Agency-listedUSFSFeeRoad season: open (MVUM)
Backpackers
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · CA · 38.48251, -119.98701
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 as a developed campground. Expect marked sites, a fee station or a reservation, and the usual campground rules. The dispersed-camping freedom of the surrounding forest does not apply inside it. 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 — Backpackers · Stanislaus National Forest · CA
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 07N05Y, 410 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as asphalt surface and maintenance level 4 – moderate degree of user comfort.
Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 07N05Y, 410 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles Apr 15 – Dec 15. That season ends after Dec 15.
MVUM record for FR 07N05Y: “04/15-12/15” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-22; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.
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 Backpackers
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 7,341 ft.
Fire & smoke — around BackpackersNIFC · 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 Backpackers · Stanislaus National Forest · CA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- GGrocery1 mi
- WWater1 mi
- FFuel3 mi
- OOutfitter3 mi
- @Mail18 mi
- ShShower20 mi
- LLaundry21 mi
- MMechanic22 mi
- PPropane22 mi
- EVEV fast charger22 mi
- HHardware25 mi
- RxPharmacy26 mi
- +Urgent care29 mi
- DDump32 mi
- AAir-up48 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 1 mi out.
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 — Backpackers
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
7,341 ft
Ground slope
6% · gentle
State
CA
Coordinates
38.48251, -119.98701
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Backpackers · Stanislaus National Forest · CA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureSilver Creek · under 0.1 mi · USGS: intermittent stream
- Nearest townCape Horn · ~1.2 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~1.2 mi
- FuelFuel · ~3.3 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesStore · ~0.9 mi
- PharmacyMeadowmont Pharmacy · ~26.4 mi
- Hospital / clinicHealth Clinic · ~29.0 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware · ~25.1 mi
EV charging — from Backpackers · Stanislaus National Forest · CA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger22.5 mi straight-line S — Cold Springs Market - Tesla Supercharger (at a gas station) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 12 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-14 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach1 within 25 mi · 41 within 50 · 374 within 100 · 1087 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS27.5 mi — Walker Country Store, Coleville
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO29.8 mi — GF4EVA SOUTH LAKE DC1, South Lake Tahoe
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)14.6 mi — VIP LOT STATION 3, Kirkwood, CA · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveNACS-only Level 2 — Bear Valley Lodge - Tesla Destination, Bear Valley, 3.1 mi · NACS (Tesla) · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · AFDC lists it “Free”
- Pricing at the fast charger$0.55 per kWh (as listed by AFDC)
- 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 466125 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Backpackers · Stanislaus National Forest · CA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletBackpackers · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletSilver Valley · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletPine Marten · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletChickaree · ~0.3 mi W · USFS
Coming out here — Backpackers · Stanislaus National Forest · CA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Silver Creek as an intermittent stream, under 0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as intermittent — expect it dry for part of the year. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 6% — 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.
- 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 Backpackers elsewhere
Other camps near Backpackers
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Silver Valley~0.2 mi · fee
- Pine Marten~0.2 mi · fee
- Lake Alpine~1.2 mi · fee
- Silvertip~1.7 mi · fee
The unit that manages Backpackers
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Backpackers are set by Stanislaus National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Backpackers
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
Developed FEE campground (not free) - review | auto:usfs-fee 2026-08-20: US Forest Service developed campground, agency coordinates, agency states a fee. No dollar amount in the agency record -- expect a charge and confirm the current rate before you go. Not field-verified. | Fee 2026-08-26: $32 per night for a walk-in site. Stanislaus prints two figures on one page -- its Fee Site and Info field says $31, its own text says "The Backpacker's Walk-In Campsites are $32 per night" -- and recreation.gov listing 10049270 books it at $32 for the 5 Jun - 4 Oct 2026 season, so $32 is the live price and $31 is the stale field. Source: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/stanislaus/recreation/backpackers-walk-campground.
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 Backpackers
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.
- Whether that MVUM road is the way in, and the last stretch beyond it
- Whether the site itself closes on its own schedule — only the road's season is on record
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- 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 — Backpackers
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Off-grid communication →All field notes →