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Dispersed camping · Colorado

BLM Kremmling 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"; then "you must move at least 30 air miles away" (75 FR 32968, via the BLM Colorado camping fact sheet). The 2024 Western Slope supplementary rule (effective Jan 18, 2025) additionally caps any one location in this field office at 7 consecutive days from April 1-August 31 and 14 consecutive days from September 1-March 31, "unless otherwise authorized in writing by the BLM."

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 this field office the 2024 supplementary rule restricts camping to designated campsites and developed campgrounds "within 0.25-mile of the Colorado River of the Upper Colorado River SRMA" (the Pumphouse-Radium-State Bridge corridor) and in listed areas including the Wolford Mountain open OHV area and RMZ 3, fishing accesses (Sunset, Windy Gap, Fraser River, Reeder Creek), Sidewinder Jeep Trail parking, the North Sand Hills Instant Study Area, and several archaeological sites. BLM notes "over 300,000 acres in the Kremmling Field Office" remain open to dispersed camping. source

Keep your distance

  • 50 ft — "In areas open to dispersed camping, you must not camp outside of designated sites within 50 feet of any spring, pond, lake, or perennial stream" (2024 Western Slope supplementary rule, Kremmling FO restrictions). source
  • 300 ft — Vehicle corridor rule: in areas with limited travel designations, motorized and mechanized travel is "allowed up to 300 feet from designated motorized or mechanized transport routes for direct access to dispersed campsites or parking" (no resource damage, no new routes). In the Wolford Mountain Travel Management Area the allowance is only 50 feet. source
  • 100 ft — Waste rule that shapes site choice: where no toilet is provided or required, human waste must be buried at least 6 inches deep "at least 100 feet from the edge of a river or any other water source." source

Roads and vehicle access

Ask the district which roads allow camping

BLM travel-management equivalent of the MVUM rule: travel limited to designated routes in limited-travel areas; 300-ft off-route access to dispersed campsites (50 ft in the Wolford Mountain TMA); over-snow travel off designated routes requires 12+ inches of snow cover.

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 Kremmling FO: designated-campsite-only areas (Table 2); day-use-only sunset-sunrise at BLM recreation sites without camping facilities (Table 5); winter mechanized closures Dec 15-Apr 15 in the Wolford Mountain TMA/SRMA and North Sand Hills SRMA (Table 6); fires limited to 3 ft diameter; no digging or leveling at campsites; in the Upper Colorado River SRMA an approved portable toilet and fire pan are required to camp, fresh ash may only be left at Pumphouse, Radium and State Bridge, and wood collection is limited to driftwood; North Sand Hills has its own camping-area speed and glass rules; seasonal 7-day (Apr-Aug) / 14-day (Sep-Mar) consecutive stay caps.

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 Kremmling Field Office at (970) 724-3000 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