Agency-listedBLMFree
Priest Hole BLM Recreation Site
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · OR · 44.73914, -120.27103
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. On most of their ground you can camp away from developed sites pretty much anywhere — so treat this as a known-good spot, not the only one allowed. The unit sets stay limits and how far off road and water you must be. 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 Priest Hole BLM Recreation Site
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,504 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Priest Hole BLM Recreation SiteNIFC · 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 Priest Hole BLM Recreation Site · Bureau of Land Management · OR
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- WWater6 mi
- GGrocery13 mi
- @Mail13 mi
- FFuel18 mi
- RxPharmacy34 mi
- MMechanic35 mi
- +Urgent care41 mi
- PPropane41 mi
- EVEV fast charger41 mi
- LLaundry42 mi
- HHardware42 mi
- OOutfitter42 mi
- AAir-up43 mi
- DDump47 mi
- ShShower47 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 13 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 41-mi run (and back).
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 — Priest Hole BLM Recreation Site
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management
Elevation
1,504 ft
Ground slope
9.7% · noticeable
State
OR
Coordinates
44.73914, -120.27103
Cost
Free · dispersed public land, no fee in any source
Nearby & resupply — around Priest Hole BLM Recreation Site · Bureau of Land Management · OR (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureJohn Day River · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Also mapped (OSM)Shaw Canyon (stream) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townTwickenham · ~4.9 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~6.0 mi
- FuelFuel · ~18.2 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesWheeler County Trading Co · ~13.2 mi
EV charging — from Priest Hole BLM Recreation Site · Bureau of Land Management · OR — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger41.2 mi straight-line SW — Power Up, Food Carts and Coffee - Fast Charger, Prineville, OR · FLO · CHAdeMO, CCS · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 12 within 50 · 64 within 100 · 324 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)43.3 mi — Madras, OR - Tesla Supercharger, Madras
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)18.3 mi — COLUMBIA BASIN FOSSIL · 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 — Town of Mitchell - Tesla Destination, Mitchell, 13.2 mi · NACS (Tesla) · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · AFDC lists it “Free”
Level 2, restricted access — Whole in the Wall, Mitchell, 13.2 mi · NACS (Tesla) · hours: 24 hours daily; for Tesla use only · AFDC lists it “Free; donations accepted” - 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 357592 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Priest Hole BLM Recreation Site · Bureau of Land Management · OR — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletPriest Hole - Rec Site - Vault Toilet · at this camp · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletLower Burnt Ranch - Rec Site - Vault Toilet · ~4.1 mi W · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletTwickenham - Rec Site - Vault Toilet · ~5.2 mi E · BLM
- RestroomPH BLDG Restrooms · ~6.0 mi S · NPS
Coming out here — Priest Hole BLM Recreation Site · Bureau of Land Management · OR
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps John Day River as a perennial river, ~0.1 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 9.7% — noticeable. 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 Priest Hole BLM Recreation Site elsewhere
Other camps near Priest Hole BLM Recreation Site
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- BLM dispersed camp #15 — Wheeler County, OR~0.2 mi
- Grassy Camp~0.3 mi
- BLM dispersed camp #16 — Wheeler County, OR~0.5 mi
- BLM dispersed camp #14 — Wheeler County, OR~0.6 mi
The unit that manages Priest Hole BLM Recreation Site
Priest Hole BLM Recreation Site is in the Central Oregon Field Office, Prineville 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 — Priest Hole BLM Recreation Site
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.
How it was placed
auto: drive (road/trail right there)
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 Priest Hole BLM Recreation Site
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 — Priest Hole BLM Recreation Site
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Dumping grey & black →Getting unstuck →All field notes →