Free Camp Guide
Wildflowers and grassland above Kiger Gorge, Steens Mountain, Oregon

Free camping on public land

464 places across five western states where you can sleep without paying a penny. No booking, no permit fee, no gate. Just the coordinates, the road in, and an honest account of what you will and will not find when you get there.

Find somewhere to camp What to take

Kiger Gorge, Oregon · Greg Shine, BLM

464places to camp on public land, across five states
312confirmed free by the agency that manages the land
123open areas where you can camp anywhere inside the boundary
$0a night. Every single one, or it is not on this site

Where do you want to go?

Sunset over the black lava flows at Craters of the Moon, IdahoCraters of the Moon Idaho 177 places · 118 confirmed free Snow-capped Mount Bachelor above forest and lakes, OregonMount Bachelor Oregon 97 places · 76 confirmed free Red sandstone cliffs above Zion Canyon, UtahZion National Park Utah 87 places · 28 confirmed free Sunset over the San Francisco Peaks and pine meadows near Flagstaff, ArizonaSan Francisco Peaks Arizona 53 places · 41 confirmed free Trapper Peak in the Bitterroot Mountains above autumn cottonwoods, MontanaTrapper Peak Montana 50 places · 49 confirmed free

Free means free

A place is listed here only if it costs nothing to sleep there. Not cheap. Not free in the off season. If a permit costs money, it is not on this site.

Where free open land has a paid campground sitting inside it, we say so at the top of the page. You will never have to hunt for it in the small print.

The things you need

Most directories tell you a place exists. We tell you what you want to know before driving three hours down a gravel road: is there drinking water, is there a toilet, how long can you stay, and what does the ground look like from above.

No guessing

Fee records disagree with each other more often than you would think. Where they do, we say so plainly. We do not quietly pick whichever answer suits us. Where nobody states a fee at all, we write exactly that.

Going somewhere with no water and no toilet?

Most of these sites have neither. Here is what experienced dispersed campers actually carry.

What to take

State photographs, all public domain: Craters of the Moon, National Park Service · Mount Bachelor, Lyn Topinka, US Geological Survey · Zion National Park, Vulturesong · San Francisco Peaks, Coconino National Forest · Trapper Peak, Roger Peterson, US Forest Service. Each one is a landmark our listings in that state are near. Every campsite page shows an aerial photograph of that actual place instead.