Is it legal to dry camp anywhere on national forest land, or do you have to stay in a designated campground?
The US National Forrest Service website doesn’t mention anything about camping outside of the established campgrounds, but most National Forests don’t have established campgrounds. I have ALWAYS camped in the forests, never had a problem, met a few rangers while camping and never was told that I was doing anything wrong. I have camped in every state west of the Mississippi. Here’s my take on it: You can camp for free in National Forests and there are little restrictions as to where you can do it, but they frown upon cutting trees (for obvious reasons) and some prohibit camp fires. There are very few ranger stations in National Forests, and I never asked permission first. As a rule that I always followed for camping in National Forests was to look for sites that I could plainly see had been used before by other campers. Don’t make lots of noise, clean up your area and if you are drinking, keep the cans and bottles cleaned up the entire time you are drinking; if a ranger comes by and see
