Best Dispersed Camping near Hawthorne, NV

I loved camping here. There’s a few spots off the road that leads into the hot springs, before you hit the sign that says no camping. Just pull onto one of the dirt roads on the left and find a spot! Any car or smaller RV could easily drive the road.

There was no one else there when I was camped there, and as a solo female traveler I felt extremely safe. It was quiet and secluded, beautiful, yet only 10 minutes off of 395, less than a mile from the hot spring, and I had full LTE cell reception (verizon).

There are rock fire rings that previous campers have made if you’re going to be here when camp fires are allowed. There’s no other amenities such as picnic tables or a bathroom, water, or garbage collection - this is free dispersed camping, so be prepared to be self-sufficient: pack out what you bring in and leave no trace!

This BLM site is 1 of 3 along the west side of Walker Lake. This is the northernmost BLM campground along Highway 95. Follow the signage along the highway. Access to the site is along a slow and easy gravel road that is wide enough for two rigs to safely and comfortably pass each other. As you come down the road into the campground you'll notice you have an option to turn right (south) or left (north). Both roads lead to a vault toilet building with access to drive right on down to the beach. We opted for a site near the northern vault toilet. The views are spectacular as you are surrounded by mountains on all sides with Walker Lake in the middle of it all! This is dispersed camping at it's finest! While you'll have to deal with a little bit of highway noise it's not terrible since it's Highway 95 and not heavily travelled by anything other than semi trucks. The town of Schurz is a mere 12 miles north of the site and has several amenities along with fuel. The towns of Walker Lake and Hawthorne are 10 and 20 miles to the south, respectively. Hawthorne is a more populated area with grocery, gas and other shopping amenities. Highly recommend to any other lovers of boondocking. We stayed during the second week of November and the weather was clear, light wind with highs in the upper 60s to low 70s with the lowest nighttime temp of around 38. We'll be back here again for sure!

No camping is allowed at the hot springs themselves, but outside of the hot springs there are a few cleared out spots with fire rings where you can camp.  There is a cluster of about 6 spots fairly close together, as well as a few more isolated spots if you're lucky enough to get one. From here it is about a .5 mile walk to the springs. 

So many cars zip in and out on the dirt road leading to the hot springs, from early in the morning to pretty late at night. The dust hasn't been too much of a problem but some people do drive rather quickly so watch out for your loose dogs and kids. It was also intermittently very windy.

No services or amenities here, but it is really close to the town of Bridgeport for supplies, so pack in and pack out your garbage(and maybe a little extra) and bring water.

The hot springs are amazing and we got a nice long soak by ourselves in the morning until around 11am when is starts to get busier. Clothing is optional at these hot springs but almost everyone was wearing something. Come sit in a hot spring and enjoy the free camping and extraordinary panoramic views.

The road in is pretty washboarded and rutty in parts, so go slowly.

You can hear road noise and hourly church bells :)

Good Verizon, ATT, and T-Mobile reception.

** Gas here in Bridgeport is very expensive (currently $5.15/gal) so fuel up before you get here.

This was my first stop after leaving Truckee and heading south.

I rolled in later in the evening and found the many springs already quite full. Seeking some solitude, I opted to backtrack and find a camp spot on the road leading to the springs.

From what I could tell, there were at least three springs and there could've been others hidden a bit down the hill.

There's no camping right at the springs, but several pull-outs on the road in.

I found a spot on the hill with a great view of the valley and Sierras to the east.

Also wound up sharing a spot with two gentlemen who gave me some great recommendations for Death Valley.

Woke up early for a solo sunrise soak in the main pool and had it all to myself!

Camp just a small walk to the hot springs. Got crowed at the camp site toward the end of the day. Was still a relaxing spot.

Road was accessible for us in a Toyota Tacoma, but a Camry also made it up. It was a little crowded in the area we stayed (with 4 other caravans and trailers), as the other dirt road giving access to different campsites was more for high clearance vehicles (very steep and uneven). Hot springs in walking distance. Incredible views of the mountains. We would definitely stay here again. No waste services or restrooms, but a vault toilet was available at the hot springs less than a mile away. Would visit again!

We had a great time camping here. The hot springs were super cool and there were multiple pools scattered around the area. We swam in the small spring pools as the sun was setting and got to watch the stars come out. Some of the pools are super hot and others not much, also they are very muddy. You can’t actually camp by any of the springs but there are a few pull offs to camp at before you get to the springs. We had phone service. If you want to make a fire make sure you bring some wood as there wasn’t really any wood to collect from the area. It also got super windy during the night but our tent held up fine. Over all really great site, and free!

I visited this area and was so overwhelmed by the amount of people I saw in Yosemite I definitely expected this well known hot spring to also be filled with people.  However I was extremely surprised when I turned down the road toward the springs and noticed that there was no one to be found.  That was until I got to the spring itself.   At that point I found a single person taking a dip.

Signs marked that the area nearest to the spring was off limits to camping, however they do allow parking and camping in several pull offs along the roadway toward the spring.   These are designed for contained units only, not tents so I found that staying here would be problematic unless you could stay in your car or RV.   Lucky for me I don't mind sleeping in my car when necessary so I was able to enjoy the stay uninterrupted just a short distance from the spring itself.

