Camping in New Hampshire

Camping rules worth knowing in New Hampshire

Every fire needs a written permit from the town fire warden

Permits have been required since 1911. Anyone kindling any fire or burning any material, except when the ground is covered with snow, must hold a written permit from the forest fire warden of the town or city where the fire will be lit. A Category I fire, up to 32 inches across in a fire resistive ring or portable fireplace and 25 feet from structures, may be lit at any hour. Category II, up to 48 inches and 50 feet from structures, and Category III, anything larger or not in a ring, may only be lit between 5pm and 9am unless it is actually raining. Only untreated wood, untreated pallets, campfire wood, brush or charcoal, none thicker than five inches. Burning without a permit is a misdemeanour and leaves you liable to the town for the cost of putting the fire out. Source 37

Dispersed camping is fixed by distance, not by permission

Camping and wood or charcoal fires are prohibited within 200 feet of certain trails and water bodies, within a quarter mile of backcountry facilities including shelters, huts and trailheads, within a quarter mile of certain roads, and in the alpine zone where trees stand eight feet or less, except on two feet of snow. Which roads and trails those are is set by the Forest Protection Area maps, which cover areas where limits on camping, on wood and charcoal fires and on party size apply. Where roadside camping is allowed the forest has built 57 designated sites on four roads: Gale River Loop 13, Old Cherry Mountain 9, Haystack 11 and Town Hall 24. Source 6

Town Hall Road is closed to roadside camping and open fires

Forest order R9-22-05-26-04 runs from 1 June 2026 to 1 June 2031 over National Forest System Road 17, Slippery Brook Road, and National Forest System Road 38, East Branch Road, in Jackson and Chatham, a seven-mile road system known as Town Hall Road. It prohibits camping within a quarter mile of a road except at designated campsites, and building, maintaining, attending or using a wood or charcoal fire within a quarter mile except at designated sites. Portable camp stoves running on pressurised fuel are allowed. Orders of this kind are listed on the forest’s supervisor’s orders page, which currently carries 41 of them. Source 10

One forest campground stays open through the winter

Hancock Campground on the Kancamagus Highway, 56 wooded sites five miles east of Lincoln at the western end of the byway, is open year round with limited services in the winter, at 30 dollars a night with 6 dollars for each additional vehicle. Holders of Golden Age, Golden Access, Senior and Access passes pay half. Some of its sites are reservable and the rest are first come, first served. Every other developed campground on this forest runs a season that ends in October. Source 18

State park camping runs to 14 days, four adults and quiet at ten

There is a 14-day maximum per visit at every New Hampshire state park campground except the Hampton Beach and Ellacoya RV parks, where nobody may stay longer than a cumulative 14 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Quiet hours run 10pm to 7am and no generator may run during them. Check in is between 1pm and 8pm and check out by 11am. The nightly rate covers two adults and up to four children, with a maximum of four adults and six people on a site, and the reservation fee is 7 dollars. Drone use is restricted at all New Hampshire state parks: operators may not take off or land inside park boundaries. Source 51

The full guide to overlanding New Hampshire