stay limit (the 14-day rule)

For your trip, the practical version is short: two weeks in one place is a safe planning assumption almost anywhere you'd legally disperse-camp, and anything longer than that needs a phone call. The Forest Service's own Pacific Southwest Region page puts it about as plainly as a government page gets -- you may camp in a dispersed area "for a limited period of time, usually 14 days, but this can be further limited in some National Forest areas." The Intermountain Region won't even commit to a number: "You may camp in a dispersed area for a limited number of days set by the forest. After the limit, you must move to another dispersed area. (Check with forest for limits)." On the BLM side, the national camping page says dispersed camping is "generally limited to 14 days within any 28-day period," and then tells you to check with your local BLM office for area-specific rules. Both agencies are saying the same thing in different words: 14 is the default expectation, not the law.

Here's where the number actually comes from, because this is the part that surprises people. Look up the federal camping regulation for national forests -- 36 CFR 261.58 -- and it opens with "When provided by an order, the following are prohibited," then lists "(a) Camping for a period longer than allowed by the order." That's it. No fourteen. The BLM's equivalent, 43 CFR 8365.1-2, is even terser: it's illegal to "camp longer than the period of time permitted by the authorized officer." The number lives in a forest order or a field office's supplementary rules -- a signed, dated, posted document specific to that patch of dirt. Which means the rule you're subject to has an author, a number, and usually an expiration date, and it is genuinely different one forest over.

How different? Real examples, all currently posted by the forests themselves. Plumas National Forest (Order 05-11-25-01) allows 14 days in a dispersed site *per calendar year, per ranger district*, and caps you at 30 days of camping on the whole forest for the year. Cleveland National Forest (Order 02-24-03) prohibits camping outside a developed campground "for more than 14 consecutive days in a calendar year" and more than 28 total days in a calendar year. Mendocino allows 14 days in any 30-day period, but only outside a one-mile radius of a developed recreation site, and no more than 28 cumulative days in any 12-month period. Apache-Sitgreaves allows "no more than 14 days in a 30-day period," and then adds the kicker: "After 14 days of camping on the Forest, you must move off of the Forest for at least 16 days." Same headline number, four completely different rules. A calendar year, a rolling 30 days, a rolling 28 -- and "per district" versus "per forest" changes what moving even accomplishes.

Now the 25 miles, which is the single most misquoted number in dispersed camping. It is a BLM convention, not a Forest Service one, and it is not a reset button you buy by driving. BLM's Southern Nevada District spells out the full mechanic: you may not occupy undeveloped public land "for more than fourteen (14) days within a Twenty-eight (28) consecutive day interval"; that 28-day interval "begins when an occupant initially occupies a specific site"; and after your 14 days, you and your property "must relocate to a site outside of at least a 25-mile radius, from the occupied site or non-BLM administered land for a period of fourteen (14) days." Read that last clause twice. The 25-mile move doesn't hand you a fresh 14 days at the new spot -- it's the *minimum distance* you have to be, for the *balance of the 28-day window*, before you're allowed back. The distance also isn't universal; BLM's national page says the move is "often at least 25 to 30 miles away," which is agency-speak for look it up.

The catch, and the three ways people get burned. One: shuffling doesn't work. Moving the rig 200 yards down the same spur is the classic move, and every rule quoted above is written specifically to defeat it -- the clock is attached to you and the area, not to the exact patch of gravel. Two: watch for the second, larger number, because it's usually cumulative and it's the one nobody reads. Cleveland caps you at "28 total days in a calendar year," Mendocino at "no more than 28 cumulative days in any 12-month period," Plumas at 30 days total for the year -- those totals add up across separate trips, so a season of long weekends in the same forest can quietly spend your whole allotment without you ever staying 14 nights in a row. Three: orders expire and get reissued with new numbers. Mendocino's runs to October 2027, Cleveland's was written for a two-year window ending in 2026 -- so "I checked that forest's stay limit once" is worth about as much as last season's fire restrictions. Check the alerts page for the specific forest or field office, and if there's a sign at the dispersed area, the sign wins. When in doubt, 14 days and then a real move is the answer that's legal essentially everywhere, and it's better for the site anyway.