Trona Pinnacles

Trona Pinnacles provides an unearthly landscape to camp, hike, or off-road and the camping is free. We found free camping at Trona Pinnacles located east of Ridgecrest, California. Trona Pinnacles is administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and contains over 500 towering tufa spires. In this video, we give you a walking tour of the Trona Pinnacles and the free camping area. Verizon cellular service clocked in at 6.83 Mbps download speed and 5.07 Mbps upload speed. There was no AT&T or T-Mobile cellular service at this location.

This place is gorgeous. We stayed over Thanksgiving weekend and the weather was high 60s during the day and mid 30s at night. Hiking and offroading trails crisscross the area, and the tufas extend much farther off to the east than it initially appears. Will definitely return.

Some things you can't tell from the photos:

Don't believe what Campendium says, there is no signal -- maybe weak Verizon, but no AT&T, no T-Mo/Sprint, no US Cellular, and I couldn't even pick up any 2-meter amateur radio repeaters. Plan under the assumption that you cannot get communication in or out. Nearest place with any signal of note was Ridgecrest, which is about 30-60 minutes west, depending on how fast you drive on rough dirt roads.

Like any high-desert camping, be prepared for high winds and wide temperature swings. For two of our days there it was continuously quite gusty. We were in a trailer and didn't mind this, but had we been in a tent, we probably would have gone home.

There are two roads in, one from the north (coming off 178 around Searles Valley) and one from the south. The road from the north is clearly maintained, and was passable even for small 2WD cars when we were there -- just some washboards. The road from the south was probably maintained at some point in the past, but was slow going even in a 4x4 without the trailer. I recommend coming in from the north.

Folks usually talk about the campsites along the main trail loop, which has the bathrooms on it, and is the only loop present on Google Maps at this time. But, there are prepared campsites all over the park along the trails. They are marked by piles of stones about the size of a fire ring (though they aren't fire rings). Many are level. I highly recommend arriving early in the morning and scouting camp sites before making a decision. If you roll in at night, as we did, I suggest parking in the lot next to the bathrooms and scouting at sunrise. Note that many of the trails off the main loop are probably hard to traverse with a low-clearance or 2WD vehicle -- there are exposed rock ledges, steep inclines, and pits of sand. My Jeep was iffy in a couple of places. We started off at an easily accessible site off the main loop (35.613506, -117.372013) and then scouted on our second day and found a juuuuust doable spot in the rocks farther away from the noise. It was great. So, go looking.

Speaking of the noise, you may want to come mid-week, or at least not over the Thanksgiving holiday. Starting on Friday the park was deluged by crowds of other off-roaders with dune buggies and dirt bikes. Many of these folks were conscientious and friendly, but a large minority ignored trails and sported large aggressive political flags. The place got very loud and dusty, including people on dirtbikes cutting through our campsite. It turns out I like the place better when it's quiet, and I'll probably avoid weekends in the future.

Yes, Access is not easy. Road is not a road. But the view is something unique.
I was not able to go really close to the Rocks with my RV, 36 Feets and 19000 pounds... The slot seems to be not compatible with my truck.
Anyway, be there, alone on planet Earth was a great sensation. Too hot to stay too long 117°F ( July 21st )
I'll be back in winter to enjoy the night.

We really enjoyed our stay at Trona Pinnacles, the landscape is really unique and the night skies were really fascinating. The nights were quite as it was a mid-week in April, there really weren't many people around. Scoping out was suggested by other reviews, so we parked in the flat area by the vault toilet and went for a little hike. One of the first things we noticed was how much broken glass there was in the area, there was also more than a little trash, mostly generated by those who do their business outside but don't understand 'leave no trace'. One afternoon we drove around the other Pinnacle areas, hoping to scope a way through with our trailer, but the reality is that it's pretty much non-RV/Trailer once your get away from the initial pinnacle area.

Regarding some folks confusion with what areas are open to camp on and those that are closed. In addition to signs that clearly state an area is closed, BLM has also put rocks along the road side to indicate boundaries. If there is a gap in the rocks, then that's an acceptable place to camp, unless of course, the rocks have been moved by the folks who don't have to follow rules. Which we clearly saw in the same area that had a lot of 'no overnight camping' signs - ugh people!

A few other notes:
- We had a mouse invasion, so be aware if your rig is not 100% mouse proof
- We had the most windiest night we have ever experienced in 40 yrs of camping - it was a wicked wind indeed.
- The town of Trona is extremely basic

We are glad we went, but probably won't go back.

We arrived on a Wednesday and had the place to ourselves. First arrived at the large lot where you will find the vault toilet. We selected a site farther away after exploring a bit on foot. Access from Highway 178 was gravel and some washboard, but an easy drive. There are plenty of accessible sites around and near the first set of rocks next to the main lot. Going further a field could be difficult as the roads take will take you through dry washes.

We stayed for three nights. Pay attention to the posted signs. We selected a site and stayed for two nights before a BLM employee stopped to say that we were set up in an area closed to motor vehicles. He suggest we move to the other side of the lot, which we did for our final night. We couldn’t see any appreciable difference between the sites as both had fire rings, other than the second one was farther from the sign.

OHV activity began to pick up on Friday, and more of the sites began to fill up. Really not a problem given the nature of the area. The night sky here is awesome!

Very nice environment to boondock. The bone rattling 45 minute drive is worth it, take it slow and i was fine. Many places for rigs in the initial areas, and then excellent but rougher roads lead to the more secluded north and west pinnacles.

The no-motor-vehicles signs do not apply to RVs who camp in the pulloffs, they mean no off roading / ohv vehicles inside the marked signs. At least thats my interpretation.

Public toilet available in the large parking lot area. No internet on any carrier afaik. Very clean.

People were not kidding about the rough road in. It did take around 45 minutes to drive in from the north entrance with our 32 foot travel trailer. It rained while we were there, and the road out was terrible. If you are planning on staying at the Trona Pinnacles make sure it has not rained before you go because the water takes a long time to dry up and it’s super easy to get stuck (we helped pull 2 vehicles out of the mud while we were there).

There were fewer campsites than we expected because a lot of the old spots around the pinnacles have signs that say closed to vehicles. It’s pretty much 2 main designated areas that can take one or two RVs and a huge parking lot that can take 5+ big rigs. We found a cool spot away from everyone else but the road through the pinnacles and up to the campsite was bad and we will probably camp in the large parking area by the vault toilet if we ever visit again.

There are a lot of great secluded camping spots across the wash in the eastern group of pinnacles. It’s definitely not for RVs and trailers but truck campers and tent campers with 4-wheel drive can easily get across if it hasn’t rained recently.

The Trona Pinnacles are amazing and one of my favorite places to camp in the desert. You can mountain bike or hike around the pinnacles and there are lots of large washes to explore. Just watch out for rattlesnakes.

Our Verizon phone worked fine but the AT&T one got no service even with the booster on.

There were a lot of dirt bikers and side-by-sides driving around, especially on the weekends. I think there’s a popular OHV trail that goes by the pinnacles and that’s why. There were low flying military planes zipping around almost every day, which was amazing but very noisy. If you have dogs, they may get scared.

Train tracks run right by the pinnacles from chemical plant to the north. Luckily, there were only one or two small trains that went by daily and it wasn’t very noisy.

It’s also windy a lot of the time so keep an eye on the forecast if you are a tent or pop-up camper. The mornings were calm for the most part with afternoon and evening winds.

If you are looking for a peaceful getaway the pinnacles are not the place to go but they are like nothing else and I highly recommend spending at least a few nights there if you are willing to drive the horrible road in. The night sky is amazing, and the calm evenings were fantastic.