The Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests cap camping at 14 days in 30 and 30 days in any 365

You can camp on the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests for 14 days in any 30-day period, and for 30 days in any 365-day period. That second number is the one a regular weekend camper on the forests west of Fort Collins, Boulder and Denver runs into first. We read the order on November 4, 2026.

What the order says

Forest Order ARP-2024-02 has one prohibition: “Camping for more than 14 days in a 30-day period or more than 30 days in a 365-day period.” It covers “all National Forest System (NFS) lands within the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland.” It runs from May 24, 2024 “through May 23, 2029 at 11:59 p.m., unless rescinded.” A violation is a Class B misdemeanor, with a fine of up to $5,000 for an individual, up to six months in jail, or both.

The order names no move distance and no per-site limit. It counts camping days on all of the forest’s land, so read plainly, moving to another spot doesn’t restart either count. That’s a different shape from the Colorado BLM and White River rules on our Colorado page, which pair 14 days with a required move of 30 air miles or 20 miles. It’s also stricter than the Coconino order in Arizona, which has the same 14 in 30 and no annual cap.

The math on 30 days

Two full 14-day stays use 28 of your 30 days. After that you have 2 days left on these forests until the first stay starts rolling out of the window. The order says “a 365-day period”, not “calendar year”, so a reset on January 1 isn’t something the text gives you.

Weekends add up faster than they feel. If each night counts as a day, two nights every weekend is about 8 or 9 a month, and that hits 30 in under four months. The order doesn’t say whether a day means a night or a calendar day. If the difference matters for your plan, ask the forest at (970) 295-6600 or [email protected].

The designated-site areas

The stay limit sits on top of Forest Order ARP-2024-03, also in force through May 23, 2029. Inside its described areas on the Canyon Lakes, Boulder, Clear Creek and Sulphur ranger districts and the Pawnee, you can camp and build a fire only “in campgrounds and dispersed campsites designated and provided by the Forest Service.” Outside those sites, you can’t be in the described areas from sundown to sunrise. Dogs go on a leash six feet or shorter.

The order’s list also includes a bare “Going into or being in the Described Areas,” which the alert page doesn’t explain. The boundaries, and whatever that line covers, live in six exhibit maps attached to the order. We haven’t read the maps, so we can’t tell you which roads they cover. Open the one for your district before you pick a spot. The alerts page lists several smaller area orders as well.

What to do

1. Keep a running count of camping days across the whole forest and grassland, back 365 days. If your count works differently from ours, call (970) 295-6600 before you plan around it.
2. Before you pick a spot on the Canyon Lakes, Boulder, Clear Creek or Sulphur districts or the Pawnee, open the ARP-2024-03 exhibit for that district.
3. Read the sign at the road. The posted order and the ranger beat this page and any other website.

For how forest stay limits get set in the first place, see our piece on national forest stay limits.