Agency-listedBLM · dispersedFree
Alvord Desert
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · OR · 42.55979, -118.53283
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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 Alvord Desert
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 4,192 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Alvord DesertNIFC · 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 Alvord Desert · Bureau of Land Management · OR
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- WWater12 mi
- FFuel22 mi
- GGrocery22 mi
- @Mail32 mi
- ShShower54 mi
- EVEV fast charger57 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 22 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 57-mi run (and back).
Not within 60 mi: Dump, 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 — Alvord Desert
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management · dispersed
Elevation
4,192 ft
Ground slope
24.4% · steep
State
OR
Coordinates
42.55979, -118.53283
Cost
Free · no fee, per the land manager's own page (blm.gov, read 2026-09-19)
Nearby & resupply — around Alvord Desert · Bureau of Land Management · OR (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureIndian Creek · ~0.2 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~21.7 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesFrenchglen Mercantile · ~26.8 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
EV charging — from Alvord Desert · Bureau of Land Management · OR — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger57.1 mi straight-line SE — McDermitt, NV - Tesla Supercharger (at a gas station) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. NACS partner enabled. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · none within 50 · 4 within 100 · 40 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS75.9 mi — OTEC HARNEY CHAMBER, Burns
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO75.9 mi — OTEC HARNEY CHAMBER, Burns
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)75.9 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 302976 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Alvord Desert · Bureau of Land Management · OR — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomFrog Springs Cxt Toilet 1 · ~3.6 mi S · BLM
- RestroomFrog Springs Cxt Toilet 2 · ~3.6 mi S · BLM
- RestroomPage Spr Double Cxt #2 · ~5.4 mi S · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletSs Vault Toilet 4 Cxt G-5137 (Trailhead) · ~11.8 mi NW · BLM
Coming out here — Alvord Desert · Bureau of Land Management · OR
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Indian Creek as a perennial stream, ~0.2 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 24.4% — 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.
- 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 Alvord Desert elsewhere
Other camps near Alvord Desert
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Wildhorse Creek Wild And Scenic River~5.6 mi
- Kiger Creek Wild And Scenic River~10.5 mi
- Mann Lake Campground~15.5 mi
- Donner Ьnd Blitzen Wild And Scenic River~16.8 mi
The unit that manages Alvord Desert
Alvord Desert is in the Andrews Field Office, Burns 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 — Alvord Desert
Fee note
No fee, per the BLM page, read 19 Sep 2026: "No Fees" https://www.blm.gov/visit/alvord-desert
Source
Bureau of Land Management 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
BLM RIDB record, agency-listed. Its fee field is empty -- no fee statement -- so the cost is unpriced (field read 2026-09-19). Access not field-checked (assumed drive-up). | No fee 2026-09-19: "No Fees" Source: https://www.blm.gov/visit/alvord-desert (worker_W, statement verified on that page).
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 Alvord Desert
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 — Alvord Desert
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Dumping grey & black →Gear & rig loadout →All field notes →