One BLM field office in Colorado is in two fire restriction stages at once

The BLM’s Kremmling Field Office in Colorado is under two different fire restriction stages at the same time, and the line between them is a county boundary. That is not a website error. It is how prevention orders work, and it is worth understanding before you assume the field office you looked up has one answer.

Here is what the BLM Northwest District fire restrictions page says, checked August 24, 2026. BLM land in Summit, Grand and Eagle Counties inside the Kremmling Field Office went to Stage 2 on June 26 and stays there “until rescinded or amended.” BLM land in Jackson and Larimer Counties inside the same field office “remain in stage 1 fire restrictions until rescinded or amended.”

What that costs you at camp

The two stages are not close.

Under Stage 1, per the same page, “campfires are only allowed within designated fire grates in developed campgrounds (fire pans and rock campfire rings are not acceptable).” No fires of any type, including charcoal, outside a developed area.

Under Stage 2, building, attending or using a fire, campfire, charcoal grill, coal or wood burning stove is prohibited “in any location,” and the page spells out that this includes developed camping and picnic grounds. Devices using pressurized liquid or gas are exempted.

So a metal grate in a campground on the Grand County side is off limits. The same grate in a campground on the Jackson County side is legal. Same agency, same field office, one drive apart.

Colorado has no single answer right now

Check the other three districts and the pattern holds. The Upper Colorado River District lists the Colorado River Valley and Grand Junction field offices in Stage 2 since June 26, both until rescinded. The Rocky Mountain District has Royal Gorge and San Luis Valley reduced to Stage 1 effective August 18, 2026. The Southwest District lifted Stage 2 in the Uncompahgre and Gunnison field offices and keeps Stage 1 “in effect through Dec. 31, 2026, or until rescinded.”

That December 31 date is the one most people miss. Stage 1 in southwest Colorado is written to run through hunting season and into winter, not until the next rain.

Two official BLM pages disagree on one detail, and we are not going to pick a winner. The August 20 announcement says Stage 1 took effect August 21 in Uncompahgre and Gunnison. The Southwest District page dates the change August 20 at 12:01 a.m. If your trip turns on that day, call the field office.

How to actually check

Do not stop at the state fire page. It carries the year-round rules and links to four district pages, and it does not list which stage each field office is in. The stage lives on the district page, and the counties live there too. The district pages also carry this line: all fire restrictions are current unless the rescission order is posted.

Then read the posted sign at the site and take the land manager’s current word over ours. For how these orders are structured, see our guide to fire restrictions, and for what is open in the state, free camping in Colorado.