Agency-listedBLM · dispersedFree
Encampment River Canyon
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · WY · 41.15913, -106.79949
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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 Encampment River Canyon
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 8,099 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Encampment River CanyonNIFC · 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 Encampment River Canyon · Bureau of Land Management · WY
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- MMechanic3 mi
- @Mail3 mi
- FFuel4 mi
- GGrocery4 mi
- WWater13 mi
- OOutfitter20 mi
- DDump26 mi
- LLaundry26 mi
- ShShower26 mi
- +Urgent care40 mi
- HHardware46 mi
- RxPharmacy46 mi
- EVEV fast charger46 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 4 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 46-mi run (and back).
Not within 60 mi: 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 — Encampment River Canyon
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management · dispersed
Elevation
8,099 ft
Ground slope
68.2% · steep
State
WY
Coordinates
41.15913, -106.79949
Cost
Free · no fee, per the land manager's own page (blm.gov, read 2026-09-19)
Nearby & resupply — around Encampment River Canyon · Bureau of Land Management · WY (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureMiner Creek · ~0.6 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townEncampment · ~3.4 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelTrading Post · ~4.1 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~26.0 mi
- GroceriesTrading Post · ~4.1 mi
EV charging — from Encampment River Canyon · Bureau of Land Management · WY — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger46.5 mi straight-line S — 910 Yampa St, Steamboat Springs, CO · LOOP · CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-07-15 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 5 within 50 · 38 within 100 · 346 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)48.6 mi — Rawlins, WY - Tesla Supercharger, Rawlins
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO47.8 mi — MAVERIK SB SPRINGS PL1, Steamboat Springs
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)25.5 mi — Steamboat Lake State Park, Steamboat Springs, CO (at a public site) · RIVIAN_WAYPOINTS · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveLevel 2, restricted access — Copperline Lodge, Saratoga, 20.6 mi · J1772 · hours: 24 hours daily; for guests only · AFDC lists it “Free; donations accepted”
- Pricing at the fast charger$35 monthly service fee; $0.48 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 453140 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Encampment River Canyon · Bureau of Land Management · WY — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomEncampment T/H South Toilet · ~1.6 mi N · BLM
- RestroomPurgatory Gulch · ~2.1 mi SE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletBottle Creek · ~5.4 mi W · USFS
- RestroomBottle Creek · ~5.4 mi W · USFS
Coming out here — Encampment River Canyon · Bureau of Land Management · WY
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Miner Creek as a perennial stream, ~0.6 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 68.2% — 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 Encampment River Canyon elsewhere
Other camps near Encampment River Canyon
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Town of Encampment RV Park (Encampment)~3.6 mi
- Bottle Creek~5.4 mi · fee
- Hog Park Cg~9.7 mi · fee
- North Platte River-Treasure Island PAA — Designated Camping Area~12.5 mi
The unit that manages Encampment River Canyon
Encampment River Canyon is in the Rawlins Field Office, High 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.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Webber Springs at 9,250 ft, about 7 miles away. It sits about 1,151 ft higher than this camp, so treat it as a guide rather than a reading for this spot. We do not repeat a depth here, because any number we stored would be stale by the time you read it — the station publishes today's.
How we know this — Encampment River Canyon
Fee note
No fee, per the BLM page, read 19 Sep 2026: "No Fee." https://www.blm.gov/visit/encampment-river-canyon
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/encampment-river-canyon (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 Encampment River Canyon
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 — Encampment River Canyon
When the high country opens →Winter vs summer roads →Finding water out here →Off-grid communication →All field notes →