★ Field-verified · Dave's ownBLMFree
BLM public land
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · San Bernardino County, CA · 34.67117, -116.98415
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 →Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on Bureau of Land Management land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
Sawtooth Campground south of Barstow, California. Located in BLM land a short drive from pavement. Very nice free campground with vault toilets, picnic tables with shelters, fire rings. Haven for rock climbers. This is popular year road, so you will be among other campers. Winter is supposedly better because of the extreme desert heat in the summer. Enough room for one or two vehicles per site. Strongly recommended!
A night on record
Dave slept here on 29 January 2019. No agency publishes a season for this site, so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at BLM public land
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 3,588 ft.
Fire & smoke — around BLM public landNIFC · 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 BLM public land · Bureau of Land Management · CA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- EVEV fast charger13 mi
- GGrocery13 mi
- FFuel14 mi
- WWater14 mi
- DDump14 mi
- MMechanic14 mi
- @Mail14 mi
- RxPharmacy15 mi
- HHardware15 mi
- LLaundry16 mi
- AAir-up16 mi
- +Urgent care16 mi
- PPropane19 mi
- ShShower28 mi
- OOutfitter44 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 13 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 — BLM public land
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management
Elevation
3,588 ft
Ground slope
18.1% · steep
Nearest rail line
~7.3 mi · other track
County
San Bernardino County, CA
Coordinates
34.67117, -116.98415
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around BLM public land · Bureau of Land Management · CA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureStream · mapped within 1.6 mi
- USGS NHDno named surface water within 1 mi
- Nearest townThunderbird Ranches · ~12.9 mi
- Nearest rail line~7.3 mi · other track
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelShell · ~13.7 mi
- Propane / LPGMain Street Gas & Mart · ~25.1 mi
- Dump station~13.8 mi
- GroceriesMCLB Commissary · ~14.1 mi
- PharmacyWalmart Pharmacy · ~14.7 mi
- Hospital / clinicBarstow Community Hospital · ~15.4 mi
- HardwareHarbor Freight Tools · ~15.1 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
No signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
Yes
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Highly recommended
EV charging — from BLM public land · Bureau of Land Management · CA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger13.3 mi straight-line NW — Barstow, CA - Tanger Way - Tesla Supercharger (at a shopping center) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 70 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 reach28 within 25 mi · 98 within 50 · 968 within 100 · 1382 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS13.4 mi — DC OB DC 3, Barstow
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO13.4 mi — DC OB DC 3, Barstow
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)12.8 mi — VVC RPSTC1, Apple Valley, CA · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · 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 220686 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around BLM public land · Bureau of Land Management · CA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomSawtooth Cxt Single/Gunnison · at this camp · BLM
- RestroomSawtooth Cxt Double/Tioga · ~0.3 mi SE · BLM
- RestroomHodge Road Cxt Single /Gunnison · ~9.7 mi NW · BLM
- RestroomOutlet Center Drive Cxt 2 Single /Gunnison · ~11.3 mi NW · BLM
Coming out here — BLM public land · Bureau of Land Management · CA
- Surface water mapped nearby: Stream. That is wash water at best, and nobody has checked it for you — a creek can be dry and a tank can be mud. Filter or boil anything you drink. USGS maps no named surface water within 1 mi of the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022).
- Ground slope around the pin: about 18.1% — 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.
- Rail line mapped ~7.3 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as other track. No track the atlas classes as a main line is mapped within 10 mi. 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.
- 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 BLM public land elsewhere
Other camps near BLM public land
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- BLM public land~0.2 mi
- Sawtooth Mountains Wilderness~0.4 mi
- Barstow~7.7 mi
- Johnson Valley Ohv Area~16.9 mi
The unit that manages BLM public land
BLM public land is in the Barstow Field Office, California Desert 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 — BLM public land
Source
Dave's own travels
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (San Bernardino County, CA). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
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
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 29 January 2019. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about BLM public land
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.
- How many rigs actually fit
- 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 — BLM public land
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Hot-weather camping →Dispersed camping tips →All field notes →