★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic land · dispersedFree
Mono County
Drive-up · public land · Mono County, CA · 37.66066, -118.81162
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.
Excellent campsite near Mammoth Lakes, California. A short distance from hot springs. Grassy clearing in basin with extraordinary view of mountains. Good protection from elements, and an oasis of fair weather. Primitive site with fire circle, no amenities. Great cell service and enough room for multiple vehicles. Strongly recommended!
A night on record
Dave slept here on 16 April 2018. 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 Mono County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 6,981 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Mono CountyNIFC · 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 Mono County · public land · CA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- WWater1 mi
- ShShower4 mi
- DDump5 mi
- OOutfitter7 mi
- FFuel8 mi
- LLaundry8 mi
- GGrocery8 mi
- RxPharmacy8 mi
- HHardware8 mi
- EVEV fast charger8 mi
- MMechanic9 mi
- @Mail9 mi
- AAir-up17 mi
- +Urgent care36 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 8 mi out.
Not within 60 mi: Propane. Plan those before you head up.
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 — Mono County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
6,981 ft
Ground slope
1.1% · flat
County
Mono County, CA
Coordinates
37.66066, -118.81162
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Mono County · public land · CA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureHot Creek · ~0.6 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townWhitmore Hot Springs · ~2.0 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~0.9 mi
- FuelShell · ~7.5 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~4.9 mi
- GroceriesStore · ~4.8 mi
- PharmacyVons Pharmacy · ~8.5 mi
- Hospital / clinicMammoth Hospital · ~8.3 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
Had a signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Highly recommended
EV charging — from Mono County · public land · CA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger8.5 mi straight-line W — Mammoth Lakes, CA - Tesla Supercharger (at a municipal building) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 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 reach3 within 25 mi · 13 within 50 · 120 within 100 · 368 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS8.6 mi — Mammoth Lakes, CA, Mammoth Lakes
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO31.0 mi — CalTrans - Bishop, Bishop
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)8.7 mi — Mammoth Lakes, CA - Old Mammoth Rd - Tesla Destination · Tesla Destination · J1772, NACS (Tesla) · 4 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-08-27 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to all vehicles.
- 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 102039 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Mono County · public land · CA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletHot Creek Interp Site · ~0.9 mi W · USFS
- Flush restroomConvict Lake Cg · ~5.0 mi SW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletConvict Lake Loop Th · ~5.1 mi SW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletCrowley Lake Cg -Vault Toilet #3 · ~6.5 mi S · BLM
Coming out here — Mono County · public land · CA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Hot Creek as a perennial stream, ~0.6 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 1.1% — 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 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 Mono County elsewhere
Other camps near Mono County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Mono County~1.9 mi
- Little Hot Creek~3.3 mi
- Laurel Ponds~4.7 mi
- Convict Lake Cg~5.0 mi · fee
Who holds the land at Mono County
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Bishop Field Office, manager on record: Bureau of Land Management (federal). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Mono County
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 (Mono County, CA). 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 16 April 2018. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Mono County
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
Before you go — Mono County
Finding water out here →Stay limits →Your first dispersed night →Camping with a dog →All field notes →