I love waking up to the first hints of sunrise, sitting up in my sleeping bag to watch the sky change color, and looking around to see nothing but wide open landscape. Seriously, nothing quite beats a morning in the middle of nowhere.
In our travels across the American West, this is a common experience for us, because for most of our trips, instead of renting hotel rooms or reserving spots in crowded campgrounds, we use dispersed camping. Also known as boondocking, dispersed camping is free camping, usually on federal- or state-owned land, outside of any established campground.
We enjoy the freedom of camping on public land, and the flexibility it gives us to change plans and camp wherever we want. We’ve camped for free at dozens of different sites across the western US and Canada and have loved every minute of it, though we’ve run into a few challenges too.
In this guide I want to share tips and tricks from our experience on how to find dispersed camping sites, where you are and are not allowed to camp, things to look for, and things to avoid. After all, this land is your land.
What is Public Land?
Public land is owned by the federal or state government and is preserved for conservation or public use. Examples of public land include national parks, state parks, wildlife refuges, federally designated wilderness, and more. The two types of public land I’ve camped on the most (and the ones I’ll focus on here) are run by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the US Forest Service. The BLM manages 247 million acres across the US and the Forest Service manages 193 million acres. Together, that’s 18% of the entire landmass of the country, so there is a lot of land available for dispersed camping.
Dispersed camping is allowed on most public lands
Benefits of Dispersed Camping
- It’s free! This is one of the main reasons we stay on public land on our trips. I strongly believe travel doesn’t need to be expensive, and free camping is a great way to cut costs.
- No reservation required. To be honest, we often don’t plan ahead very well when we’re traveling. I love the freedom to go with the flow without needing to plan months in advance. Often we don’t even know where we’ll sleep until we start looking for a spot that evening. Fortunately, it’s hard to fill up empty deserts and forests.
- You can find real solitude. One of the reasons we love to camp is the chance to get away from the noise and bustle of the city and reconnect with nature. It is a little harder to get in tune with the natural world when there are a dozen generators groaning away all around you. We’ve stayed in plenty of established campgrounds, and we’ll take the quiet and privacy of dispersed camping any day.
Downsides of Dispersed Camping
- There are no facilities. If you like having toilets, fire pits, showers, or Wi-Fi when you camp, this probably isn’t for you. Public land is just that: land. Camping this way requires doing without some things
- Public land is less available in some areas. In many western states, the majority of land is public, but that changes once you go east of the Rocky Mountains. Dispersed camping isn’t really an option in most of the country, so if you want wide open spaces, you’ll have to stick to the deserts, mountains, and forests of the West.
BLM Land Camping
In our experience BLM land is the easiest place to find dispersed camping. There are BLM-operated established campgrounds that have tent sites and sometimes toilets, but usually you have to pay for these (you can find sites on recreation.gov). We prefer skipping the campgrounds and driving out into the middle of BLM land to pick our own site.
BLM land is by far the easiest place to find free dispersed camping. Anywhere on BLM land outside developed campgrounds is free game as long as it doesn’t have signs specifically saying no camping.
The BLM has an incredibly useful online map that we use to locate public land for camping (blm-egis.maps.arcgis.com). You can see a sample of what this map looks like in the image to the right. Yellow indicates BLM land, purple is a national park or monument, and green is national forest.
Here is our typical process for finding a BLM camping site:
- While you still have cell service, pull up the BLM National Data map to identify nearby BLM land (remember, BLM land is yellow).
- Once you’ve found a nearby chunk of BLM land and a general area to camp, use Google maps to drop a pin and get directions to that area (it’s always good practice to have Google maps for the area downloaded to your phone so you aren’t totally reliant on cell service).
- Once you reach the on BLM land, keep going until you find a dirt road (they are everywhere). Turn off and start looking for a good campsite. Lower down in the article I outline some tips for selecting a campsite, but it’s pretty straightforward on BLM land. As long as you’re more than a hundred yards or so from pavement, you’re good.
