Agency-listedBLM · dispersedFree
Alkali Lake OHV Area (dispersed)
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · NM · 32.49885, -104.21111
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 →Bureau of Land Management 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.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Alkali Lake OHV Area (dispersed)
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 3,296 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Alkali Lake OHV Area (dispersed)NIFC · 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 Alkali Lake OHV Area (dispersed) · Bureau of Land Management · NM
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel4 mi
- GGrocery4 mi
- HHardware5 mi
- +Urgent care5 mi
- @Mail5 mi
- RxPharmacy5 mi
- MMechanic5 mi
- EVEV fast charger5 mi
- LLaundry5 mi
- OOutfitter6 mi
- DDump11 mi
- WWater11 mi
- ShShower11 mi
- AAir-up58 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 4 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 — Alkali Lake OHV Area (dispersed)
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management · dispersed
Elevation
3,296 ft
Ground slope
5.8% · gentle
Nearest rail line
~1.4 mi · main line
State
NM
Coordinates
32.49885, -104.21111
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Alkali Lake OHV Area (dispersed) · Bureau of Land Management · NM (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurenone named within 1 mi (USGS NHD)
- Nearest townLa Huerta · ~3.5 mi
- Nearest rail line~1.4 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelChevron · ~4.0 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~10.7 mi
- GroceriesBrewer · ~4.0 mi
- PharmacySouthwest Pharmacy · ~4.8 mi
- Hospital / clinicFresenius Medical Care · ~4.6 mi
- HardwareUnion Home & Industrial · ~4.6 mi
EV charging — from Alkali Lake OHV Area (dispersed) · Bureau of Land Management · NM — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger4.8 mi straight-line SW — Arby's - Carlsbad · FCN · CHAdeMO, CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach2 within 25 mi · 5 within 50 · 15 within 100 · 57 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)7.4 mi — Carlsbad, NM - Tesla Supercharger, Carlsbad
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)4.6 mi — Tate Branch Carlsbad (at a car dealership) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2025-09-12 · 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 355662 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Alkali Lake OHV Area (dispersed) · Bureau of Land Management · NM — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletLa Cueva Rec Site 1 - Vault Toilet · ~9.4 mi S · BLM
- RestroomBrantley Lake State Park Recreation Management Area-Block Restroom Building · ~10.9 mi W · BoR
- RestroomBrantley Lake State Park Recreation Management Area-Block Restroom Building · ~10.9 mi NW · BoR
- RestroomBrantley Lake State Park Recreation Management Area-Block Restroom Building · ~11.0 mi NW · BoR
Coming out here — Alkali Lake OHV Area (dispersed) · Bureau of Land Management · NM
- No named surface water mapped within 1 mi of the pin in USGS's National Hydrography Dataset (data refreshed October 2022), and none within about a mile and a half in our OpenStreetMap pull — which is not proof there is none, only that neither map has one. Plan to carry washing water as well as drinking water.
- About the name: this site is called Alkali Lake OHV Area (dispersed), but no named stream, river or lake is mapped near the pin — none within 1 mi in USGS's National Hydrography Dataset and none named within 1.6 mi in our OpenStreetMap pull. Either the lake is not on those maps or it is further off than the name suggests.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 5.8% — gentle. 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 ~1.4 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 Alkali Lake OHV Area (dispersed) elsewhere
Other camps near Alkali Lake OHV Area (dispersed)
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Hackberry Lake Off-Highway Vehicle Use Area~17.6 mi
- BLM public land~21.3 mi
The unit that manages Alkali Lake OHV Area (dispersed)
Alkali Lake OHV Area (dispersed) is in the Carlsbad Field Office, Pecos District, Bureau of Land Management. Stay limits, permits, road closures and fire restrictions are set there, not at the campsite — check before you go. Its page maps every camp in it.
How we know this — Alkali Lake OHV Area (dispersed)
Stay limit
14 nights (STAY LIMIT: 14 days)
Source
public land records
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
BLM Carlsbad Field Office. FREE and DISPERSED -- BLM's fee field reads "No Fees". BLM's own description says camping is allowed here in so many words: "Alkali Lake Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) Area has 11 miles of motorized trails winding through the dune vegetative area. Formerly a location for organized races, Alkali Lake now mostly sees casual users who desire motorized single-track trails where camping is allowed all a short drive from the town of Carlsbad." FACILITIES: none to speak of -- BLM describes "Just a rough semi-circular parking area at the end of the unmarked road", no restrooms. WATER: BLM says "There is no potable water at this recreation area." STAY LIMIT: 14 days. BLM New Mexico dispersed/undeveloped stay limit as published on this site's own BLM record: 14 days. EXPECT OHV NOISE -- this is a designated off-highway-vehicle area, not a quiet campground. Posted rules BLM quotes: "Whatever you pack in, please pack out", "No fireworks, discharge or use of firearms", no glass bottles in the parking area or on the OHV tracks, pets on a 6-foot leash. NEAREST TOWN: Carlsbad, NM, per BLM's own description above. Coordinate is BLM's recreation-service pin (gis.blm.gov, read 2026-08-17). SOURCE: https://www.blm.gov/visit/search-details/10311937/2 | 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 Alkali Lake OHV Area (dispersed)
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 — Alkali Lake OHV Area (dispersed)
Camping near a reservoir →Water on public land →What “dispersed” means here →Leave no trace →All field notes →