Agency-listedBLM · dispersedUnpriced · confirm
Salt Tram
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · CA · 36.60789, -117.85359
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 Salt Tram
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 8,725 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Salt TramNIFC · 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 Salt Tram · Bureau of Land Management · CA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- WWater11 mi
- HHardware11 mi
- MMechanic11 mi
- FFuel12 mi
- GGrocery12 mi
- AAir-up12 mi
- LLaundry12 mi
- OOutfitter12 mi
- @Mail12 mi
- EVEV fast charger12 mi
- ShShower14 mi
- DDump15 mi
- +Urgent care60 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 12 mi out.
Not within 60 mi: Propane. 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 — Salt Tram
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management · dispersed
Elevation
8,725 ft
Ground slope
11.9% · noticeable
State
CA
Coordinates
36.60789, -117.85359
Cost
Unpriced — no source gives a price; assume it may cost something and confirm before you go
Nearby & resupply — around Salt Tram · Bureau of Land Management · CA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurenone named within 1 mi (USGS NHD)
- Nearest townKeeler · ~8.4 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelChevron · ~11.5 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~15.2 mi
- GroceriesLee's Frontier General Store · ~11.5 mi
- HardwareGardner's Lumber · ~11.4 mi
EV charging — from Salt Tram · Bureau of Land Management · CA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger11.6 mi straight-line W — Lone Pine, CA - Tesla Supercharger (at an other entertainment) · 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 reach2 within 25 mi · 5 within 50 · 59 within 100 · 285 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS24.5 mi — Olancha, CA, Olancha
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO31.6 mi — CalTrans - Division Creek Safety Roadside Rest Area, Independence
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)55.4 mi — Gateway Restaurant and Lodge - Tesla Destination, Three Rivers, CA · Tesla Destination · J1772, NACS (Tesla) · 4 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-08-27 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to all vehicles.
- 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 102038 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Salt Tram · Bureau of Land Management · CA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomEastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center · ~11.4 mi W · NPS
- Flush restroomEastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center · ~11.4 mi W · USFS
- RestroomSaline Valley, Upper Comfort Station #2 (1 vault) · ~14.3 mi N · NPS
- RestroomSaline Valley, Lower Comfort Station, duplex unit · ~14.4 mi N · NPS
Coming out here — Salt Tram · Bureau of Land Management · CA
- 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 11.9% — 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.
- 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 Salt Tram elsewhere
Other camps near Salt Tram
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Inyo Mountains Wilderness~8.2 mi
- BLM dispersed camp #4 — Inyo County, CA~13.4 mi
- BLM dispersed camp — CA #13~14.0 mi
- BLM dispersed camp — Inyo County, CA~14.0 mi
The unit that manages Salt Tram
Salt Tram is in the Ridgecrest Field Office, California Desert 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 — Salt Tram
Source
Bureau of Land Management recreation data
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
BLM RIDB record, agency-listed. Its fee field is empty -- no fee statement -- so the cost is unpriced (field read 2026-09-19). Access not field-checked (assumed drive-up).
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 Salt Tram
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 — Salt Tram
When the high country opens →Water on public land →What “dispersed” means here →Camping with a dog →All field notes →