Pennsylvania game lands require 250 square inches of orange from October 1, hunting or not

Starting October 1, walking onto Pennsylvania state game lands without blaze orange is a violation whether or not you are hunting. The state code is specific about the amount: 250 square inches of daylight fluorescent orange on the head, chest and back combined, or an orange hat instead.

The text is 58 Pa. Code 135.41(c)(21), read August 13, 2026. It lists as unlawful to “Be present on State game lands from October 1 through January 31, inclusive, and from April 20 through May 31, inclusive, when not engaged in lawful hunting, trapping or fishing and fail to wear a minimum of 250 square inches of daylight fluorescent orange-colored material on the head, chest and back combined or, in lieu thereof, a hat of the same colored material.”

Read the exemption carefully, because it runs the opposite way from what people assume. Hunters, trappers and anglers are the ones carved out of this particular clause. Hikers, birders, dog walkers and anyone poking around looking for a place to sleep are squarely inside it. The Game Commission’s safe hunting page, checked the same day, states it the same way. Two windows, not one: October 1 through January 31, and then April 20 through May 31.

Game lands are not where you camp anyway

Worth saying before someone plans a trip around this. The only overnight provision we could verify in that chapter is 135.42, for the Appalachian Trail corridor, and it is narrow: no camping more than 200 feet from the designated trail, no more than one night at the same location, and nothing within 500 feet of a spring, stream or public access area.

We found no general camping authorization for game lands, and silence in a regulation is not permission. If you want to camp on game lands somewhere other than the AT corridor, call the region office and get an answer from them.

Where Pennsylvania camping actually is

DCNR state forest land. Backpack and primitive campers can stay in most of a state forest with no permit at all if it is no more than one night in a location, and a permit for longer stays is free. DCNR sets the distances too: not within 200 feet of a forest road, 25 feet of a trail, or 100 feet of a stream or open water, and not in a designated Natural Area. Camping next to the vehicle is a different thing. Motorized roadside camping requires a permit at a designated site, runs $10 a night for residents and $15 for non-residents, is valid for no more than seven consecutive nights, and then you have to be gone 48 hours before you reapply. All checked August 13, 2026, and our Pennsylvania free camping page has the rest.

One honest gap. The orange requirement above is a Game Commission rule for game lands. We checked that chapter, not DCNR’s, so we cannot tell you whether state forest land carries an equivalent requirement, and you should not assume it either way. What is true either way is that the Game Commission picked those dates for a reason, and an orange hat costs less than a tank of gas.

And as always, the posted sign at the parking area and whatever the region office tells you today beat this page.