Best Dispersed Camping near Chester, CA

The good. Managers are there daily. Dumping trash and cleaning the pit toilet.

The bad. Managers are there daily being passive aggressive in reminding you they can kick you out, walking around looking in the same vehicles (even yours as you stand there) and writing down plate numbers. They like to remind you of the 14 day in 365 day limit for the region, not just here. They like to talk about their database and what will happen if you try to camp somewhere else and they love complaining about tent campers outside the parking lot. Also, no fires, ever.

That being said. Blm law enforcement they claim to have in their pocket reminds everyone that tent camping is allowed outside the parking lot.

It is clean though, the rivers is blah and turkey hunters might fire off next to you but walk the road. Plenty of trails, beautiful meadows, horseback riders seen regularly. Quiet at night usually to. If not tell the managers, they’ll get right on that lol.

I won’t go again but that’s not because of the CG.

Details: Law Enforcement does visit, they are nice Locals are a problem Be prepared for management complaints, not camper complaints Town is 20 minutes away Free stay with a weird 14 day regional rule, inquire with management

We found this spot based on advice of the rangers in LVNP. Overall a great place to camp if your looking for a free option to camp/boon dock very close to the park.

Right when you turn off 44, go up a small hill, maybe 100m, then there is a clearing on the west side of the road. There is a perpendicular dirt road at the clearing (running west/east) with several spots to park a van, trailer, or even smaller RV. We saw four distinct sites where people had made fire rings—however due to the number of pine trees the ground is covered in a thick layer of pine needles— make sure you sweep at least a 20’ fire ring down to dirt around the rock pit before you make a fire. You can also hear noticeable road noise from 44 in the front spots so not super secluded.

Many of the sites we checked (near the entrance and deeper into the woods) had bumble bees coming out of holes in the ground so be careful picking your site, particularly at night so you don’t wake up to an unpleasant surprise.

Going further south down the main road you can find many other more hidden camping spots deeper in the forest, but the road is rougher and only suited for a 4x4.

This is a small flat area near the base of Christie Hill. The turn off of the Hwy 89 is at the McGowan SnoPark area (really just a logger's staging area). There are a handful of very rough roads one could pull off the road and camp in a tent on (or 4x4 van). For a larger RV or travel trailer, we found only one spot (40.390996,-121.540748) that was large enough to accommodate our 32 foot travel trailer. It is right along the road, but there is virtually no traffic here, so we found it acceptable. 

I do not believe there are any good spots further down the road. A word of caution as well - the lake just beyond here (McGowan Lake) - is privately owned and gated. It is not available for camping.

This is literally right off the highway, it might be hard to spot unless someone else is there.

The roads to the spots are a little rutted, no low profile vehicles, but it’s easy to access.

There is no name to this place, and the bulletin board has zero information.

Possibly 5-6 spaces. The most people that was here any given night were just stopping for a place to rest for the night.

No bathrooms, trash or water. One of the locals said there is a junk yard you can walk to from here but we never found it.

Traffic noise dies down around 10/11PM. Unless the occasional driver is honking at absolutely nothing, it’s pretty quiet.

We heard gunshots around 9PM that lasted for about an hour. Seems the people around here hunt at night.

Definitely just a place to rest or gather yourself for a couple of days. I’m not sure about the amount of time you can stay here. But hey, it’s free!