Dispersed camping
Dispersed camping in Montana
Camping outside developed campgrounds is free on most national forest and BLM land — but every forest and field office writes its own rules for how long you can stay, how far from the water, and which roads you can camp along. Here they are for 6 national forests in Montana, each read from that office's own orders and pages.
How long you can stay
Every forest and field office listed here caps a stay at 16 days — but each one counts those days its own way. Some count per location, some across the whole forest, some inside a radius, and the window the days sit in differs too. The counting rule is spelled out on each page below.
| Forest / office | Stay limit | Where you can camp |
|---|---|---|
| Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest | 16 days | Allowed unless posted |
| Bitterroot National Forest | 16 days | Allowed unless posted |
| Custer Gallatin National Forest | 16 days | Designated sites in some areas |
| Flathead National Forest | 16 days | Designated sites in some areas |
| Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest | 16 days | Allowed unless posted |
| Lolo National Forest | 16 days | Allowed unless posted |
"Designated sites in some areas" means camping is generally allowed but certain corridors and high-use areas are limited to marked sites — each page names the orders that draw those lines. We don't list campsites or coordinates anywhere on this site: the rules are ours to summarize, the spot is yours to find.
Fires are a separate rule
None of the pages above says you can have a campfire — that answer changes with the weather. We don't watch fire orders for these particular forests yet, so every page says where to read the current order before you light anything, and the forests we watch have their stage on one list.
What stage 1 and stage 2 mean — and remember the county you drive through sets its own burn rules on private land.
Rules change by forest order and posted signage — confirm with the ranger district or field office before you go. Every page above names the office and, where published, the phone number.