You cannot camp within 1 mile of the Hot Springs, Tamarisk and Pilot Knob LTVAs, or within 2 miles of Midland

If you are planning to skip the LTVA permit by camping on free BLM ground just past the boundary, check which LTVA it is first. The BLM’s Long Term Visitor Area supplementary rules ban camping within 1 mile outside Hot Springs, Tamarisk and Pilot Knob, and within 2 miles outside Midland. All four are in California. We read the rule on October 19, 2026.

What the rule says

Rule 26 of the supplementary rules, titled Perimeter Camping, is one sentence:

“Do not camp within 1 mile outside the boundaries of Hot Springs, Tamarisk, and Pilot Knob LTVAs and within 2 miles outside the boundary of Midland LTVA.”

It appears in the rules brochure linked from the La Posa page, and in full on the BLM’s Midland LTVA page. The brochure says the rules “apply yearlong to all public land users who enter the LTVAs”, so this is not a winter-only rule. Breaking it can get you a citation, and if you hold a permit the BLM can revoke it.

The El Centro Field Office manages Hot Springs, Tamarisk and Pilot Knob, all reached from Interstate 8 between El Centro and Yuma. Midland, 8 miles north of Blythe, sells its permits through the Palm Springs-South Coast Field Office.

What it leaves out

The rule names four LTVAs. It does not name La Posa at Quartzsite, Imperial Dam or Mule Mountain. That is not a permission. Ordinary BLM rules still govern the land around them. The BLM’s long-term camping brochure puts the free-camping limit outside an LTVA at 14 days in any 28-day period, then a move outside a 25-mile radius, “unless otherwise posted”. The supplementary rules also bar overnight camping in desert washes inside La Posa and Imperial Dam.

The rule also does not tell you where the boundary is, and a mile from a line you cannot see is hard to judge from a phone. The posted signs, and the host at the entrance, are your best guide, and they beat this page. Rule 31 says the same thing: where a posted rule differs, the posted rule wins.

What the permit costs

The short-visit permit is $40 for 14 consecutive days and can be renewed. The long-term permit is $180 for September 15 to April 15. The El Centro pages for all three of its LTVAs also list an “$80 4-week stay”. The Yuma and Palm Springs pages do not list it, so ask the El Centro Field Office, 760-337-4400, before you count on it. Midland’s page says the $40 is the minimum: “These sites are not considered overnight campgrounds.”

If you were heading for La Posa, free camping near Quartzsite exists, but the BLM’s own long-term camping brochure, dated 2018 and still linked from the La Posa page, calls it “limited” and says there are “five designated camping areas” without naming them. Call the Yuma Field Office, (928) 317-3200, for the current list rather than trusting a forum’s.

What to do

Pick a site well clear of the four named LTVAs, or buy the permit. If you go with an LTVA, your rig needs a fixed waste tank of at least 10 gallons at four of the seven LTVAs the supplementary rules name, and at the other three unless you camp within 500 feet of a vault toilet, which our LTVA waste tank piece covers. The LTVA explainer covers the permit model, and the California free camping page covers the state.