Dispersed camping in Michigan

49 known and designated sites on federal land here, all of them Forest Service. That is what the agencies have digitized, and it is not everywhere you may legally camp.

49Known sites

7Recorded no fee

3Units

Before you go

the part of this page that matters most

It is 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.
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.
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.
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.
Public land only.
Everything here is on national forest or BLM ground. Rest areas, truck stops and store parking lots are not public lands, the rules there belong to somebody else, and they are not on this map.

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

Source: BLM camping rules on public lands, and 43 CFR 8360 · Aug 26, 2026

Where they are in Michigan

49 mapped

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…© OpenFreeMap · OpenStreetMap · Esri hillshade

Source: USFS EDW recreation opportunities and BLM national recreation points, unified by CAMPANAC · Aug 26, 2026

The register · 49

grouped by the unit that administers them

This is a register of known and designated sites, not a national inventory. It holds the places two agencies have digitized as points and the road corridors one forest has digitized as lines. Dispersed camping is legal in a great many places that appear nowhere in it, and a place that appears in it can still be closed today. In Michigan, 45 of the 49 rows sit in Hiawatha National Forest and Huron-Manistee National Forests alone.

Hiawatha National Forest40 sites

Bass Lake Campsites

May 15 to Columbus Day

Dispersed areaFee

Before you go

Where they are in Michigan

The register · 49

Hiawatha National Forest40 sites

Huron-Manistee National Forests5 sites

Ottawa National Forest4 sites

Other states