Read Your Permit!

[balzaccom]

I spend much of my time as a wilderness volunteer "restoring" campsites. What does that mean? Campsites, in most areas, are required to be on durable srufaces, 100 feet from water, and 100 feet from the trail. There are numerous really good reasons for this, that include keeping water sources clean, allowing wildlife access to water, preventing destruction of the soil and flora, etc. When I find a campsite that does not meet those guidelines, I try to fill it with rocks, trees, brush, and other material to make it look less inviting, and harder to use.

And every time I revisit a location, I find that someone has gone to the trouble of removing all that material and debris to camp illegally yet again, Sigh.

When you see a place that looks like a perfect campsite except for those rocks...maybe stop for a moment and think: Who would have put these rocks in such a nice campsite, and why?

Better yet, always camp in an existing campsite more than 100 feet from water. You know, like it says on your permit!

Herer's a link that includes a couple of photos to illustrate the point:

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And here's a larger photo log of the restored sites...and some logs we'll get cut through.

Maud Lake Photos August 2025 · Aug 12âââ15 ð¸

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[Bob]

In a lot of cases trying to block existing used campsites push people to create a new site.....further damaging the area. Sometimes they should be left there..

 

[fossana]

We just ran into this in Sabrina Basin, people fully admitting that they were illegally camped (on the trail and too close to water), but too lazy to move their site.

 

[balzaccom]

In a lot of cases trying to block existing used campsites push people to create a new site.....further damaging the area. Sometimes they should be left there..

The USFS does allow some existing sites to continue to be used, exactly so that others are not created that are even more problematic. In most cases, I am restoring campsites that are not only too close to water, but usually near other sites that are legally located. And no, I can't guarantee that the sites I've worked on won't be used again. I can onlly make sure that it might be more work to "build" it back into a campsite than to find another spot that is both legal and usable.

 

[balzaccom]

We just ran into this in Sabrina Basin, people fully admitting that they were illegally camped (on the trail and too close to water), but too lazy to move their site.

Yep.
I think we've all learned, long ago, that trusting common sense just isn't enough. As that ranger in Yosemite once said, the overlap between the smartest bear and the dumbest camper is bigger than you think.

Common sense? Every year I remove fire rings, over and over again, in drought/fire season in California. In Desolation Wilderness, campfires have been illegal since 1990. And yet every summer those who own cabins in the forest below can see the campfires lit on the granite peaks above them.

Common sense? I found a campsite this year which used a log to create seating around a fire ring.The log clearly labeled the area as closed to camping for restoration. I found a bag full of trash neatly tied up in a tree next to a pile of trash within fifteen feet of a lake. The bag had the name and address of the person who left it. Common sense? I've found food dumped diretly into the lake, poop unburied in plain site in a campsite, and last week i carried out a tent that had been abandoned because it had a broken tent pole--near a fire ring, within 30 feet of the only water in the area. I don't think we can count on common sense for much.