It really is that simple. I’ve never once had an issue finding somewhere to camp on BLM land. BLM camping has been our go-to for many trips because there is so much land available.
National Forest Camping
US Forest Service land also provides ample opportunities for dispersed camping. We’ve spent countless nights off Forest Service backroads, and we think National Forest camping is some of the best there is. There are usually more restrictions than BLM, though.
While BLM camping is pretty much free-for-all, dispersed camping availability in National Forests depends on the region. In many areas we’ve been able to easily pull off and find a spot, but once we also drove back and forth almost two hours trying to find a legal, safe campsite. Our experience is that National Forest camping is still very easy to find, but just requires a bit more research. Here our a few tips to find a great spot:
- The first step is to find a National Forest area. The Forest Service Interactive Visitor Map is a great tool for finding Forest Service land. You can look in the area you’re traveling and identify the name and boundaries of nearby National Forest. This map is also great for finding established campgrounds, trailheads, fishing sites, and more.
- Once you pick the forest you want to camp in, you need to look up dispersed camping rules for that area. For example, if I decided I wanted to camp in the Modoc National Forest in northern California, I would Google search Modoc National Forest dispersed camping. The first search result is the official fs.usda.gov site. This site has great information on dispersed camping in the Medoc National Forest. At the top of the page it says “Most of the forest is open to those who prefer the quiet and solitude of a completely undeveloped setting.” That’s great for us! At the bottom of the page you can find a list of specific areas for dispersed camping with links to more information.
- This process works for pretty much any National Forest. Just Google search <forest name> National Forest dispersed camping, and the first result will almost always be the one you want. It is important to do this because restrictions vary from one forest to the next.
- One final resource that has helped us find great National Forest dispersed camping is freecampsites.net. This is exactly what it sounds like. It is a great website with an interactive map that shows free campsites all over the country. The best part is that each campsite shows reviews and information entered by other users.
Selecting a Campsite
Once you make it to a dispersed camping area on BLM land or a National Forest, there are some best practices for picking a site to set up for the night.
- Follow dirt roads. You’ll have the best luck finding a good spot to camp by leaving the pavement behind. Sometimes we just turn off a few hundred yards from the highway, and sometimes we have to drive miles along dirt to find a spot.
- Use an existing site. It’s always best to camp on a spot someone has used before. Look for a flat spot with tire marks, flattened grass, improvised fire rings, or other signs of use. By reusing someone else’s spot you minimize your impact on vegetation and wildlife.
- Get off the road. Never park directly on a dirt road or trail, even if you don’t think anyone will be using it. We usually try to be out of sight from any roads as much as possible.
Take Care of Your Land
Dispersed camping on National Forest or BLM land is an incredible way to experience the outdoors. It is important that we all do our part to preserve these wild lands for future generations and for the plants and wildlife that rely on them for survival. Here are a few things you can do to minimize your impact and help protect public land.
Leave No Trace
While it is great to get out and experience public lands, don’t let your recreation do harm. Always try to leave a campsite better than you found it. Pack out everything you bring in. I’ve visited dozens of popular dispersed camping areas that are covered in litter. Your trash is your responsibility.
Be Careful With Fire
One of the biggest threats to National Forests is human-started wildfire. When dispersed camping, there are no established metal fire pits or manicured campsites, so it is more important than ever to use extreme caution with campfires.
First, know the fire conditions and restrictions in the area you’re camping in. If you are not absolutely certain that campfires are legal in an area, don’t light one. Just because you find an improvised fire ring, or someone else has a fire, doesn’t mean it is legal or smart.
If you do build a campfire, make sure you are far away from dry grass or undergrowth, have water and a shovel on hand at all times, and put your fire dead out when you leave. “If it’s too hot to touch, it’s too hot to leave.”
Get Involved
Do more than just enjoy the outdoors and play a role in preserving public lands by getting involved in conservation efforts. Learn about land-use issues near you and start playing an active role. The Wilderness Society has great ideas of how you can join the movement to protect public lands.