Gardnerville Dispersed Camping

Fantastic, amazing, gorgeous views with hiking right outside your door. Road is a bit rough but we made it up with our 33ft Class A and a tow vehicle, so I’m going to go ahead and say it’s big rig friendly. Like others have said, the road doesn’t have a sign or name so make sure you have your map out. Close to towns if you need anything. Fairly quiet but there is ORV activity and occasional people come out to shoot guns.

I can’t believe this is minutes from a town with tons of amenities!
We pulled in with a 35 ft class A towing a small car up to the hill. At the crest, we unhooked the car and went 1/4 mile farther down the hill. There were rocks and holes, but at a slow speed did just fine.

Road is unmarked for entry, so make sure you have your map up. Don’t need to merge to one lane before entering.

Stayed here for one night in December. As others have said the road in is a little rough but not crazy. Easily driven in my Subaru Outback. Vehicles with long overhangs or otherwise poor approach/departure angles might drag.

Great spot to camp for a night. Some broken glass and garbage but not terrible. I can imagine during peak season it could get crowded and rowdy.

In December I was all alone.

AT&T Cell service was good on my iPhone 11.

The road in sucks, giant rocks embedded everywhere. The views of the Sierras are nice, but there're no trees besides sparse junipers, so the wind can be intense. Plenty of OHV usage on the weekend but relatively quiet during the week. The locals are borderline creepy, slowing down if not just stopping in front of your rig to check out god knows what. No amenities. The weather in mid May was crazy variable, ranging 30s to 40s at night and 50s to 80s in the daytime. I'd stay here again if another global pandemic ruins my travel plans. Otherwise, good for an overnight and stick to the first open area you see.

Great spots along the different ridges. The views are spectacular in all directions, Carson Valley to Sierra’s and Lake Tahoe. Can be fairly windy depending on the day. No trees or shade readily available. We did not have any close neighbors. The roads are dirt, some severely rocky spots and big ruts. But a 2 wheel drive class C could make it with a little care and attention. A few rocky fire rings, spotty cell service, absolutely no water nor dump nor utilities. Most areas had a lot of spent shells and broken glass unfortunately.

We took a bet on this location being open because it's National Forest, and we lucked out!

Access here is pretty terrible. There are only a few viable spots in the "front" of the area as you drive in. But, if you head to the "back" (heading West), it opens up and there's several spots available, including one perched on top of a ridge! That's where we were.

38.859007, -119.680857

The road up was really rocky, so I wouldn't advise anything larger than 24', but the spot was pretty incredible. Really great views of the Carson Range, but 15 minutes from town. This location gets very little traffic, presumably because of the difficult access. With that said, there were 3 different occasions where a car drove up the hill and into our campsite.

Road noise from 395 was loud, but only when the wind was blowing just right. Other times you couldn't hear it at all.

Also it is pretty windy in this spot being on top of the ridge, in excess of 20mph as measured by our anemometer.

Dump and water available for $10 at the Carson Valley RV Resort 15 minutes down the road. Propane at the Tractor Supply. Groceries at Smiths. Not sure about things to do in the area, we stayed here for two weeks during covid-19.

We spent 4 nights here in April 2020. This is a completely dry and free camping area. There are several dirt roads with camps spread out. The roads can be muddy and are a little rocky. 2WD vehicles will make it but the roads get a little rougher in the southern area. We saw motorhomes and a few trailers in the northern area. The cell coverage ranges from none to full coverage with AT&T and Verizon. Cell coverage was much better in the northern area. Snow-covered mountains in the distance were beautiful.

We were about a mile away from Hwy 395 and could hear traffic from Hwy 395 all night. Coyotes were very active at night and we did see mountain lion tracks in several places. Overall we were very happy camping here and would go back.