- The fine print
- BLM's state-by-state table lists no acreage for this state (the listed states account for the bureau's full national total, so BLM surface land here is effectively zero, but no explicit figure is published). No free camping on NH state lands verified. WMNF restrictions: 200 ft from certain trails/water, 1/4 mile from shelters/huts/trailheads/certain roads, no alpine zone; check FPA maps and Forest Order R9-22-19-04.
New Hampshire lists 91 federal recreation facilities: 81 by the Forest Service, 6 by the Army Corps of Engineers, 2 by Fish and Wildlife, and 2 across 2 other agencies.
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
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.
Free camping in New Hampshire comes down to one landowner: the White Mountain National Forest, where roadside camping is permitted on forest roads that are not in Forest Protection Areas. There is no BLM land in the state, and we could not verify any free camping on New Hampshire state lands, so the WMNF map is the whole game.
Where the free camping is
The forest’s rule is built around Forest Protection Areas, or FPAs, the zones where camping is restricted to protect heavily used ground. Outside them, roadside camping is permitted along forest roads, and dispersed backcountry camping is allowed subject to setbacks. Inside them, camping is off the table except at a handful of designated roadside campsites the forest maintains on Gayle River Loop Road, Old Cherry Mountain Road, and Haystack Road. The Forest Service’s own description of those sites is first come, first served and very popular, which in the White Mountains on a summer weekend means arrive early or have a backup.
The setbacks are specific and enforced: no camping within 200 feet of certain trails and water, within a quarter mile of shelters, huts, trailheads, and certain roads, or in the alpine zone. The FPA maps and the current forest order (R9-22-19-04 at our last check) draw the exact lines, and those documents, not a blog, are what to plan from.
One number we cannot give you: a stay limit. The forest’s camping page does not state one, so we are not inventing one. Ask the district.
The rules that apply everywhere
WMNF camping is free but not casual. The quarter-mile and 200-foot rules do most of the enforcement work here, and the alpine zone closure is absolute. The general shape of Forest Service dispersed camping is covered in our national forest camping rules guide.
How to check before you go
Download the current FPA maps from the forest website, call the ranger district for the area you want, and check fire restrictions, which tighten in dry stretches. On the ground, the posted sign and the forest order beat this page. In the Whites, they are posted for a reason.