Mapped · not agency-listedPublic land · dispersedFree
Upper Peppermint Dispersed Area
OHV / 4×4 · public land · CA · 36.08540, -118.52125
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 →A mapped lead, not an agency listing. Somebody marked this as a campsite; we could not match it to a land-manager record. Worth checking rather than counting on. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
What the record says about the site — Upper Peppermint Dispersed Area · Sequoia National Forest · CA
- First come, first served
- Room for 19 parties
From the OpenStreetMap contributors listing for this site — their words, not our visit. Records go stale; treat it as a starting point and confirm anything your trip depends on.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Upper Peppermint Dispersed Area
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 6,903 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Upper Peppermint Dispersed AreaNIFC · 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 Upper Peppermint Dispersed Area · Sequoia National Forest · CA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- @Mail1 mi
- GGrocery6 mi
- +Urgent care16 mi
- FFuel17 mi
- EVEV fast charger20 mi
- OOutfitter24 mi
- MMechanic28 mi
- LLaundry28 mi
- HHardware28 mi
- RxPharmacy28 mi
- DDump30 mi
- WWater32 mi
- AAir-up32 mi
- ShShower38 mi
- PPropane47 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 32-mi drive, 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 — Upper Peppermint Dispersed Area
Access
OHV / 4×4
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
6,903 ft
Ground slope
7% · gentle
State
CA
Coordinates
36.08540, -118.52125
Cost
Free · OpenStreetMap fee tag: no
Nearby & resupply — around Upper Peppermint Dispersed Area · Sequoia National Forest · CA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurePeppermint Creek · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townPonderosa · ~1.4 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFastrip · ~23.3 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~30.3 mi
- GroceriesGeneral Store · ~6.4 mi
- PharmacyWalgreens · ~28.3 mi
- Hospital / clinicPorterville Developmental Center · ~26.1 mi
- HardwareLowe's · ~28.4 mi
EV charging — from Upper Peppermint Dispersed Area · Sequoia National Forest · CA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger20.2 mi straight-line W — EFTP#1, Porterville, CA (at a public site) · CHAEVI · J1772, CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 6 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach1 within 25 mi · 36 within 50 · 189 within 100 · 781 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO27.7 mi — City of Porterville, Porterville
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)20.2 mi — EFTP#1, Porterville, CA (at a public site) · CHAEVI · J1772, CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed
- 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 395255 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Upper Peppermint Dispersed Area · Sequoia National Forest · CA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletLower Peppermint · ~2.2 mi SE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletMagician (Needles) · ~2.6 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletQuaking Aspen · ~2.8 mi NW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletQuaking Aspen · ~2.9 mi NW · USFS
Coming out here — Upper Peppermint Dispersed Area · Sequoia National Forest · CA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Peppermint Creek as a perennial stream, ~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 7% — gentle. 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 Upper Peppermint Dispersed Area elsewhere
Other camps near Upper Peppermint Dispersed Area
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Lower Peppermint Campground~2.2 mi
- Dispersed camping area 5~2.4 mi
- Quaking Aspen~2.8 mi · fee
- Quaking Aspen~2.9 mi · fee
The unit that manages Upper Peppermint Dispersed Area
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Upper Peppermint Dispersed Area are set by Sequoia National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Upper Peppermint Dispersed Area
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.
Agency page
fs.usda.gov — the land manager's own page for this site. Fees, seasons and closures are stated there first; if it disagrees with this page, it wins.
How it was placed
likely OHV (only a rough 4wd track in) — confirm
Site details
The OpenStreetMap contributors listing's own fields for this site (site type, whether tents or trailers fit, capacity, toilet, water, campfires, reservations). Printed as the record states them, unchecked by us, and never used to make a cost claim -- the cost verdict above is decided separately and audited before every deploy.
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
Contributed, not agency-listed. A mapper marked this as a campsite. We have not matched it to a land-manager record, so it stays at Likely.
What we don’t know about Upper Peppermint Dispersed Area
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