★ Field-verified · Dave's ownFederal · dispersedFree
Kofa Wilderness
Drive-up · public land · Yuma County, AZ · 33.36295, -113.86538
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 →Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on public land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
Primitive site deep in Kofa Wilderness surrounded by desert hills and saguaro cacti. Very quiet off of lightly traveled two track. Fire ring. Flat. No cell service. Spacious with enough room for a few vehicles. Recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 26 February 2019. No agency publishes a season for this site, so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Kofa Wilderness
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 2,242 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Kofa 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 Kofa Wilderness · public land · AZ
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel19 mi
- GGrocery19 mi
- DDump26 mi
- WWater28 mi
- AAir-up28 mi
- LLaundry29 mi
- @Mail29 mi
- EVEV fast charger30 mi
- RxPharmacy45 mi
- +Urgent care46 mi
- HHardware46 mi
- ShShower49 mi
- MMechanic50 mi
- PPropane59 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 28-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 19 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 — Kofa Wilderness
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
2,242 ft
Ground slope
2.2% · flat
County
Yuma County, AZ
Coordinates
33.36295, -113.86538
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Kofa Wilderness · public land · AZ (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureHoodoo Wash · ~0.5 mi · USGS: intermittent stream
- Nearest townEngesser Junction · ~11.2 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~19.1 mi
- Propane / LPGPattie's RV Park & Propane · ~28.9 mi
- Dump station~26.1 mi
- GroceriesPacific Pride · ~19.2 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
No signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from Kofa Wilderness · public land · AZ — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger29.7 mi straight-line NW — Love's Travel #286 (Quartzsite, AZ) · Electrify America · CHAdeMO, CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 12 within 50 · 44 within 100 · 187 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)29.9 mi — Quartzsite, AZ - Tesla Supercharger, Quartzsite
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)43.4 mi — El Rancho MHP, Blythe, CA · LOOP · J1772 · 4 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-07-15 · 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 187948 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Kofa Wilderness · public land · AZ — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaBouse Wash (EB) · ~21.4 mi NE
- Highway rest areaBouse Wash (WB) · ~21.5 mi NE
- Vault / pit toiletVault Toilet 4 - La Posa Ltva South · ~25.6 mi NW · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletVault Toilet 3 - La Posa Ltva South · ~26.0 mi NW · BLM
Coming out here — Kofa Wilderness · public land · AZ
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Hoodoo Wash as an intermittent stream, ~0.5 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as intermittent — expect it dry for part of the year. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 2.2% — 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 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 Kofa Wilderness elsewhere
Other camps near Kofa Wilderness
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Yuma County~8.9 mi
- Kofa Wilderness~9.6 mi
- Yuma County~14.1 mi
- Crystal Hill Free Campsites~18.4 mi
Who holds the land at Kofa Wilderness
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, manager on record: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (federal). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Kofa Wilderness
Source
Dave's own travels
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Yuma County, AZ). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
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
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 26 February 2019. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Kofa 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.
- How many rigs actually fit
- 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