Fossil Falls Dry Lake Bed

Easy access off 395. Interesting geological area. Open areas for big RVs. Can’t beat the price.

Choose the dry lake bed, go left at fork. Huge area of spaces. 45 ft fifth wheel no problem in or out. Gravel base and decent road into BLM area.

Access road was a bit rough but doable in all rigs. Lake bed of course is level that's always a plus. Lightly used, quite a few stopping just for one night. Wildflowers, now 04.04.18 are starting to bloom. Will keep this place in mind for the next time traveling by. Great Verizon cell service too, 5 bars with booster but probably not needed.

The wildflowers were in bloom while we were here. Temps were just starting to get a little too hot during the day, but evenings were perfect.

I was a little worried when we initially drove down the dirt road that it was too sandy, but we were fine. The dry lake bed itself is hard packed, even so, I'm glad we have 4WD. I would avoid camping here if rain is in the forecast.

One night during our stay, the sheep herding dog was barking like crazy around our rig making sure the sheep didn't get too close. Sure, the barking woke us up, but we appreciated that he didn't want us to get surrounded!

We saw a couple RVs in the distance during our stay, but other than the sheep herd we were alone.

AT&T - DOWNLOAD: 33.70 Mbps, UPLOAD: 5.43 Mbps
Verizon - DOWNLOAD: 78.0 Mbps, UPLOAD: 12.03 Mbps

Much nicer than the actual campground nearby.
We didn’t go all the way to the GPS coordinates but decided the spot by the cinder cone would do us just fine.
This is a stop for us in between Sequoia and Death Valley.

Very large area of dry lake beds and US forest service roads. Curiously, there is a windsock in the lake bed with what looks like a long natural runway. As a former pilot, one could easily land a small plane here. Great cell reception but be prepared to self contain everything and pack it out. Nothing around, but Coso Rest area is not far up the 395. A little bit of highway noise carries from the distance, but not really noticeable. Be prepare, it can get windy. Easy road in. Very hard packed dry lake bed.

I camped beside the cinder cone, at 35.9847,-117.9086. It was a large, prepared camping/parking area of sand-sized cinders with some gravel added on top. The surface was very firm, flat and level. A few hikers came in and parked during the 6 days I was here, but otherwise, I had the volcano and a small dry lake bed all to myself. The view was stunning, and the volcano shielded me from all highway noise. I would have stayed longer, but overnight freezing was forecast, so I headed south to warmer weather at Barstow.

Verizon 4G was 2 bars, -112 dB, 2-11 Mbps down and 0-1 up.

We moved here from Alabama Hills. AH is beautiful, but it's way too many people for our likings.

The road in is your typical washboard. There's a split off to the right to a campground if that's your thing, but we boondock exclusively. Next there's a spot next to the cinder cone (previous review) which is also great, but is large enough for multiple vehicles. Again, not our thing. We took the split off to the right onto the dry lake bed.

We camped here: 35.982952, -117.900553

Just pull out onto the dry lake bed and pick a spot. 360 degree views of the surrounding hills. A feeling of complete isolation, yet only a few miles from 395. We only saw a couple of truck campers come through the lake bed, but they camped far on the opposite side and left in the morning. Another class c parked in a larger spot after turning down the road to the lake bed, but they didn't stay long either.

A group of UTV's came through, but we don't mind that sort of thing. They seemed polite, and waved at the kids. The wind wasn't bad, it was steady, but would die off in the evenings. The nights were clear and cool, and a bit surreal as the moon shined brightly across the lake bed, giving it a bit of a white glow. Such a cool experience!

AT&T reigned supreme here, 50mbps. Plenty fast for work and for streaming. Verizon wasn't bad, but wasn't as good as AT&T was. Provisions? 40 miles away in Lone Pine or Ridgecrest. There's a Shell 20 minutes south on 395, so come prepared! Nearby there's Fossil Falls, which is the location of an ancient waterfall across volcanic rock. A must see! The volcanic rocks are really amazing and smooth from the ancient waters that came through here.

In all, we would definitely stay here again.

Note: this is a dry lake bed, so if there's a chance of rain in the forecast, skip it all together.

So this one was the first time boon docking, so not sure what to expect. Originally was going for the dry lake bed but it had been raining a couple days before so weren't sure what to expect. When we turned off of 395 we took the fork to the left and ran about half mile until we saw a couple large puddles in the road. Decided to turn back and found a spot near the fork. It was a little hill off a side road. Worked out great. Little wind and occasional sprinkles but saw about 8 other people total. Went on a Thursday left Saturday. Had good signal on ATT. Also big thing was this is during the safe at home order and weren't sure if this place was going to be open. They had a sign to practice social distancing but it was open and great. Not much wildlife, few birds, ant hills and a jack rabbit but nice. The day after getting there took the truck to the puddles (4x2) and it was nothing to be scared off. Made my way to the actual dry lake and few soft spots due to rain but you can clearly see where people usually camp.

Stayed here 6/1/20. Conveniently located just off highway 395. Easy access. Several areas to pull off the dirt road. The spot we stayed at was spacious and quiet. Beautiful views of the mounts east and west. Fossil Falls is nearby to explore.