Best Dispersed Camping near Alturas, CA

Found this unmapped camping spot by following a USFS access road to an old boat launch area. Water is too low now to launch, but several fire rings, an older seasonally maintained pit toilet and minimal noise and light pollution made for a great stay. I am fully self contained.

Another one of these Dyrt campsites with zero info other than the location- thank you to whoever is adding these. This spot is a little further down the road from South Lava Beds, and would be fine, but we decided to keep going and find something a little less surrounded by blackened and burned trees and debris. There are piles of them everywhere, so I don’t know if workers come through here periodically- we didn’t see anybody when we were here on a Sunday. The area is still recovering from a 2020 fire 

(Caldwell Fire, I believe). 

Good cell reception, to our surprise. Our 26ft Class C had no problems reaching this spot, just take it slow once you leave the paved road. The dirt road is ok but there were a few dips and ruts that we had to go around. This would make a fine spot to stop over at, but it was a little too barren for us to want to stay here.

Graded dirt road a few miles from highway. Small camping area but not many people.

Gorgeous spot in the woods. So quiet, birds singing. Yes this area had fires but plenty of big beautiful pines remain and new life is springing up everywhere. Coming in you drive a paved rd for 9 miles and then a well groomed dirt rd for 1/2 a mile. There’s 2 spots that would fit our 32’ 5th wheel. Not sure about further up this rd as we stopped here. We are only spending 1 night I expected it to not be great. If I’d known it was so beautiful we would have scheduled in a 2nd day & gone to the Lava beds & caves 5 miles away. We had 2 bars Verizon so not great but Full bars on our T-Mobile Home so great internet, and full streaming.