Accessibility Guidebook for Outdoor Recreation and Trails

Camping Units

A camping unit is a part of a campground that is used by an individual or group for camping separate from other parties using the recreation site. A camping unit commonly includes the camp living area, a parking spur, and a space to pitch a tent (figure 60). FSORAG doesn't require a specific number or type of camping units or constructed features, but all camping units and the site furnishings and constructed features in them must meet the applicable FSORAG requirements.

Figure 60—The components of a camping unit.

The camp living area is the space where tables, fire rings, and grills are located. This area is often adjacent to the parking spur. The minimum size of a camp living area is determined by the type and number of constructed features provided and the required clear space around each feature. Ensure the surface of camp living is firm and stable, and that the surface material used is appropriate to the setting and level of development. Do not allow the slope of the ground surface in camp living areas to exceed 1:48 (2 percent) in any direction, except when the surface is unpaved or is not built with boards. In those cases, the slope may be up to 1:33 (3 percent) for necessary drainage.

To meet outdoor recreation access route requirements, a route must connect all the features within each camping unit. Usually, the slope, surface, and size requirements for the overlapping or adjacent clear spaces of the constructed features within camp living areas eliminate the need for separate outdoor recreation access routes within the camp living area. When features are spread apart to limit the amount of change to the natural setting, provide outdoor recreation access routes to connect the features.

There must also be an outdoor recreation access route connecting each camping unit with the common use features that are provided at the campground, such as toilets, showers, water hydrants, garbage receptacles, parking spaces, and beach access. Ensure this outdoor recreation access route does not overlap the clear spaces of the camp living area so that people using the constructed features in the camp living area will not obstruct travel along the outdoor recreation access route.

There are some exceptions to the requirement that outdoor recreation access routes must connect everything.

• When work is done to improve an existing camping or picnic facility or a trailhead and a condition for an exception prohibits full compliance with a specific technical requirement on part of an outdoor recreation access route, that part of the outdoor recreation access route only has to meet the technical requirement to the extent practicable.

• When something is changed within an existing camping facility, but the circulation path isn't altered, the path doesn't have to be brought up to outdoor recreation access route standards.

• As stated in "Getting From Here to There—Outdoor Recreation Access Routes" of this guidebook, if an accessible vehicle pull-up space is provided at the RV dump station, an outdoor recreation access route is not required to connect the station to the camping units.

• In campgrounds where the roadway is the primary route from the campsites to the restrooms and so forth, a separate outdoor recreation access route to the same facilities is not required. That roadway is not required to meet the specifications for an outdoor recreation access route. However, there must be a minimum of 32 inches of clear passage through or around any constructed obstacles in the roadway, such as speed bumps.

Even when they're not required, the Forest Service commitment to universal design dictates that outdoor recreation access routes connect as many features as is practicable, given the specific natural constraints of the site, the level of development, and other considerations.

When walk-in camping is provided in a campground, ensure an outdoor recreation access route connects the camp living area to the parking spur or parking lot. If the terrain is steep (or there's another condition for an exception) and the work is an alteration to an existing site, compliance with the slope requirements for the outdoor recreation access route to those walk-in units isn't required.

When a camping unit is located near a trail (rather than in a campground accessed by vehicles), the connection between that unit and the trail and the connections between the constructed features within that camping unit must comply with FSTAG requirements for trails, not the outdoor recreation access route requirements.