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Dispersed camping · California

Plumas National Forest dispersed camping rules

You can camp up to 14 days on this forest, anywhere that isn't posted closed. 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 stay limit

Order 05-11-25-01 (effective June 24, 2025 through April 30, 2027) prohibits "camping for a period longer than 14 days within a calendar year in any dispersed campsite per Ranger District" - counted per calendar year and per ranger district, not as a rolling window - and caps total camping at 30 days per calendar year across the whole forest. The same order limits developed-campground stays to 14 days per calendar year per district and each campsite to 8 people and 2 vehicles.

Where you can camp

Allowed unless posted

The forest publishes no dispersed-policy page of its own; its stay-limit order regulates camping "in any dispersed campsite per Ranger District" forest-wide. The Pacific Southwest Region's dispersed-camping page puts it this way: "Dispersed camping is the term used for camping anywhere in the National Forest OUTSIDE of a designated campground"; "Typically, dispersed camping is NOT allowed in the vicinity of developed recreation areas such as campgrounds, picnic areas, or trailheads"; and "The best way to find out what areas are open to dispersed camping is to contact the nearest District Office." source

Keep your distance

  • Recommended: 150 ft — Pacific Southwest Region dispersed-camping guidance: "Please place your campsite at least 150 feet from any stream or other water source." Regional R5 guidance covering California's national forests - no Plumas-specific setback distance is published on any forest page or order read today, and this is guidance wording, not a numbered order. source

Roads and vehicle access

Check the motor vehicle use map

The forest's maps page describes the MVUM generally: "The Motor Vehicle Use Map displays National Forest System routes (roads and trails) or areas designated open to motorized travel," with uses by vehicle class and seasonal allowances. No official page read today ties dispersed-camping vehicle access or an off-route parking distance to the MVUM specifically.

Fires right now

We don't watch this forest'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

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 Forest Supervisor's Office, Quincy at (530) 283-2050 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.

The motor vehicle use map is the legal answer to "can I drive in there to camp" — if a road isn't on it, that road is closed to your vehicle, and many forests only allow roadside camping along the roads the map marks for it. It's a free PDF; download it before you lose signal.

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 forest's own pages and orders on the dates shown — nothing here is borrowed from another forest or an old guidebook. The managing agency is U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region (R5).

Before you go