About this place
The Warm Springs Wilderness covers 112,400 acres in Mohave County. It sits 30 miles southwest of Kingman and 30 miles north of Lake Havasu City.
It rings an immense and pristine stretch of desert.
Black Mesa dominates the whole place. It runs 10 miles long and stands 1,000 feet above the desert around it.
The edges of the mesa are cut into a maze of winding canyons.
Below it, remnant mesas and isolated hills are scattered across a vast alluvial apron. That apron is the sheet of gravel and sand washed down off the high ground over a very long time.
The animals and the rock formations here are varied, and that makes it fine country for primitive recreation.
Water at Warm Springs, and at other springs, means you can camp here for more than a night or two.
An old historic trail and a great many burro trails make the walking and the horse riding better than they would otherwise be.
Those burros are wild. They come from animals the miners brought in from the 1860s on.
Oatman, the old gold mining town on Route 66, sits by the northwest edge. Its burros walk the main street by day, looking for handouts.
In spring, after a wet winter, the wildflowers here are worth the trip on their own. Ocotillos, annuals, shrubs and cacti all come out.
You need four-wheel drive on every route in.
The terrain is extremely rugged. A few old vehicle ways make walking routes in places, but most people use the sand washes that cut through the area.
Bighorn sheep and burro trails can often be found and followed on the uplands. There are no marked trails at all.
The summer climate here is harsh. Daytime temperatures run over 100 degrees.
Between October 1 and April 30th it is more moderate.
Water is scarce in this part of the Black Mountains.
Springs marked on topographic maps can usually be trusted for drinking water.
After rain there is water sitting in potholes, but it dries up fast. Purify all of it, wherever it came from.
Follow the rules for the area, and leave no trace, so it stays that way.
Motors and machines are generally banned on any federal land designated as wilderness. That covers motor vehicles and off-highway vehicles, motorboats, bicycles, hang gliders, wagons, carts and portage wheels. Landing an aircraft or a helicopter counts too.
Ask the agency if you need more on the rules. The detail matters in a wilderness, and getting it wrong carries a penalty.
Some of the land around the wilderness, and inside it, is not federal. Do not cross it or use it without the owner’s permission.
The facts
- Cost
- Free to camp
- Roads around it
- Four-wheel drive required on every route
- Drinking water
- No treated supply. Springs on the topographic maps can usually be trusted, but purify it
- Type
- Open area. Camp anywhere within it
- Managed by
- Bureau of Land Management
Getting there
You can get in from Exits 13, 20, 26 and 28 on Interstate 40, or from mileposts 15, 17.1, 33.8 and 34.7 along Route 66. Every one of those routes needs four-wheel drive.
Coordinates 34.89868, -114.287843
Open in Google Maps Agency page
What is near here
A few more of our own spots are within reach of this one, along with some better-known places.
- Havasu National Wildlife Refuge Directions
- Wabayuma Peak Wilderness Directions
- Boundary Cone Directions
- Route 66 Oatman Road Back Country Byway Directions
- Parker Dam Directions
Every distance on this page is the driving distance. A short distance can still take a long time. The road may be closed for the season, covered in snow, or washed out. Many of these roads are dirt. Plan your route before you leave home. Out here there is often no phone signal to look it up on the way.
Nearest town and supplies
- Yucca, AZ Directions
- Golden Shores, AZ Directions
Golden Shores is big enough that you’d normally expect fuel and somewhere to buy food. Nobody from here has been to check, so don’t count on it if you’re running low.
Why “at least”: this route is hard to measure. We worked the drive out twice, with two separate mapping tools, and they gave different answers. That usually means there is no road close to the campsite, so the drive doubles back a long way. The figure above is the longer of the two. The real drive could be further still, so check the route before you set off.
Why the drive to town is usually twice what the map says — what we found measuring every campsite in this guide.
When it’s time to move on
On most public land you can camp for 14 days before you have to move on. Check this site’s own limit before you plan a long stay. When you move on, the Bureau of Land Management usually wants you at least 25 to 30 miles away. So the free campsites closest to you are the ones you cannot use.
Three in this guide sit inside that 25 miles. The nearest one you could move to is Aubrey Peak Wilderness, Arizona — 44 miles in a straight line, but at least a 84 mile drive.
Why “at least”: there is no road right at this campsite, so the drive is hard to measure and the real one could be further. Check the route before you set off.
This guide covers five states and does not list every free campsite, so there may be something closer that we do not hold. Check this site’s own rule before you rely on it.
Have you been here?
Fees and access change, and the records do not always keep up. If you have been, tell us what you found.
Thank you, that is recorded. It helps the next person.
Add road notes for this site
The thing we cannot get from any government record is what the drive in is actually like. If you have done it, this is the most useful thing you can leave behind. We read everything before it appears, and we print a first name with it if you give one.
Thank you. A person will read it before it goes on the page.
Where this information comes from
The description on this page is ours. The facts in it, and the fee and facility details below it, come from the Bureau of Land Management’s own records, read in August 2026.