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW_MVUM_01, layer 1), Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026. Straight-line distance from the pin to the nearest mapped segment within 1 mi; surface type, maintenance level and open dates are the agency's own values for that segment, expanded from its codes and otherwise unedited. Nothing here says which road reaches the site.
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 Alder Springs
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 — Alder Springs
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →First-night troubleshooting →All field notes →