The area is dry and dusty and offers little to no relief from the heat of summer or the sharp winds of winter.   This would not be an ideal situation for those wanting to have any kind of amenities as there are none available.   You must be able to maintain your unit without power or water connections.    Additionally, this area is an area which you must be able to provide proof of a waste disposal of some kind when staying should a ranger come to your camp.   Keep in mind they just want to make sure you are not abusing the outdoors and leaving waste.

As these are dispersed sites no picnic tables or fire rings are available either.   

The spring itself is pretty nice.   Water is nice and warm and when I visited it did not have an odd sulfuric smell like some springs do.   Instead it was welcoming and invited you to sit and soak for a while.   While I wore my bathing suit I discovered that many do not so if you are visiting keep that in mind.

Other points of interest in the area are Yosemite, Mono Lake and Bodie Ghost Town.   All of these locations have numerous stops which can be great for the trip and within a very short drive of the location.

I ended up spending an entire day at Bodie thanks to its close proximity and really enjoyed that this offered something closeby but also a bit closer to the community of Bridgeport where I could find services and supplies.

TIP:  Make sure to fuel up when you see gas stations, they are sparse and you will want to ensure you have enough gas from one location to the next in this area.

A “No Camping Beyond This Point” sign is posted just off the highway.

What a beautiful spot! Toilets were locked so come prepared to pack in and pack out. We tried to get as close as we could yet there are some deep sandy areas so be careful! Bugs were bad but totally worth it with that sunrise and sunset!

The east entrance road to the vaulted toilet and maybe two spots is a hard packed sand & semi-gravel/rock road. The rest of the roads leading down toward Lake Walker is loose gravel and sand in which I recommend having a four wheel drive vehicle. My class C got stuck and had to be wenched out. FYI, for wrecker services, this area is called Avalon. I did not scout the west entrance road.

Beautiful spot on walker lake. Easy in and out..

Dropped a star because the toilet was locked!! On approaching from the north the site is a little further south than marked on the map but is signposted. We arrived in the dark so had a nice view when we got up in the morning. It is next to the highway but the traffic noise didn't bother us. A chill out spot as nothing else to do here!

Lots of sites, easy access. Avoid the super sandy spots, especially if you get there in the dark. There are plenty of others. Camped in a RTT on a trailer which wasn't crazy about the washboard grading, but that's mostly a "me" problem. Just after the 4th of July and I had the entire place to myself though due to a ton of consolidated firework trash I bet that place went OFF on the holiday.

This was a great spot. It was especially beautiful at sunrise and sunset, and there were bathrooms. I didn't use the bathrooms, but I can almost guarantee there is no running water. There is no shade anywhere around, so if you're tent camping in summer be prepared to get up early. The sun and heat had us out of bed by 6am, taking down the tent. It was very spacious and there's no need to worry about being too close to your neighbors. In fact there was only 1 other person camping there and he was quite far from us. The bugs didn't seem to be a problem during the day, but they get CRAZY at night!!! Big gnarly spiders infest the area and make webs on everything, including your tent. Tons of bugs will cover your tent screens. At one point we thought it was raining but it was just thousand of bugs dive-bombing the tent. Best advice: go to bed super early and minimize lantern/light usage. Also, the ground/gravel/sand was very soft in some areas. We were in an audi hatchback and had no problems getting in but had a little scare with almost getting stuck on the way out. However, there are lots of different paths, and if you not trying to camp super close to the water there are plenty of spots that are accessible to any vehicle.

Close to hotsprings. Need to drive about 5 min to spring. Lots of trails to explore.

Who doesn’t want to camp near a hot spring. Very relaxing location we stayed here one night then drove to bodie

So I was hesitant to write a review because I didn’t want this place to have any more visitors than it already does..! It was an amazing experience overall and we can’t wait to come back. The address on google maps however DOES NOT lead to the camping destination but we ended up running into a couple of ATV’ers that led us in the right direction. It’s actually off the highway before where the maps lead you and there is a sign that says Travertine Hot Springs. Having arrived at night, we were very glad to have met the locals that were helpful in showing us the way! So once you turn off the highway, you follow a dirt road that leads you straight to the springs. We ended up turning off and heading up a pretty rough road to find a spot on top of a canyon looking hill to camp. We were looking for seclusion and we definitely got it! The view was amazing from up top, and in the morning with a quick 5 minute drive we changed into our bathing suits and went for an early morning “nature hot tub swim”. The springs are hot but not boiling, and we spent an hour soaking there with absolutely no worries in the world. Definitely an amazing stay, and absolutely no hesitation to go back!

Really great spot - please come prepared to deal with all trash/human waste needs. We were thrilled with the level of user stewardship. Impressive. There is a vault toilet at the hot springs parking lot, but it’s not great.

This area is pretty close to town so it’s not the quietest. There are also only a few roads to pull down and no fires allowed but we found space to hang out and set up up some tents.

The springs are real close too and they were perfect to dip into and relax as the stars came up. Unfortunately, some people were breaking the rules and camping by them. Don’t be like them! Camp only where you can!