Agency-listedUSFSUnpriced · confirm
Nacimiento Campground
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · CA · 36.01338, -121.41308
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 — Nacimiento Campground · U.S. Forest Service · CA
No MVUM road within 1 mi of the pin; access may be a county road or unmapped.
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 →
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Nacimiento Campground
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,733 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Nacimiento 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 Nacimiento Campground · U.S. Forest Service · CA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- WWater6 mi
- GGrocery10 mi
- FFuel10 mi
- +Urgent care10 mi
- @Mail19 mi
- MMechanic20 mi
- LLaundry20 mi
- EVEV fast charger20 mi
- RxPharmacy21 mi
- HHardware21 mi
- ShShower25 mi
- DDump28 mi
- AAir-up35 mi
- OOutfitter43 mi
- PPropane47 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, 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 — Nacimiento Campground
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
1,733 ft
Ground slope
33.5% · steep
State
CA
Coordinates
36.01338, -121.41308
Cost
Unpriced — no source gives a price; assume it may cost something and confirm before you go
Nearby & resupply — around Nacimiento Campground · U.S. Forest Service · CA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureNacimiento River · under 0.1 mi · USGS: intermittent river
- Nearest townPlaskett · ~7.4 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~5.9 mi
- FuelFuel · ~9.7 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~28.1 mi
- GroceriesGorda General Store · ~9.6 mi
- PharmacyCVS Pharmacy · ~28.3 mi
- Hospital / clinicAgile Occupational Medicine · ~20.2 mi
- HardwareSoledad Hardware & Lbr Inc · ~28.8 mi
EV charging — from Nacimiento Campground · U.S. Forest Service · CA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger20.5 mi straight-line NE — King City, CA - Tesla Supercharger (at a restaurant) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 16 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. NACS partner enabled. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach7 within 25 mi · 43 within 50 · 263 within 100 · 904 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS20.5 mi — DC CORRIDOR KC SHOPS DC1, King City
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO20.5 mi — DC CORRIDOR KC SHOPS DC1, King City
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)20.5 mi — DC CORRIDOR KC SHOPS L2, King City, CA · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveNACS-only Level 2 — Esalen Institute - Tesla Destination, Big Sur, 14.7 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 311244 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Nacimiento Campground · U.S. Forest Service · CA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletWilliams Hill -Bldg Vault Toilet · ~22.7 mi E · BLM
Coming out here — Nacimiento Campground · U.S. Forest Service · CA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Nacimiento River as an intermittent river, under 0.1 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 33.5% — 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.
- 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 Nacimiento Campground elsewhere
Other camps near Nacimiento Campground
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- ABC Camp~1.1 mi
- Ponderosa Campground~1.9 mi · fee
- Ponderosa~2.1 mi · fee
- Prewitt Ridge~3.7 mi
Who holds the land at Nacimiento Campground
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Los Padres National Forest, manager on record: Forest Service (federal). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Nacimiento 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)
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 Nacimiento 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 — Nacimiento Campground
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Hot-weather camping →Gear & rig loadout →All field notes →