Stanislaus National Forest Dispersed Camping

Camp Review

• We need to camp along Highway 108, and found a dispersed camping spot on a random forest road. It had an existing fire ring, which let us know that it had been previously used as a camping spot.

• Despite it looking like it was on a slope, the spot was surprisingly flat (2 inches lean to the front and 2 inches lean to the passenger side).

• While we could not see Highway 108, we could hear the cars. The highway was so untravelled that it was very quiet until the morning.

• There was no trash visible. There were no mosquitoes or other pesky bugs either.

• On the boulders next to the campsite, there were grounding holes; perhaps this spot was used by humans for hundreds or thousands of years?

What Happened?

After our hike among the Dardanelle Range, we wanted to stay near Highway 108, preferably close to Pinecrest. While heading over to a spot that I found on freecampsites.net, I decided on a whim to go down a forest road that intersected Highway 108. Less than a mile down the dusty road, we found this dispersed spot, where we parked after making sure it was level enough. We cooked dinner in our camper and quickly fell asleep.

Maybe because it was so quiet, but both of us woke up late for a camping trip. We then made breakfast, packed lunch, then headed off to the town of Twain Harte.