Four national forest stay limit orders, four different numbers. None of them is 14 days in 28.

The Angeles National Forest allows you 21 total days of camping in a calendar year. Not 21 days at one site, and not a window that refills. Twenty-one days on that forest, all year, and no more than 7 of them in a row outside a developed campground. That is Forest Order 05-01-24-12, read on August 19, 2026.

Two weeks ago we wrote that the Forest Service has no nationwide 14-day rule, that the number comes from a local order, and that we would not guess at yours because we had not read it. Here are four of them.

What the orders say

Angeles National Forest and San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Order 05-01-24-12 prohibits camping outside a developed campground for more than 7 consecutive days in a calendar year, camping outside a developed campground within 300 feet of the centerline of any city, county or state road for more than 3 days in a calendar year, camping inside a developed campground for more than 14 consecutive days in a calendar year, and camping for more than 21 total days in a calendar year. It runs through December 15, 2026.

Mendocino National Forest. Order 08-25-16, effective October 7, 2025 through October 8, 2027, prohibits camping within a one-mile radius of the same location outside a developed recreation site for longer than 14 days in any 30-day period, and for more than 28 cumulative days in any 12-month period. It separately prohibits camping within one mile of a developed recreation site at all.

Umatilla, Wallowa-Whitman and Malheur National Forests. One prohibition, three forests, three matching order numbers signed together and effective May 26, 2026 for two years: “Camping on the Umatilla, Wallowa-Whitman, and Malheur National Forests for a period longer than 14 consecutive days within any 30-day period.”

Cleveland National Forest. Order 02-24-03 set 14 consecutive days outside a developed campground, 14 inside one, 28 total days in a calendar year, and 14 total days within 300 feet of a road centerline. Its own text runs “from July 13, 2024, through July 12, 2026.” That date has passed and the alert is still posted. We do not know what replaced it, so we are not going to tell you what the Cleveland allows today. The supervisor’s office number on the alert is 858-673-6180.

Why the numbers do not swap

A calendar-year cap and a rolling window behave nothing alike. Spend your 21 days on the Angeles and you are done there until January. Spend 14 on the Umatilla and the window starts refilling the next day as old days age out.

The 300-foot clause is the one that catches people out. Angeles gives you 3 days within 300 feet of a road centerline. Cleveland’s expired order gave 14. Most dispersed sites anyone actually drives to sit inside that band, which means the tighter number is often the one that governs your trip, not the headline one.

Finding yours

Open your forest’s page on fs.usda.gov, go to Alerts, and look for an occupancy, camping or stay limit order. Then read the order text rather than the summary above it. The Angeles alert summarizes its own order with a start date of December 16, 2022 while the order text says December 16, 2024. Read the order.

Then read the sign when you get there. A posted order and the district ranger’s current word beat any website, this one included. Our stay limits guide covers how the BLM side counts, and national forest camping rules covers the rest of what these orders sit on top of.