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Dispersed camping · Oregon

Rogue River-Siskiyou 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 06-10-01-26-08 (in effect June 1, 2026 - May 31, 2028) prohibits "camping or otherwise occupying a single location (including leaving camping equipment and/or related supplies) for a period longer than 14 consecutive days" and camping at any location "for more than 28 days total during a calendar year." Location is defined as "the occupied area, the occupied campsite, and the National Forest System land[s] in the immediate vicinity thereof, and the lands within a 5-mile radius" - moving less than 5 miles is the same location.

Where you can camp

Allowed unless posted

The forest publishes no single forest-wide dispersed-camping policy sentence. It manages named free dispersed camping areas with posted site rules (Grassy Flats Dispersed Campsites: "Maximum length of stay: 14 days," "No fees are required for this site"; also Redwood Bar, Nook Bar, South Fork and Game Lake dispersed areas). The Ashland Municipal Watershed is "closed to camping and campfires for public safety and to protect the municipal water supply" by standing order. source

Keep your distance

  • 100 ft — Sky Lakes Wilderness rules on the forest's wilderness page: "Campsites and fires prohibited within 100 feet from lakes." Scope: Sky Lakes Wilderness (Rogue River-Siskiyou portion); not verified as a forest-wide rule. source
  • 50 ft — Same Sky Lakes Wilderness rules: campsites and fires prohibited within "50 feet from streams or springs." Scope: Sky Lakes Wilderness only. source

Roads and vehicle access

Check the motor vehicle use map

None of the official pages read for this entry state whether motorized access to dispersed sites is tied to MVUM-designated routes or camping corridors. Check the forest's Motor Vehicle Use Map for the road you plan to use.

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 at (541) 618-2200 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 Northwest Region (R6).

Before you go