BLM Dispersed Camping Rules: Stay Limits, Fire Rules, and How to Know You're Legal

Dispersed camping on BLM land is free, reservation-free, and legal across most of the American West. It's also governed by rules that are easy to break by accident: stay limits, water setbacks, fire restrictions, and vehicle rules that vary by district. Here's the rulebook that keeps you legal and keeps the land open.

Ready to find a spot? Browse the Free Campground Directory for no-reservation sites on public land.

What "dispersed camping" actually means

Dispersed camping is camping outside of designated campgrounds on undeveloped public land. No numbered sites, no picnic tables, no toilets, no water, no trash cans, no fees, no reservations. The BLM allows it on most BLM-administered land unless an area is posted closed or restricted. The National Park Service, by contrast, generally prohibits camping outside designated sites, so don't assume "public land" means "camp anywhere."

The stay limit: 14 days, then move

The core rule: 14 days of camping in one location within any 28-day period. After the 14th day, you must move, and the required distance is real: BLM guidance commonly requires moving outside a five-mile radius of the previous site, and some areas require 25 miles. Moving to the next pullout down the road does not count.

This rule exists to limit human impact, and rangers do enforce it. If you're planning a longer stay in one region, plan a rotation: two weeks here, two weeks at a site well outside the radius, and so on. Track your arrival date. "I lost count" is not a defense anyone accepts.

Where you can and can't set up

• Use existing sites. Look for the telltale signs: flattened ground, a stone fire ring, a well-worn pullout. The BLM explicitly asks campers to reuse established spots rather than creating new ones. Crushing new ground, especially fragile desert soils and cryptobiotic crust, causes damage that lasts decades.
• Stay back from water. The common BLM guidance is at least 100 feet from water sources; some areas require 200 feet. Setbacks protect water quality and wildlife access.
• Stay clear of developed areas. Don't camp inside or immediately adjacent to developed campgrounds, picnic areas, or trailheads unless the area specifically allows it.
• Follow the Motor Vehicle Use Map on national forests. This is the one first-timers get wrong. On Forest Service land, the MVUM is the legal document that says which numbered roads you may drive and how far off them you may pull to camp. That pull-off distance is set per forest: 150 feet in some, 300 feet in others. Your camping app is a scouting tool. The MVUM decides whether you're legal. Download it offline before you go.
• Watch for closures. Fire closures, seasonal road closures, and wildlife protections change the map. A gate or washout that appeared after the satellite image was taken won't show on your phone. Check with the local BLM field office or ranger district before committing to a route.

Fire rules: the rule within the rule

Campfires are allowed on BLM land unless fire restrictions are in place, and restrictions are common across the West from late spring through fall. Always check current restrictions with the local office before you go. Practical habits that keep you out of trouble:

• Carry a camp stove with a shutoff valve. During many fire seasons, dispersed campfires get banned forest-wide while stoves remain legal.
• Use existing fire rings. Don't build new ones.
• Keep fires small, never leave one unattended, and keep a shovel and water nearby.
• In some California and high-risk areas, a free campfire permit is required even when fires are allowed.

Leave No Trace is the price of admission

Pack out all trash and human waste. There are no trash cans, no toilets, no dumpsters. Heavy-use areas have already been closed because of trash and human waste problems; the Cascade Lakes roadside sites near Bend are a well-known example. Every closure shrinks the map for everyone. Bring a shovel, bring bags, and leave the site cleaner than you found it.

How to find legal spots

My workflow: start with a directory or app (like the one on our homepage) to find candidate areas, then verify. Check the BLM field office or national forest page for the specific unit: stay limits, fire restrictions, road conditions, and closures. Scout with satellite view for existing clearings and access roads, then confirm the road is legal on the MVUM. Arrive with at least two hours of daylight left, because unsigned forest roads are always worse than the satellite view suggests, and picking a site in the dark is how people get stuck.