Agency-listedBLM · dispersedUnpriced · confirm
Hot Springs Long Term Visitor Area
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · CA · 32.76734, -115.27031
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 Hot Springs Long Term Visitor Area
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 34 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Hot Springs Long Term Visitor 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 Hot Springs Long Term Visitor 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
- FFuel7 mi
- GGrocery7 mi
- HHardware7 mi
- @Mail7 mi
- EVEV fast charger13 mi
- +Urgent care14 mi
- MMechanic15 mi
- OOutfitter15 mi
- PPropane15 mi
- LLaundry16 mi
- WWater16 mi
- RxPharmacy16 mi
- ShShower28 mi
- DDump42 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 7 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 — Hot Springs Long Term Visitor Area
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management · dispersed
Elevation
34 ft
Ground slope
1% · flat
Nearest highway
~0.1 mi · Interstate 8
State
CA
Coordinates
32.76734, -115.27031
Cost
Unpriced — no source gives a price; assume it may cost something and confirm before you go
Nearby & resupply — around Hot Springs Long Term Visitor Area · Bureau of Land Management · CA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureEast Highline Canal · ~0.1 mi · USGS: canal or ditch, no flow class
- Nearest townDate City · ~2.9 mi
- Nearest rail linenone mapped within 10 mi
- Nearest highway~0.1 mi · Interstate 8
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelSellers Petroleum · ~6.6 mi
- Propane / LPGGas Silza · ~16.7 mi
- GroceriesStore · ~6.8 mi
- PharmacyFarmacias Roma · ~10.8 mi
- Hospital / clinicHospital de la Familia · ~9.8 mi
- HardwareFerreteria Libertad · ~13.8 mi
EV charging — from Hot Springs Long Term Visitor Area · Bureau of Land Management · CA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger13.4 mi straight-line W — Imperial Center - DCFC, Heber, CA · Blink Network · CCS · 20 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach13 within 25 mi · 19 within 50 · 91 within 100 · 440 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)14.1 mi — El Paseo Power Center - Tesla Supercharger, Calexico
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO17.4 mi — BOA El Centro CA0-119 (El Centro, CA), El Centro
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)12.2 mi — MUSD PARKING MEADOWS1, El Centro, 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 417318 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Hot Springs Long Term Visitor Area · Bureau of Land Management · CA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletHot Spring - Vault Toilet · at this camp · BLM
- RestroomImperial Roadrunner Cg -Toilet 30 · ~13.3 mi NE · BLM
- RestroomImperial Roadrunner Cg -Toilet 40 · ~13.3 mi NE · BLM
- RestroomImperial Roadrunner Cg -Toilet 20 · ~13.3 mi NE · BLM
Coming out here — Hot Springs Long Term Visitor Area · Bureau of Land Management · CA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps East Highline Canal as a canal or ditch (no flow class in the record), ~0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). The record carries no flow class for it. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 1% — flat. 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 is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) — abandoned, lifted and out-of-service track excluded, so a rail-trail does not count as one.
- Interstate 8 is mapped ~0.1 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 Hot Springs Long Term Visitor Area elsewhere
Other camps near Hot Springs Long Term Visitor Area
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Tamarisk Long Term Visitor Area~9.3 mi
- Roadrunner Campground~13.3 mi
The unit that manages Hot Springs Long Term Visitor Area
Hot Springs Long Term Visitor Area is in the El Centro 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 — Hot Springs Long Term Visitor Area
Fee note
The BLM page names both free use and fee camping, read 19 Sep 2026: "Fee season September 15-April 15 $180, $80 4-week stay, $40 2-week stay; 14 day camping free April 16-September 14." https://www.blm.gov/visit/hot-springs-long-term-visitor-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). | Mixed 2026-09-19: "Fee season September 15-April 15 $180, $80 4-week stay, $40 2-week stay; 14 day camping free April 16-September 14." Source: https://www.blm.gov/visit/hot-springs-long-term-visitor-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 Hot Springs Long Term Visitor 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 — Hot Springs Long Term Visitor Area
Water on public land →What “dispersed” means here →Dumping grey & black →Reading the aerial →All field notes →