Agency-listedBLM · dispersedUnpriced · confirm
Kiavah Wilderness
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · CA · 35.60411, -118.21584
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 Kiavah Wilderness
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 3,975 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Kiavah WildernessNIFC · 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 Kiavah Wilderness · 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
- FFuel11 mi
- GGrocery11 mi
- DDump14 mi
- WWater15 mi
- @Mail16 mi
- EVEV fast charger21 mi
- OOutfitter27 mi
- HHardware29 mi
- MMechanic29 mi
- PPropane30 mi
- RxPharmacy30 mi
- +Urgent care30 mi
- AAir-up31 mi
- LLaundry31 mi
- ShShower35 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 11 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 — Kiavah Wilderness
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management · dispersed
Elevation
3,975 ft
Ground slope
57.7% · steep
State
CA
Coordinates
35.60411, -118.21584
Cost
Unpriced — no source gives a price; assume it may cost something and confirm before you go
Nearby & resupply — around Kiavah Wilderness · Bureau of Land Management · CA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureStream · mapped within 1.6 mi
- USGS NHDno named surface water within 1 mi
- Nearest townOnyx · ~6.0 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~8.1 mi
- FuelShell · ~14.6 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~14.0 mi
- GroceriesStore · ~11.0 mi
- Hospital / clinicKern Valley Hospital · ~11.0 mi
- HardwareTuff Shed · ~28.7 mi
EV charging — from Kiavah Wilderness · Bureau of Land Management · CA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger20.6 mi straight-line E — DC CORRIDOR INYOKERN DC2 · ChargePoint Network · CHAdeMO, CCS · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach6 within 25 mi · 49 within 50 · 224 within 100 · 1193 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)22.8 mi — Inyokern, CA, Inyokern
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)20.6 mi — DC CORRIDOR INYOKERN L2 · 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 202864 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Kiavah Wilderness · Bureau of Land Management · CA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Portable toiletHanning Flat · ~10.1 mi NW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletWalker Pass Vault Toilet · ~10.9 mi NE · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletKissack Cove · ~10.9 mi W · USFS
- Flush restroomParadise Cove · ~12.2 mi W · USFS
Coming out here — Kiavah Wilderness · 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 57.7% — 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 Kiavah Wilderness elsewhere
Other camps near Kiavah Wilderness
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Bright Star Wilderness~8.2 mi
- Isabella lake dispersed camping~9.6 mi
- Kiavah Wilderness~11.1 mi
- Paradise Cove~12.2 mi · fee
The unit that manages Kiavah Wilderness
Kiavah Wilderness 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 — Kiavah Wilderness
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).
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 Kiavah Wilderness
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 — Kiavah Wilderness
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Hot-weather camping →Off-grid communication →All field notes →