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Dispersed camping · Colorado

BLM Gunnison 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: "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" (75 FR 32968, via the BLM Colorado camping fact sheet - the rules apply to all BLM-administered public lands in Colorado). The 2024 TRFO/GFO supplementary rule (effective Jan 18, 2025) adds area-specific camping rules in the Silverton SRMA and Alpine Triangle that this field office administers.

Where you can camp

Designated sites in some areas

"Most BLM lands allow dispersed camping unless an area is posted 'Closed to Camping' or has specific restrictions" (BLM camping program page). In the Alpine Triangle (Lake City-Silverton-Ouray high country), "camping is only restricted around historic sites, and dispersed camping is allowed throughout the rest of the area and in developed campgrounds" (2024 TRFO/GFO supplementary rule). Hartman Rocks Recreation Area outside Gunnison has "50 dry/primitive campsites," first come, first served, no fees. source

Keep your distance

  • 150 ft — Alpine Triangle: "You must not camp within 150 feet of a historic structure," and "you must not ignite or maintain a campfire within 150 feet of a historic structure" (2024 TRFO/GFO supplementary rule). source
  • 300 ft — Alpine Triangle: "You must not camp within 300 feet of the Animas Forks district boundary and the Gold Prince Mill National Register Districts." source
  • 30 ft — Silverton SRMA: "You must not park a motorized vehicle more than 30 feet from the edge of a designated travel route or in a manner that causes resource damage" - the vehicle corridor for camping access in that SRMA. source
  • Recommended: 200 ft — BLM's national camping guidance recommends camping "at least 200 feet from lakes, rivers, and streams." No field-office-wide numeric water setback appears in the supplementary rule. source

Roads and vehicle access

Ask the district which roads allow camping

BLM travel-management equivalent of the MVUM rule: mechanized/motorized use only on routes designated open (Silverton TMP for the Silverton SRMA; Gunnison-area travel maps elsewhere); vehicle parking within 30 feet of designated routes in the Silverton SRMA.

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

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 Gunnison Field Office at (970) 642-4940 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.

Before you go