Agency-listedBLMFree
KCL Campground
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · CA · 35.09035, -119.73503
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.
What the record says about the site — KCL Campground · Bureau of Land Management · CA
- Room for 12 parties
- No drinking water — carry your own
From the OpenStreetMap contributors listing for this site — their words, not our visit. Records go stale; treat it as a starting point and confirm anything your trip depends on.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at KCL Campground
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 2,285 ft.
Fire & smoke — around KCL CampgroundNIFC · 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 KCL Campground · 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
- FFuel10 mi
- GGrocery16 mi
- HHardware16 mi
- @Mail16 mi
- +Urgent care16 mi
- WWater29 mi
- MMechanic29 mi
- EVEV fast charger29 mi
- LLaundry36 mi
- ShShower37 mi
- DDump38 mi
- RxPharmacy38 mi
- PPropane40 mi
- AAir-up45 mi
- OOutfitter47 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 29-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 10 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 — KCL Campground
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management
Elevation
2,285 ft
Ground slope
4.1% · gentle
State
CA
Coordinates
35.09035, -119.73503
Cost
Free · no fee, per the land manager's own page (blm.gov, read 2026-09-19)
Nearby & resupply — around KCL Campground · Bureau of Land Management · CA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureStream · mapped within 1.6 mi
- USGS NHDno named surface water within 1 mi
- Nearest townNew Cuyama · ~10.3 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~10.1 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesAlbertsons · ~15.7 mi
- Hospital / clinicWest Side Family Health Care · ~16.4 mi
EV charging — from KCL Campground · Bureau of Land Management · CA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger28.6 mi straight-line NE — Buttonwillow, CA - Tesla Supercharger (at a restaurant) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 10 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 81 within 50 · 307 within 100 · 1038 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS28.6 mi — Buttonwillow, CA, Buttonwillow
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO28.7 mi — DC CORRIDOR BUTTONW DC 1, Buttonwillow
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)10.4 mi — CSB Sta 27 New Cuyama (at a fire station) · POWERFLEX · J1772 · 5 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2025-11-13 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveNACS-only Level 2 — Cuyama Buckhorn - Tesla Destination, New Cuyama, 10.2 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 102005 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around KCL Campground · Bureau of Land Management · CA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomCarrizo -K C L Ranch -Toilet · at this camp · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletCarrizo -Selby Cg -Vault Toilet · ~6.5 mi NW · BLM
- RestroomCarrizo -Painted Rock -Toilet 10 · ~8.6 mi NW · BLM
- RestroomCarrizo -Goodwin Ed Center -Visitor Center · ~10.0 mi NW · BLM
Coming out here — KCL Campground · 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 4.1% — 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.
- 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 KCL Campground elsewhere
Other camps near KCL Campground
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Carrizo Plain National Monument~5.4 mi
- Selby Campground~6.6 mi
- Temblor Recreation Area~11.6 mi
- Aliso Park~12.7 mi · fee
The unit that manages KCL Campground
KCL Campground is in the Bakersfield Field Office, Central California 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 — KCL Campground
Fee note
No fee, per the BLM page, read 19 Sep 2026: "No fee" https://www.blm.gov/visit/kcl-campground
Source
OpenStreetMap contributors
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.
Agency page
blm.gov — the land manager's own page for this site. Fees, seasons and closures are stated there first; if it disagrees with this page, it wins.
How it was placed
auto: drive (road/trail right there) | No fee 2026-09-19: "No fee" Source: https://www.blm.gov/visit/kcl-campground (worker_W, statement verified on that page).
Site details
The OpenStreetMap contributors listing's own fields for this site (site type, whether tents or trailers fit, capacity, toilet, water, campfires, reservations). Printed as the record states them, unchecked by us, and never used to make a cost claim -- the cost verdict above is decided separately and audited before every deploy.
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 KCL Campground
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 — KCL Campground
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Dumping grey & black →Reading the aerial →All field notes →