Finding out that national forests have a vast amount of land that is available for free public camping is pretty shocking for anyone who has paid upwards of $60 a night to stay in a campground. It’s hard to go wrong with free, but there are certainly pros and cons to dispersed camping.
The primary con with dispersed camping, in my opinion, is the need to study up on the guidelines before each trip. It takes quite a bit more planning to pull off than simply booking a reservation at a state park. Especially true if it is your first dispersed trip.
Don’t get me wrong, the rules are pretty simple, but you certainly need to brush up on them each time you head out or look into the rules specific to the area you’ll be heading to. Yes, they are a bit different for each region you’ll visit. And yes, they do get updated from time to time.
But, for today, let’s just tackle how long you can stay in a National Forest while dispersed camping.
14 days is the most common length of time national forests allow dispersed camping in a single location. However, there isn’t a universal length of time that dispersed camping is allowed, as it actually varies by location. Contacting the field office closest to your desired location is the best way to know the actual guidelines.
Some locations allow more, and some allow less. Most have other stipulations like how often you can return to a site or region within a calendar year. For example, you might not be allowed to return to a site within a 30-day window, or a 6-month window, or even until the next calendar year.
All of that needs more explanation and a bit of info on where to find the right information for your region. Be sure to check out the video at the end of this post where I walk you through the NFS website to locate dispersed information for any region.
Do The Guidelines Really Vary That Much?
The more you take part in dispersed camping the more you will realize just how similar all of the guidelines are. It’s a bit like driving across the country. The basic rules of driving are the same but, things like speed limits, registration fees, and use of daylight headlights vary by state. This is the case for camping guidelines, they are mostly the same with a few variations.
Even after just doing a little digging around on the National Forest Service website you’ll get a feel for the type of things that stay the same like leave no trace protocol and the things that differ like how long you can stay or how far you will need to travel to continue a camping trip after your time in one location is up.
The biggest variance I see, is length of stay. This is quite different and changes over time for each site. It has a lot to do with how heavily an area is traveled. In order to limit the deterioration of a region, the total amount of time per year anyone can camp goes down as the popularity of a region goes up. Or in other words, the more people that travel to a region, the longer the duration between visits gets. Even upwards of an entire year between visits.
Common Length of Stay Variations: Real Examples
- Klamath National Forest, CA (Redwoods): 14 days in one location and no more than 30 days total in a year.
- Lake Tahoe Basin, NV: NO DISPERSED CAMPING. Paid and Permitted Wilderness Camping is available for up to 14 days. $15 per person for the full 14 days. Quotas are in effect seasonally, so there is a possibility of not gaining permission depending on the time of year. Total days a year will vary depending on quotas.
- Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands, CO: 14 days in one location, and no more than 28 days in a 60 day period if using different sites. Different sites must be 3 miles away from each other. That would be roughly 170 total days in a year.
- Inyo National Forest, CA: Up to 28 days within a 6 month period on any one district. There are 4 total districts. If utilizing each district then you can stay a total of 224 days in a single year.
- Fishlake National Forest, UT: No more than 16 days at a single site. You cannot return to the same site or within 5 miles of it in a calendar year. At 1.5 million acres, if you really plan this one out, you could probably stay every day of the year. 🙂
Utah, by the way, is an amazing state to disperse camp. There is a plethora of land, and they tend to have pretty similar guidelines throughout the state. Makes planning the trip out a bit easier. Their web content is pretty top-notch as well. Which is great, but that’s just a side tangent. Back to the article.
Where Do I Find The Guidelines For My Region?
In order to find the information to the location you’re hoping to visit, you simply visit the National Forest Service website and locate the dispersed content for that region. There is an endless amount of information and a plethora of links on these forest services sites, so we thought it would be best to simply show you in a quick 40 second video.
Don’t forget to call in, especially if you’re new to the area, to ensure you have all the info you need before setting out. It is the best way to ensure you have the current information. Things can change for a variety of reasons, including weather, fire, overuse, etc. Just let the rangers know you’re new to the area or to dispersed camping. They’re really helpful. They will do all they can to educate you in order to have the best trip out, and a safe one at that.
Please don’t get me wrong here, they don’t change information every hour or week. It’s not as if you need to quit your day job just to keep up with guidelines. But, if you’ve never been or haven’t been since last season it cannot hurt to call in.