★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic land · dispersedFree
Pierce County
Drive-up · public land · Pierce County, WA · 47.04600, -121.65110
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.
A somewhat spoiled clearing off of a forest road a short drive north of Lonesome Lake. Closest town Enumclaw. Wooded, high elevation with good views to the east. Good cell service. Some forest road traffic. Enough room for three or four vehicles. Primitive with fire circle. Fewer mosquitoes. Somewhat recommended due to practicality.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 21 July 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 Pierce County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 4,407 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Pierce 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 Pierce County · Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest · WA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- GGrocery6 mi
- WWater8 mi
- FFuel8 mi
- ShShower8 mi
- +Urgent care11 mi
- HHardware19 mi
- RxPharmacy19 mi
- AAir-up19 mi
- MMechanic19 mi
- LLaundry19 mi
- @Mail19 mi
- OOutfitter19 mi
- DDump20 mi
- EVEV fast charger26 mi
- PPropane31 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 6 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 — Pierce County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
4,407 ft
Ground slope
5.1% · gentle
County
Pierce County, WA
Coordinates
47.04600, -121.65110
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Pierce County · Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest · WA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureJoe Creek · ~0.2 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townGreenwater · ~6.9 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterWater · ~7.5 mi
- FuelGull · ~7.7 mi
- Propane / LPG7-Eleven · ~30.7 mi
- Dump station~20.4 mi
- GroceriesGrocery · ~6.5 mi
- PharmacySafeway · ~18.7 mi
- Hospital / clinicSki Patrol Aid Room · ~11.3 mi
- HardwarePraxxair · ~18.6 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
Recommended
EV charging — from Pierce County · Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest · WA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger25.9 mi straight-line W — Walmart EV Charging, Bonney Lake, WA (at a shopping center) · WALMART · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-14 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 134 within 50 · 378 within 100 · 614 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO26.8 mi — Rainier Basecamp LLC, Ashford
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)11.2 mi — Crystal Mountain, Enumclaw, WA · FLO · J1772 · 8 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast charger$0.52 Peak / $0.31 Off-Peak per kWh (as listed by AFDC)
- 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 466565 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Pierce County · Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest · WA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletLonesome Lake · ~2.7 mi S · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletSuntop · ~2.7 mi E · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletSkookum Flats North · ~3.8 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletThe Dalles · ~3.9 mi NE · USFS
Coming out here — Pierce County · Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest · WA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Joe Creek as a perennial stream, ~0.2 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 5.1% — gentle. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (10 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 Pierce County elsewhere
Other camps near Pierce County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Huckleberry Creek Dispersed Camping~1.5 mi
- Huckleberry Creek Dispersed Camping~2.0 mi
- Pierce County~2.7 mi
- The Dalles~3.9 mi · fee
The unit that manages Pierce County
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Pierce County are set by Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Pierce 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 (Pierce County, WA). 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 21 July 2018. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Pierce 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 — Pierce County
Reading a forest MVUM →Stay limits →Your first dispersed night →First-night troubleshooting →All field notes →