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Dispersed camping · Arizona and California

BLM Lake Havasu Field Office dispersed camping rules

You can camp up to 14 days in any 28 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 28

Final supplementary rules for the Lake Havasu FO (74 FR 49010, effective Oct 26, 2009), Rule 4: "Dispersed camping in undeveloped areas is authorized without permit for up to 14 days within any 28-day period. After the 14th day, campers must move beyond a 25-mile radius of their previous camp. This does not apply to concessions, public agency leases, and Long-Term Visitor Areas." Stricter area caps: Craggy Wash "is limited to 14 days" with no dispersed camping within one mile of Lake Havasu City limits; Swansea Townsite is designated-sites-only with a 3-days-in-any-30 limit; the Lake Havasu Shoreline boat-in sites carry a "14 day stay limit" (visit page).

Where you can camp

Designated sites in some areas

"Dispersed camping in undeveloped areas is authorized without permit for up to 14 days within any 28-day period" (Rule 4), BUT "overnight camping at the Lake Havasu Shoreline sites, Swansea Townsite and the Three Rivers Riparian District is limited to those recreation sites specifically designated for this use" (Rule 5), and in the Parker Strip Recreation Management Area camping "is authorized at concession resorts, designated BLM campgrounds, or at least one-half mile from paved roads" (Rule 30). Camping is prohibited in the Copper Basin Dunes and Crossroads OHV parking/staging areas. source

Keep your distance

  • 2,640 ft — Parker Strip Recreation Management Area only (Rule 30): outside concession resorts and designated BLM campgrounds, camping is authorized only "at least one-half mile from paved roads" (0.5 mile converted = 2,640 ft). Dispersed camping between Parker Dam Road, the Whipple Mountains, and the adjacent MWD lands "is allowed only in connection with off-highway vehicle recreational activities." source
  • 5,280 ft — Craggy Wash area (Rule 9): "camping is prohibited within one mile of the Lake Havasu City limits" (1 mile converted = 5,280 ft). source

Roads and vehicle access

Ask the district which roads allow camping

BLM travel-management equivalent: the 2009 supplementary rules (Rule 3) restrict motorized use to "existing roads and trails" in the Standard Wash and Shea Road/Osborn Wash OHV use areas pending environmental clearances (status as of the 2009 rule - likely superseded; confirm with the office). Firewood collection is allowed "only within 100 feet of a dispersed campsite" (Rule 1). No current office-specific travel-management or camping-corridor page was verified.

Fires right now

We don't watch this office's fire orders yet — check its own site before you light anything. Here's what stage 1 and stage 2 mean when an order is up.

Closures and special orders

  • Final Supplementary Rules, Lake Havasu Field Office (74 FR 49010, effective Oct 26, 2009) The standing legal layer: 14-days-in-28 dispersed limit with 25-mile move (Rule 4); designated-site-only overnight camping at the Lake Havasu Shoreline, Swansea Townsite, and Three Rivers Riparian District (Rule 5); Parker Strip camping rules including the half-mile paved-road rule and OHV-area camping bans (Rule 30); Craggy Wash camp rules including the one-mile city-limits buffer and 14-day cap; Swansea designated-sites-only with a 3-days-in-30 limit.
  • Lake Havasu Shoreline Sites (designated boat-in campsites) "73 boat access campsites over 20 miles along the Arizona shore of Lake Havasu," first-come first-served with a "14 day stay limit in place"; fees $10/day plus $10/night for up to 6 people. Overnight camping along the shoreline is limited to these designated sites.

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 Lake Havasu Field Office at (928) 505-1200 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, Arizona - Colorado River District.

Before you go