Hot Spring South LTVA

California does not honor national federal land passes (except at nat’l parks).
LTVA North is “gated” and you gotta pay. Well, some one is maintaining the clean pit toilets. A very nice soak. Popular with day use locals - often with kids. Nudity not advised.
LTVA South of I8 is also a fee area but the borders are vague - plenty of room about 1/4 mile south which also reduces freeway noise. Beware - even a little rain turns the desert powder into glue.

When we arrived we already had an LTVA pass but we stopped and talked to the Camp Hosts who gave us some insight into where to camp. It is very sandy (duh, a desert) but some is hard packed and some is not. As we found out later somebody gets stuck around once a week. It is easy to tell where others have driven but not so easy to tell if they parked safely and could get out. There are quite a few big, heavy class A's here and they all seemed to be OK. There are also a lot of other types. We have a 35 foot 5th wheel with an F450 4WD truck. We wanted a spot somewhat away from the highway (the highway that you enter from is a 2 lane hwy, then Interstate 8 is about 100 yards from that). WE found a likely spot and were preparing to back in when a friendly man came out and said, "Wait a minute!". He explained to us how the surface feels solid to a human but will crack and go soft under the weight of trailers and trucks. He explained to look for previous ruts and then you can tell the difference between soft and hard. The road that goes back into the area is paved somewhat. We ended up finding a spot just far enough away from the highways but also right off the paved road that we knew we could get the truck out if stuck.
A lot of the people here are snowbird Canadian and are friendly. Almost everyone has some degree of solar and we have not heard a generator yet. Water and dump are available for free in Calexico right by the water tower at the border (very funky and right on the border). But you can also get dump and fresh water for a fee at The Storage Depot in Holtville. The border is ~25 miles away, the Storage Depot is 7.1 miles away. Dump fee is $7 and fill is $4. The camp hosts and 2 other people I spoke with preferred driving to the border rather than pay. We have looked at the border and we are going to look at The Storage Depot today.

It is very quiet here, the Verizon tower is less than a mile away. I got 70 down and 20 up! Perfect for working remotely. Calexico and El Centro are about 25 miles away and have whatever you might normally need. It works for us. I don't know that I would spend a whole season here but a week or two is OK.