Agency-listedBLM Eastern Interior Field Office · dispersedFree
North Fork Trail Shelter (Pinnell Mountain Trail)
Hike-in · Bureau of Land Management · AK · 65.47880, -145.81744
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. Someone from the agency inventoried it, so it is a real camp — not a spot we guessed at. 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 North Fork Trail Shelter (Pinnell Mountain Trail)
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 4,088 ft.
Fire & smoke — around North Fork Trail Shelter (Pinnell Mountain Trail)NIFC · 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 North Fork Trail Shelter (Pinnell Mountain Trail) · Bureau of Land Management · AK
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- @Mail30 mi
- WWater34 mi
- EVEV fast charger70 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 34-mi drive, the nearest EV fast charger is a 70-mi run (and back).
Not within 60 mi: Dump, Propane, Fuel, Grocery. 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 — North Fork Trail Shelter (Pinnell Mountain Trail)
Access
Hike-in
Land
Bureau of Land Management · dispersed
Elevation
4,088 ft
Ground slope
22.4% · steep
State
AK
Coordinates
65.47880, -145.81744
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around North Fork Trail Shelter (Pinnell Mountain Trail) · Bureau of Land Management · AK (OpenStreetMap)
- Resupply lookup unavailable — try the map links below.
EV charging — from North Fork Trail Shelter (Pinnell Mountain Trail) · Bureau of Land Management · AK — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger70.1 mi straight-line SW — Golden Valley Electric Fairbanks · FLO · CHAdeMO, CCS · 2 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 · none within 50 · 3 within 100 · 6 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)73.1 mi — Fairbanks, AK - Tesla Supercharger, Fairbanks
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)146.2 mi — Three Bears - Healy · EVGATEWAY · CHAdeMO, J1772, CCS · 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 200475 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around North Fork Trail Shelter (Pinnell Mountain Trail) · Bureau of Land Management · AK — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletUpper Birch Creek Wayside Vault Toilet · ~6.7 mi SE · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletTwelvemile Summit Wayside Vault Toilet · ~7.1 mi SW · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletEagle Summit Wayside Vault Toilet · ~11.6 mi E · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletMt Prindle Campground Vault Toilet #3--By Site #6 At End Of Loop · ~23.5 mi W · BLM
Coming out here — North Fork Trail Shelter (Pinnell Mountain Trail) · Bureau of Land Management · AK
- No named surface water mapped within 1 mi of the pin in USGS's National Hydrography Dataset (data refreshed October 2022), and none within about a mile and a half in our OpenStreetMap pull — which is not proof there is none, only that neither map has one. Plan to carry washing water as well as drinking water.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 22.4% — steep. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (5 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 North Fork Trail Shelter (Pinnell Mountain Trail) elsewhere
Other camps near North Fork Trail Shelter (Pinnell Mountain Trail)
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Ptarmigan Creek Shelter Cabin (Pinnell Mountain Trail)~5.6 mi
- Birch Creek Wild And Scenic River~6.4 mi
- Steese National Conservation Area~11.6 mi
The unit that manages North Fork Trail Shelter (Pinnell Mountain Trail)
North Fork Trail Shelter (Pinnell Mountain Trail) is in the Eastern Interior Field Office, Fairbanks 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 — North Fork Trail Shelter (Pinnell Mountain Trail)
Source
public land records
Confidence
Agency-confirmed — The managing agency's own record names this as a campsite and puts it at these coordinates. About as good as it gets short of standing here.
How it was placed
https://www.blm.gov/visit/north-fork-trail-shelter (read 2026-08-17). Fees field reads "No fee". Reached from the Twelvemile Summit Trailhead at Steese Highway milepost 86 via the Pinnell Mountain Trail. CAVEAT FOR THE REVIEWER: the descriptive body of this BLM page is the single placeholder word "TEST", so the only substantive facts BLM publishes for this site are the coordinates, the directions, the activity list (camping, hiking, wildlife viewing, overnight cabin/shelter, photography) and the fee. Shelter condition, capacity and season are UNVERIFIED. Nearest town/services per the page: Central / Fairbanks; trailhead is Twelvemile Summit, Steese Hwy milepost 86. | auto:agency-trust 2026-08-18: state agency GIS record with a source URL and coordinates, confidence not low. Fee value is the agency's own, not field-checked. Not field-verified -- confirm access, road conditions and fire rules before you go.
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 North Fork Trail Shelter (Pinnell Mountain Trail)
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 — North Fork Trail Shelter (Pinnell Mountain Trail)
Water on public land →Dumping grey & black →Cold-weather camping →Dispersed camping tips →All field notes →