Agency-listedBLM · dispersedFree
Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · CA · 34.67567, -115.39806
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 Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,887 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife AreaNIFC · 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 Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area · 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
- FFuel16 mi
- GGrocery16 mi
- EVEV fast charger16 mi
- MMechanic16 mi
- WWater20 mi
- @Mail21 mi
- DDump26 mi
- +Urgent care46 mi
- LLaundry49 mi
- HHardware49 mi
- ShShower52 mi
- RxPharmacy54 mi
- PPropane56 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 16 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 — Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management · dispersed
Elevation
1,887 ft
Ground slope
4% · gentle
Nearest rail line
~4.0 mi · main line
Nearest highway
~7.6 mi · Interstate 40
State
CA
Coordinates
34.67567, -115.39806
Cost
Free · no fee, per the land manager's own page (blm.gov, read 2026-09-19)
Nearby & resupply — around Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area · Bureau of Land Management · CA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurenone named within 1 mi (USGS NHD)
- Nearest townEssex · ~9.6 mi
- Nearest rail line~4.0 mi · main line
- Nearest highway~7.6 mi · Interstate 40
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelRoy's Gasoline · ~21.3 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~25.5 mi
- Groceriesnone within 30 mi
- Mapping is thin out hereAn empty row means nothing is mapped within that radius — not that nothing exists. Small stores, seasonal resorts and single fuel pumps out here often never make it onto the map. Treat these as unconfirmed and ask locally.
EV charging — from Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area · Bureau of Land Management · CA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger15.6 mi straight-line NE — Najah Hi Sahara Oasis (Essex Fenner, CA) · Electrify America · 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 reach1 within 25 mi · 6 within 50 · 128 within 100 · 508 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)45.6 mi — Needles, CA - Tesla Supercharger, Needles
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)52.0 mi — 73663 Manana Dr, Twentynine Palms, CA · LOOP · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-07-15 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveNACS-only Level 2 — Mojave Desert Heritage & Cultural Center - Tesla Destination, Essex, 25.3 mi · NACS (Tesla) · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · AFDC lists it “Free”
- 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 218174 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area · Bureau of Land Management · CA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaJohn Wilkie Eastbound · ~13.7 mi NE
- Highway rest areaJohn Wilkie Westbound · ~13.8 mi NE
- RestroomKD Kelso Dunes Vault Toilet 220 · ~22.7 mi NW · NPS
- Vault / pit toiletAmboy Crater -Vault Toilet · ~23.3 mi W · BLM
Coming out here — Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area · Bureau of Land Management · CA
- 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 Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area, 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. Neither search looks for springs, so whether a spring is mapped here is something this page cannot tell you.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 4% — 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 ~4.0 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. The atlas also records Amtrak service on it. 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.
- Interstate 40 is mapped ~7.6 mi from the pin. Straight-line, from the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025) — the divided, limited-access highways, which is why a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not appear here.
- 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 Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area elsewhere
Other camps near Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Clipper Mountain Wilderness~3.6 mi
- Camp Clipper Divisional Camp -Patton~9.6 mi
- Chambless Rock Collecting Area ~10.5 mi
- Trilobite Wilderness~11.2 mi
The unit that manages Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area
Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area is in the Needles 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 — Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area
Fee note
No fee, per the BLM page, read 19 Sep 2026: "No Fee" https://www.blm.gov/visit/bonanza-springs-watchable-wildlife-area
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 Fee" Source: https://www.blm.gov/visit/bonanza-springs-watchable-wildlife-area (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 Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area
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 — Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area
Water on public land →What “dispersed” means here →Hot-weather camping →How to read this page →All field notes →