Agency-listedUSFSFeeRoad season: open (MVUM)
French Meadows
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · CA · 39.11398, -120.42142
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 — French Meadows · Tahoe National Forest · CA
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 0096-080 (French Meadows Cg, W. Loop), 0 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as asphalt surface and maintenance level 5 – high degree of user comfort.
Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 0096-080 (French Meadows Cg, W. Loop), 0 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles year-round.
MVUM record for FR 0096-080 (French Meadows Cg, W. Loop): “01/01-12/31” 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 French Meadows
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 5,343 ft.
Fire & smoke — around French MeadowsNIFC · 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 French Meadows · Tahoe National Forest · CA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- WWater10 mi
- GGrocery12 mi
- @Mail12 mi
- PPropane14 mi
- FFuel14 mi
- DDump14 mi
- EVEV fast charger15 mi
- HHardware15 mi
- OOutfitter15 mi
- LLaundry16 mi
- RxPharmacy18 mi
- MMechanic19 mi
- +Urgent care20 mi
- ShShower20 mi
- AAir-up35 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 12 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 — French Meadows
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
5,343 ft
Ground slope
9.1% · noticeable
State
CA
Coordinates
39.11398, -120.42142
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around French Meadows · Tahoe National Forest · CA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureFrench Meadows Reservoir · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townSunnyside-Tahoe · ~13.6 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterWater · ~9.6 mi
- FuelShell · ~13.9 mi
- Propane / LPG7-Eleven · ~13.5 mi
- Dump station~14.3 mi
- GroceriesAlice's Mountain Market · ~11.6 mi
- PharmacyCVS Pharmacy · ~18.2 mi
- Hospital / clinicUrgent Care · ~19.6 mi
- HardwareSwigard's Ace Hardware · ~15.3 mi
EV charging — from French Meadows · Tahoe National Forest · CA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger15.0 mi straight-line NW — Soda Springs, CA - Tesla Supercharger (at a gas station) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 12 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 reach13 within 25 mi · 91 within 50 · 321 within 100 · 990 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS15.0 mi — DC CORRIDOR LUCKYS SS DC1, Soda Springs
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO15.0 mi — DC CORRIDOR LUCKYS SS DC1, Soda Springs
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)11.7 mi — Palisades Tahoe Ski Resort, Olympic Valley, CA (at a public site) · EVRANGE · J1772 · 12 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed
- Also listed, not counted aboveLevel 2, restricted access — Resort at Squaw Creek, Olympic Valley, 11.4 mi · J1772 · hours: 24 hours daily; for guest use only; see valet for access · AFDC lists it “Variable fee”
- 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 322834 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around French Meadows · Tahoe National Forest · CA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Flush restroomFrench Meadows · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletFrench Meadows · ~0.5 mi SW · USFS
- RestroomMcguire · ~0.7 mi N · USFS
- Flush restroomMcguire · ~0.8 mi N · USFS
Coming out here — French Meadows · Tahoe National Forest · CA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps French Meadows Reservoir as a perennial lake or pond, ~0.1 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 9.1% — noticeable. 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 French Meadows elsewhere
Other camps near French Meadows
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
The unit that manages French Meadows
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at French Meadows are set by Tahoe National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — French Meadows
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 2026-08-27: $24 per night, single site, in peak season, plus $5 per night per additional vehicle -- and the forest states the camp is NO FEE outside peak season, which it gives as October 12 through May. recreation.gov listing 232047 agrees on the in-season rate ($24 standard non-electric, current 2026-05-14 to 2026-10-15 season). The lead record still says fee=1 because the camp does charge for most of the year. Source: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/tahoe/recreation/french-meadows-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 French Meadows
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 — French Meadows
What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Fire rules & restrictions →Reading the aerial →All field notes →