Agency-listedUSFSUnpriced · confirmRoad season: open (MVUM)
Lower Peppermint Campground
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · CA · 36.06646, -118.49065
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 — Lower Peppermint Campground · Sequoia National Forest · CA
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 22S82G (Lower Peppermint C.G.), 20 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as bituminous surface treatment surface and maintenance level 4 – moderate degree of user comfort.
Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 22S82G (Lower Peppermint C.G.), 20 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles year-round.
MVUM record for FR 22S82G (Lower Peppermint C.G.): “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 →
What the record says about the site — Lower Peppermint Campground · Sequoia National Forest · CA
- First come, first served
- Room for 17 parties
- Drinking water on site
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 Lower Peppermint Campground
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 5,253 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Lower Peppermint 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 Lower Peppermint Campground · Sequoia National Forest · CA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- @Mail3 mi
- GGrocery8 mi
- +Urgent care17 mi
- FFuel19 mi
- EVEV fast charger22 mi
- OOutfitter22 mi
- DDump29 mi
- MMechanic29 mi
- LLaundry30 mi
- HHardware30 mi
- RxPharmacy30 mi
- WWater30 mi
- AAir-up30 mi
- ShShower40 mi
- PPropane49 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 30-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 8 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 — Lower Peppermint Campground
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
5,253 ft
Ground slope
4.9% · gentle
State
CA
Coordinates
36.06646, -118.49065
Cost
Unpriced — no source gives a price; assume it may cost something and confirm before you go
Nearby & resupply — around Lower Peppermint Campground · Sequoia National Forest · CA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurePeppermint Creek · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townPonderosa · ~3.4 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFastrip · ~21.7 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~28.8 mi
- GroceriesGeneral Store · ~8.5 mi
- Hospital / clinicPorterville Developmental Center · ~27.6 mi
EV charging — from Lower Peppermint Campground · Sequoia National Forest · CA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger21.9 mi straight-line W — EFTP#1, Porterville, CA (at a public site) · CHAEVI · J1772, CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 6 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach1 within 25 mi · 36 within 50 · 190 within 100 · 802 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO29.4 mi — City of Porterville, Porterville
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)21.9 mi — EFTP#1, Porterville, CA (at a public site) · CHAEVI · J1772, CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed
- 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 395255 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Lower Peppermint Campground · Sequoia National Forest · CA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletLower Peppermint · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletMagician (Needles) · ~3.0 mi N · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletQuaking Aspen · ~4.8 mi NW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletQuaking Aspen · ~4.9 mi NW · USFS
Coming out here — Lower Peppermint Campground · Sequoia National Forest · CA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Peppermint Creek as a perennial stream, ~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 4.9% — 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 Lower Peppermint Campground elsewhere
Other camps near Lower Peppermint Campground
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Dispersed camping area 5~0.3 mi
- Upper Peppermint Dispersed Area~2.2 mi
- Quaking Aspen~4.8 mi · fee
- Quaking Aspen~4.9 mi · fee
The unit that manages Lower Peppermint Campground
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Lower Peppermint Campground are set by Sequoia National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Lower Peppermint 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
fs.usda.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)
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.
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 Lower Peppermint 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.
- 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
- Whether that tap is running today, and whether any stream or lake here is drinkable — the record covers the supply the site provides, nothing else
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Current fire restrictions
- 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 — Lower Peppermint Campground
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Picking a spot →All field notes →