★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic land · dispersedFree
Pershing County
Drive-up · public land · Pershing County, NV · 40.82263, -119.12245
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.
Camped in the middle of Blackrock Playa, near the very location Burning Man is held. Poor cell service. Enough room for unlimited vehicles. Barren and perfectly flat for miles. Could land a plane here. Potential for dust in the event of strong wind or vehicular traffic. Very unique experience. Strongly recommended!
A night on record
Dave slept here on 30 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 Pershing County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 3,908 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Pershing 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 Pershing County · public land · NV
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- +Urgent care5 mi
- PPropane5 mi
- FFuel5 mi
- @Mail17 mi
- GGrocery21 mi
- RxPharmacy56 mi
- EVEV fast charger56 mi
- MMechanic56 mi
- DDump59 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: fuel & food sit about 5 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 56-mi run (and back).
Not within 60 mi: Water. 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 — Pershing County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
3,908 ft
Nearest rail line
~3.2 mi · main line
County
Pershing County, NV
Coordinates
40.82263, -119.12245
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Pershing County · public land · NV (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurenone named within 1 mi (USGS NHD)
- Nearest townGerlach · ~17.0 mi
- Nearest rail line~3.2 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelHell Station · ~5.3 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesEmpire Store · ~20.6 mi
- Hospital / clinicBlack Rock City Emergency Services Department (ESD) · ~5.1 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
No signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
No
Toilet on site
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Highly recommended
EV charging — from Pershing County · public land · NV — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger55.9 mi straight-line SE — Safeway 4160 (Lovelock, NV) · 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 · none within 50 · 23 within 100 · 67 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)56.1 mi — Lovelock, NV - Tesla Supercharger, Lovelock
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)84.2 mi — The Fremont Apartments, Fernley, NV · OpConnect · J1772 · 6 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 199184 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Pershing County · public land · NV — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- No mapped restroom within 30 miles — plan to pack it out.
Coming out here — Pershing County · public land · NV
- 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.
- Rail line mapped ~3.2 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). That file holds the divided, limited-access highways only — a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not be in 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 Pershing County elsewhere
Other camps near Pershing County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
Who holds the land at Pershing County
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Black Rock 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 — Pershing 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 (Pershing County, NV). 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 30 April 2018. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Pershing 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