Agency-listedUSFS · dispersedFreeRoad season: open (MVUM)
Barker
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · CA · 39.07696, -120.23591
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 — Barker · Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit · CA
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 0003 (Barker Pass), 130 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as crushed aggregate or gravel surface and maintenance level 2 – high-clearance vehicles.
Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 0003 (Barker Pass), 130 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles Apr 24 – Dec 31. That season ends after Dec 31.
MVUM record for FR 0003 (Barker Pass): “04/24-12/31” 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 Barker
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at the elevation shown above.
Fire & smoke — around BarkerNIFC · 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 Barker · Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit · CA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- GGrocery4 mi
- @Mail4 mi
- WWater6 mi
- DDump6 mi
- FFuel8 mi
- HHardware8 mi
- EVEV fast charger8 mi
- OOutfitter8 mi
- LLaundry8 mi
- PPropane9 mi
- +Urgent care15 mi
- MMechanic16 mi
- ShShower17 mi
- RxPharmacy17 mi
- AAir-up36 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 4 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 — Barker
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service · dispersed
Ground slope
19.8% · steep
State
CA
Coordinates
39.07696, -120.23591
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Barker · Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit · CA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureBarker Creek · ~0.5 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Also mapped (OSM)Middle Fork (stream) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townHomewood · ~4.1 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~1.4 mi
- FuelFuel · ~7.8 mi
- Propane / LPGPropane · ~28.4 mi
- Dump station~6.0 mi
- GroceriesTahoma Market and Deli · ~5.7 mi
- PharmacyCVS Pharmacy · ~16.8 mi
- Hospital / clinicUrgent Care - Olympic Valley · ~8.3 mi
- Hardwareace hardware · ~16.7 mi
EV charging — from Barker · Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit · CA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger8.0 mi straight-line NE — Tahoe City, CA - Tesla Supercharger (at a municipal building) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 6 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach23 within 25 mi · 77 within 50 · 308 within 100 · 810 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS16.1 mi — Northstar - Castle Peak - Truckee, Truckee
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO16.1 mi — Northstar - Castle Peak - Truckee, Truckee
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)7.6 mi — Tahoe Tavern, Tahoe City, CA · INTERTIE · J1772 · 4 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed
- Also listed, not counted aboveLevel 2, restricted access — Granlibakken Tahoe - Ski Hill Station, Tahoe City, 7.0 mi · J1772 · hours: 24 hours daily; for guest use only
- 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 153419 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Barker · Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit · CA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletBarker Pass Pct · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletBlackwood Canyon Ohv Trailhead · ~2.5 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletBunker Hill Lookout · ~3.6 mi S · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletMckinney Rubicon Ohv Staging · ~4.2 mi SE · USFS
Coming out here — Barker · Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit · CA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Barker Creek as a perennial stream, ~0.5 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 19.8% — 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.
- 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 Barker elsewhere
Other camps near Barker
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Bear Lake~1.9 mi
- Kaspian Campground~4.9 mi · fee
- Pleasant Cg~5.4 mi
- William Kent Campground~6.0 mi · fee
The unit that manages Barker
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Barker are set by Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Barker
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
USFS/BLM authoritative: free & dispersed. Access not field-checked (assumed drive-up).
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 Barker
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 — Barker
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Off-grid communication →All field notes →