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Dispersed camping · Colorado

BLM Grand Junction Field Office dispersed camping rules

You can camp up to 14 days in any 30 on this field office's land, with some corridors limited to marked sites. The card below is the whole rule set — every line links the order or page it came from, and all of it was checked on .

14 days in any 30

BLM Colorado statewide camping rules (published by this field office as its own fact sheet): "You must not camp longer than 14 days in any 30-day period, at any one location"; after 14 days "you must move at least 30 air miles away" (43 CFR 8365.1-6; 75 FR 32968). The 2024 Western Slope supplementary rule adds designated-site and day-use area restrictions in this field office but no field-office-wide consecutive-day cap beyond the statewide rule.

Where you can camp

Designated sites in some areas

"You must not camp outside of designated campsites and developed campgrounds" in listed areas - including the North Fruita Desert SRMA (18 Road), Bangs SRMA RMZs 1-3, Dolores River SRMA, Palisade Rim SRMA, Grand Valley Shooting Ranges ERMA, Gunnison River Bluffs ERMA, Horse Mountain ERMA, the 18 Road Open OHV Area, Miracle Rock, Mud Springs, and the Pyramid Rock, Unaweep Seep and Dolores River Riparian ACECs (2024 supplementary rule, Table 2). BLM notes "over 1 million acres in the Grand Junction Field Office (including the Dominguez-Escalante NCA)" remain "available for dispersed camping." source

Keep your distance

  • 328 ft — Camping outside designated sites is prohibited "within 100 meters (or approximately 328 feet) of standing historic structures to include, but not limited to, Calamity Camp and New Verde Mine, unless administratively permitted" (2024 supplementary rule, Table 2). The same buffer applies to campfires (Table 1). source
  • Recommended: 200 ft — BLM's national camping guidance recommends camping "at least 200 feet from lakes, rivers, and streams." No GJFO-wide numeric water setback appears in the 2024 supplementary rule; riparian areas are protected instead via designated-site and no-campfire area listings. source

Roads and vehicle access

Check the travel maps

"Vehicles must stay on designated roads and trails" (BLM camping guidance); GJFO travel is governed by its Travel Management map set, and camping in the North Fruita Desert SRMA and the other Table 2 areas is at numbered designated sites. In the Dominguez-Escalante NCA's Ninemile Hill RMA, dispersed camping outside designated sites must be at least 1/4 mile (1,320 ft) from designated motorized routes.

Fires right now

We don't watch this office's fire orders yet — check its own site before you light anything, and the drive out runs on county rules — the Colorado burn ban page has those.

Closures and special orders

  • Final Supplementary Rule - Colorado River Valley, Grand Junction and Kremmling FOs and Dominguez-Escalante NCA (effective Jan 18, 2025) For GJFO: designated-campsite-only areas (Table 2); no campfires outside designated campsites in the Table 1 areas (Bangs, Palisade Rim, 18 Road, riparian ACECs, Gunnison River SRMA corridor); day-use-only areas sunset-sunrise (Table 5); winter mechanized closures Dec 1-May 1 (Table 6); approved portable toilet required at designated undeveloped sites in the North Fruita Desert SRMA, Bangs RMZ 2 and Dolores River SRMA; campfires there only in agency-provided rings or approved fire pans. In the D-E NCA (managed with the Uncompahgre FO): Gunnison River, Ninemile Hill, Cactus Park and Hunting Ground RMAs carry 7-consecutive-day limits, and Gunnison River/Cactus Park/Escalante Canyon RMAs require pack-out toilets and fire pans.

Rules checked against the pages linked above — the full list is below the card.

Rules change by forest order and posted signage — confirm with the Grand Junction Field Office at (970) 244-3000 before you go.

How to read these rules

Dispersed camping means camping outside a developed campground — no fee, no table, no toilet, no water. You pick an already-used spot, pack out everything you brought, and the rules above are the whole deal you're agreeing to. The stay limit counts the way the card says it counts, not the way it counts on the forest next door: some places count per spot, some across the whole forest, some inside a radius, and moving a short distance often doesn't restart the clock.

Distance rules come in two shapes. Keep-away rules ("at least 100 feet from water") protect the thing you're camping near; stay-close rules ("within 300 feet of the road") keep vehicles on ground that can take them. A line marked recommended on the card is the office's guidance, not an order — the rest are enforceable rules, and a posted sign at the site beats everything on this page.

On BLM land the travel maps play the same role a national forest's motor vehicle use map plays: they show which routes are open to vehicles, and camping access usually means staying on those routes and pulling into already-used sites just off them.

Fires are a separate rule with a separate clock. Nothing on this page says you can light one — the card's fire line says where that answer lives today. If a fire is allowed when you get there, buy your wood near camp — hauling firewood from home is how tree-killing pests reach new forests, and the BTU chart says what that local bundle is actually worth.

Where these rules come from

Every rule above was read on the office's own pages and orders on the dates shown — nothing here is borrowed from another forest or an old guidebook. The managing agency is Bureau of Land Management, Colorado - Upper Colorado River District.

Before you go