Dispersed camping in California

1. It’s legal in most places, and not in every place.

   Dispersed camping is camping outside a developed campground, on land the public owns. The BLM allows it on most of its land unless an area is posted closed or carries a specific restriction, and most national forests allow it outside developed sites. One forest order or one field office rule can close a whole drainage for a season, and a posted sign beats anything on this page.

2. The Motor Vehicle Use Map decides where you can drive.

   A national forest publishes an MVUM saying which roads are open, to which vehicles, in which months, and where you may pull off a road to camp. The corridors here are read from the Forest Service’s own MVUM data and carry the date we read it. Districts reissue these maps, so a corridor drawn from an older reading is a picture of an older rule.

3. Fourteen days, then move.

   The BLM limits dispersed camping to about 14 days in any 28-day period and asks you to move on afterwards, often 25 to 30 miles; stay limits vary by state and field office, and most forest districts set something similar. Keep vehicles on designated roads and trails, camp in a spot already used within about 150 feet of a route, stay 200 feet from lakes and streams, and pack everything out.

4. Call the district office.

   Fire restrictions, road washouts and seasonal gates move faster than any dataset, including this one. Every row below that carries the agency’s own page for the place links to it, and that page carries the office and the phone number.

5. Public land only.

   Everything here is on national forest or BLM ground. Rest areas, truck stops and store parking lots aren’t public lands, the rules there belong to somebody else, and they aren’t on this map.

Site records read Aug 26, 2026. 43 CFR 8360 is the BLM’s own regulation.