Agency-listedBLM · dispersedUnpriced · confirm
Stepladder Mountains Wilderness
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · CA · 34.55820, -114.83940
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 Stepladder Mountains Wilderness
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,704 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Stepladder Mountains WildernessNIFC · 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 Stepladder Mountains Wilderness · 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
- +Urgent care23 mi
- GGrocery23 mi
- WWater23 mi
- FFuel23 mi
- MMechanic23 mi
- EVEV fast charger23 mi
- @Mail24 mi
- HHardware25 mi
- RxPharmacy29 mi
- ShShower40 mi
- DDump40 mi
- LLaundry42 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 23-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 23 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 — Stepladder Mountains Wilderness
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management · dispersed
Elevation
1,704 ft
Ground slope
2.6% · flat
State
CA
Coordinates
34.55820, -114.83940
Cost
Unpriced — no source gives a price; assume it may cost something and confirm before you go
Nearby & resupply — around Stepladder Mountains Wilderness · Bureau of Land Management · CA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurenone named within 1 mi (USGS NHD)
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelShell · ~23.1 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesMobil Mart · ~23.6 mi
- PharmacyCVS Pharmacy · ~28.6 mi
- Hospital / clinicNeedles Public Health Clinic · ~22.7 mi
- HardwareHarbor Freight Tools · ~28.8 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
EV charging — from Stepladder Mountains Wilderness · Bureau of Land Management · CA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger23.1 mi straight-line NE — Needles, CA - E Broadway St - Tesla Supercharger (at a shopping center) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 12 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 reach5 within 25 mi · 10 within 50 · 52 within 100 · 318 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS23.4 mi — City of Needles Charging Depot (Needles, CA), Needles
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO26.5 mi — Najah Hi Sahara Oasis (Essex Fenner, CA), Essex Fenner
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)26.9 mi — ANDERSON TOYOTA SERV PEDESTAL, Lake Havasu City, AZ · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 1 Level 2 port 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 256047 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Stepladder Mountains Wilderness · Bureau of Land Management · CA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomFederal restroom · ~23.7 mi NE · FWS
- Highway rest areaJohn Wilkie Eastbound · ~27.7 mi NW
- Highway rest areaJohn Wilkie Westbound · ~27.7 mi NW
Coming out here — Stepladder Mountains Wilderness · 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 2.6% — flat. 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 Stepladder Mountains Wilderness elsewhere
Other camps near Stepladder Mountains Wilderness
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Browns Camp~8.2 mi
- Lisa Dawn Camp~8.4 mi
- Lost Arch Historic Mining Camp~8.6 mi
- Snaggeltooth Primitive Rv Camp~11.8 mi
The unit that manages Stepladder Mountains Wilderness
Stepladder Mountains Wilderness is in the Needles 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 — Stepladder Mountains Wilderness
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 Stepladder Mountains Wilderness
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 — Stepladder Mountains Wilderness
Water on public land →What “dispersed” means here →Dumping grey & black →Power off-grid →All field notes →