- The fine print
- Sawtooth NRA has a 10-in-30 limit per collapsed FAQ not captured in fetch; left null.
Idaho lists 809 federal recreation facilities: 739 by the Forest Service, 59 by BLM, 11 by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Scale, not a free-camping count: this counts federal recreation facilities of every kind (trailheads, day-use sites, boat ramps, developed campgrounds), and most are not free dispersed camping. Source: Recreation.gov RIDB, retrieved 2026-07-18.
Named areas where free camping is currently allowed
- Salmon-Challis National Forest (forest-wide dispersed camping)US Forest Service · Stay limit: 14 days
- Sawtooth National Forest (forest-wide primitive camping)US Forest Service
- Caribou-Targhee National Forest (forest-wide dispersed camping)US Forest Service · Stay limit: 14 days in one spot within a 28-day period; Palisades district 5 days
- Curlew National GrasslandUS Forest Service · Stay limit: 14 days
Dispersed camping on public land is camping, and it is allowed by default on most BLM and forest land within the stay limit. Pulling off a highway to sleep in your vehicle overnight is a different act with different rules. Which one applies to you.
Stay limits are set by the local field office or ranger district and change with fire restrictions. The managing office's current guidance beats this page.
Idaho is one of the best states in the country for free camping: 11,768,027 acres of BLM land, 10 national forests, and dispersed camping allowed across most of both. If you can drive a forest road, you can usually find a legal free site here.
Where the free camping is
The Forest Service land is the easy entry point. The Salmon-Challis National Forest allows camping outside developed campgrounds in most areas, up to 300 feet from an open road, at no charge, with a 14-day stay limit outside the Frank Church wilderness boundary. The Caribou-Targhee permits dispersed camping in many areas with a 14-day limit in one spot within a 28-day period, and requires sites at least 100 feet from streams. The exception inside that forest is the Palisades district, which allows only 5 days. The Curlew National Grassland, 47,790 acres of open prairie in the southeast corner, allows dispersed camping unless posted otherwise, with a 14-day limit.
The Sawtooth National Forest advertises free primitive camping in undeveloped areas, but we have not verified a forest-wide stay limit, and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area sets its own rules. Ask the district before you count on a number there.
Then there is the BLM ground, nearly 12 million acres of it, mostly in the southern half of the state. We have not verified per-field-office stay limits for this page, so treat BLM Idaho as a place to research, not a place with a limit we can quote.
The rules that apply everywhere
Stay limits are the headline rule, but they are not the only one. Distance-from-water setbacks, road closures, and seasonal fire restrictions all apply, and they vary by unit. Our stay limits guide covers how the counting works. For everything else, the unit’s own page and the Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM) are the authority.
How to check before you go
Call or check the website of the ranger district or BLM field office that manages your target area. Pull the MVUM to confirm the road is open to camping. Check current fire restrictions, which change through the summer. And once you are on the ground, the posted sign and the ranger’s word beat this page or any app.