Twenty Mile Beach

More mosquitoes than I've ever seen anywhere. Feels like you're walking through sleet, only its bugs. Gross.

I heeded the prior reviewers advice and didn't head down towards the beach, and I'm glad I didn't. People were constantly getting stuck in the sand. Do not go down there without 4wd and a good idea of how to drive in sand.

The area offers no protection from the wind and it was gusting to over 50 mph.

Despite the dumpsters, there was dog poop everywhere.

Twenty Mile Beach is the northern free camping area along Walker Lake. You get amazing views of Mt. Grant and the lake together and there are some amenities like a dumpster and a vault toilet.

There is a hard packed dirt road that leads from the highway down to the dumpster. At this point, you can go either left or right. When we were there in April, there was a large group of campers set up next to the water directly behind the dumpster, so I think there’s some good camping along the road on the right. We took the road to the left, which leads to a large beach area and a vault toilet.

The most important thing you need to know about camping at Walker Lake BLM land is if you leave the road and drive down on to the beach you will be driving through loose sand, and it’s super easy to get stuck.

When we first go there, we saw a giant 5th-wheel camped all the way down the beach right next to the water. It seems like you can get in and out of this area if you know how to drive through sand. That means driving as fast as you can with no turning and no stopping.

Most people were camping along the hard packed dirt road or right by the vault toilet. We took a spot that was off the road but not so far down the beach that we couldn’t get out with our travel trailer. There was an RV that got stuck right next to us trying to get down to the beach so it’s possible to get trapped even in an area where other campers are.

Another thing about the beach is there are tons of orb weaver spiders everywhere. They are huge and look scary but are harmless. I read that they are the worst during late summer and early fall.

The lake is beautiful, but the water is murky.

All-in-all Twenty Mile Beach is not a bad place to camp for a few days on your way through Nevada. The nearby highway wasn’t too loud, and the town of Hawthorne Nevada was fun to explore. The dispersed camping area to the south also looked like it had some great spots to camp and it seemed like it didn’t have as much loose sand to get stuck in as Twenty Mile Beach.

One thing we love about boondocking is that every location is a new experience. It’s also always a surprise. And although the ebb and flow of boondockers typically follow a leave-and-arrive on Sunday pattern, this place was humming along nearly every day of the week. Not surprising giving it's proximity to 95. After getting in later than I would have liked on a Friday, we got an OK spot, but then were able to get a prime spot, with a large area to fit our vehicles the very next day.

It snowed right above 5K feet, but being at 4K feet it was rather comfortable.

There are two hard-packed roads down to the beach, and there were class c’s and tt’s down at that beach side spot. We preferred to be higher up, which offered some impressive views! I didn't want to chance getting stuck.

The night before we left, a dually with a truck camper towing a horse trailer pulled off one of those packed roads and got stuck. It took a wrecker to come and tow him out. Advise to stay on one of the to packed sand roads, or the main road.

The town of Hawthorne is 20 minutes away, but we never went into the town due to covid-19. I reccommend you come stocked before heading up. It does seem like it’s in the middle of nowhere, and it kind of is, maybe that’s why it wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be. Or then again, it’s more likely that the pandemic has sidelined a lot of travelers.

We would definitely stay here again.

P.S - No visitations by the Big Horn Sheep, although we did see them (and the babies) when coming in! Who knows, you might get lucky!

Twenty Mile Beach marks the first time we've used BLM to camp in our 15 months living full-time on the road. We've spent most of this winter past in Southern California, but with California's governor putting the state on lock down for the moment and with all the reported cases of COVID-19 in the state, we decided to move into Nevada for a period of time.

We're here in later March so bugs are not an issue. Temperatures are lower 60's during the day, upper 30's at night. There's snow on the mountains to our west.

Verizon service is great here. Nice few days of social distancing.

We choose Walker Lake for a 1 night stp, but stayed three. Going down with our 40ft diesel + toad we were aa bit to brave and ended up close to the lake. Seeing the loose sand the tires had gone through my wife expected a struggle to go up. Making a grocery trip to Hawthorne the Jeep had some difficultees going up. But all in all going up it went rather smooth. The loose sand is only 2 inches.
The scenery is great, sometimes the lake had waves other times it is like a mirror. We had a good time and would camp here again, but next time stay a the gravelroad.

I know others have mentioned bug problems but I'm pretty sure that describes pretty much anywhere you camp in any state if you do it in the Summer or early Fall. We stayed here in October and didn't have that much of an issue. One night we left the awning lights on and noticed it attracted a lot of moths, but that's pretty normal anywhere.

This campground is Free for 14 days.
It is BLM land at Walker Lake in the Nevada desert. There are 3 different camping areas just off the highway, on Walker Lake, but this is the only one that is Free. The other 2 areas are further South down the highway and have paved roads, vault toilets, picnic tables, and shelters but no dump stations or water. The elevation of the 20 Mile Beach camping area is approximately 4,000 feet. The weather here was near perfect, especially considering it’s almost November, with highs in the 70’s during the day and low 40’s at night.

Did I mention awesome views of the lake and surrounding mountains?

The sunsets were pretty amazing here as well!

Roads
The main road coming off the highway is dirt and gravel with a small pull-off area at the front, where you can disconnect and scout the area. The entrance is very wide and heavily wash-boarded and there is no gate.

The main road off the highway leads due East, towards the lake for about a quarter mile. This gravel road comes to a “T” at a public dumpster. There are numerous camping spots in either direction and one vault toilet at either end. If you have a large RV you’ll want to stay on this main T-shaped road as it is very firmly packed gravel. Some of the paths that branch off and go closer to the lake are very soft sand, more like very fine gravel with very little traction. One guy was pulling a small trailer with a two-wheel drive pickup and got stuck, really buried up to his frame. Lucky for him our truck is a diesel with four-wheel drive so we were able to easily pull him out. If you stay on the main road you’ll be fine. We had plenty of room driving down either end of the “T” pulling our fifth wheel. We were able to turn completely around at either end. There were a few class A motorhomes that were longer than our truck and trailer combined, and they had plenty of room to turn around as well. Just stay off those smaller roads that lead down to the water!

Structures
There are no actual fire rings here, but visitors have built a few at various locations using local rocks. So you can just pick any spot you like and build your own fire ring the same way or use one someone else left behind. There are no picnic tables or shelters aside from the 2 vault toilets.

Cell reception:
We use both T-Mobile and Verizon carriers for phone service. We’re currently getting 2 to 3 bars, which is surprising in such a remote location! The nearest town is Hawthorne, Nevada and it is about 20 minutes away from where you can get supplies and the Whiskey Flats RV Park where you can dump and fill up on water. Hawthorne also has a large grocery store and several gas stations that sell diesel and firewood.

History:
The lake used to be much larger. About 150 years ago, local farms started siphoning off the water from the Walker River that feeds this lake. This was done for agricultural use and the lake which used to be over 800 feet deep is now only 64 feet deep! Wow!

Some of the businesses and homes in Hawthorne used to be right next to the lake, but now they are several hundred yards from it!

The Southside is bordered by an Army depot. This is the largest ammunition storage area in the world! We drove by the depot just outside Hawthorne. The town is about a 20-minute drive South.

Local legends:
My research online has shown this to be a popular area for UFOs. Some believe the government has been testing submarines here for the past 60 years. One theory suggests there is a secret military underwater tunnel that connects the lake to the Pacific Ocean (200 miles away).

Don’t hang out near the South end of the lake, because apparently there are unexploded bombs there!

Do an online search for “Walker Lake Nevada UFOs” or “Walker Lake Nevada Submarines”. You’ll find a lot of info on the conspiracies for this area.

Update: We were here for 2 weeks, and never saw any UFOs! or submarines! The only thing in the lake is green algae and about a hundred ducks! This is also an awesome place to stargaze! You can even see the Milky Way without a telescope, it’s amazing!

Not a lot of defined campsites, but there are a few little areas for RVs to dry camp safely on solid ground with a great view of the lake and surrounding mountains. Roads that descend further down to the beach can get pretty soft, but would be great for smaller 4x4 camping setups. Couple sets of vault toilets and a dumpster. 4 bars VZ 4G LTE. Not the quietest or cleanest spot, and it can get really windy in this corridor, but overall this was a good stop for a couple nights. Free camping with a 14 day limit.

We had planned to stay at Twenty Mile Beach for a week, but the house flies and sand flies sent us packing.

When we arrived, we unhitched from the trailer near the dumpster to scout out a spot. If you turned right, there was a fantastic spot at the end that was large enough to accommodate a couple rigs, flat and had a great view. Unfortunately, it was already occupied.

To the left, there was also a spot at the end, but less appealing than the one to the right, and could also accommodate a couple rigs. There are also a couple pull-throughs in either direction.

We ended up going straight toward the water. The sandy road was fine for our 4WD truck, but while we were there, we saw a 2WD truck towing a trailer get stuck and it took them hours to get out.

This spot is fine for an overnight, and quite possibly could be ok for a longer stay if there's an off-season for the flies.

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We were our way home (Oregon) from Death Valley. This was so easy to find and lots of places or RV's. We were there on a Thursday night. We got level without unhitching. There were a couple blacktopped "Roads", but we drove closer to the waterfront - needed 4W drive.
As far as cleanliness, there is a dumpster that I am sure helps keep it as clean as it is. The only problem is that there is quite a bit of broken bottle pieces - maybe from people target practicing?