Brooks Camp Permit

Brooks Camp Campground Regulations and Reminders
Your appropriate actions and behavior are the key to maintaining this unique experience.  

  • Bears: Be alert for bears at all times. Maintain a minimum distance of 50 yards (46 m) from any bears, even if the electric fence--which is bear-resistant, not bear-proof--is between you and the bear. If a bear enters the campground, open all of the fence gates if it is safe to do so and notify a park employee. 
  • Check-in and Check-out: Check-in to the campground at the Brooks Camp Visitor Center when you arrive. Checkout time is 12:00 noon. 
  • Cooking Shelters: Use the cooking shelters to prepare and eat your food to concentrate food odors away from tents. Do not use the shelters for drying or storing gear or sleeping. 
  • Fires: Fires are only permitted in the fire rings next to each cooking shelter. Only dead and down wood can be collected to burn. Do not burn or dispose of food in the fire rings. Minimize food odors by cooking food over a stove in the cooking shelters. 
  • Food: All campers are required to store all food and odorous items inside of the designated food cache when not immediately needed. Do not cook or eat outside of the designated cooking shelters. Wash dishes at the water spigot next to the food cache. Scrape dishes and utensils clean before washing at the spigot. 
  • Fuel Storage: Petroleum products attract bears. Store all stoves and fuel in the lockers adjacent to the gear cache. Separate liquid from gaseous fuels and place each in the appropriate locker. 
  • Garbage: Dispose of all trash and leftover food in the trash cans located in the food cache. Separate burnable items such as paper and food from non-burnable items like glass and metal. Place all potentially hazardous items in the hazmat container. 
  • Gear and Equipment: Use the designated gear cache for storing extra equipment. This helps to make the campground less attractive to curious bears, and properly stored gear is less likely to be damaged if a bear does enter the campground. 
  • Limitations and Group size: Campers are limited to seven nights in July and 14 nights per calendar year. Maximum group size is 6..  

The Brooks Camp Developed Area (BCDA) refers to all park areas within a 1.5 mile (2.4 km) radius from the Brooks Falls Platform. Within the BCDA:

  • Bear Orientation: All persons must receive an NPS-approved Bear Orientation. 
  • Camping. is permitted ONLY within the Brooks Campground.
    • You may not exceed more than seven nights during the month of July or more than 14 nights in a year.
    • Group size may not exceed six people
  • Fees. Using specialized sites, facilities, equipment or services without paying the required fees and possessing the applicable permits is prohibited.
  • Campfires: Lighting or maintaining a fire is prohibited except in established receptacles (there are three fire rings established in the Brooks Campground near the picnic shelters.) All campfires must be closely attended and fully extinguished when finished. 
  • Sanitation: Washing dishes or cooking utensils at locations other than the water spigot near the Brooks Campground food cache is prohibited. 
  • Property: Leaving property, other than motorboats and planes, unattended for any length of time is prohibited, except at the Brooks Lodge Porch, Brooks Campground, or designated equipment caches as posted at the Brooks Camp Visitor Center. This regulation applies to gear left in open boats and gear left hanging on airplanes (store all gear you are not willing/able to keep in your immediate control in the gear caches.) 
  • Pets: Pets are prohibited.
  • Picnicking and Possession of Food Items: Picnicking is only allowed at the Brooks Camp Visitor Center Picnic Area, Brooks Campground, and Brooks Lake Picnic Area. Food consumption or possession while at the Brooks River is prohibited. Picnicking is defined as the consumption or preparation of any food items (other than water). Food items include any substance intended for human consumption. 
  • Bear Spray: May be carried, possessed and used in accordance with applicable federal and non-conflicting state laws. Please note that bear spray should not be carried inside of an aircraft but attached to the outside of the aircraft in case of its accidental discharge. 
  • DO NOT:
    • Approach a bear or any large mammal within 50 yards (46 m).
    • Occupy a position within 50 yards (46 m) of a bear that is using a concentrated food source, including, but not limited to, animal carcasses, spawning salmon, and other feeding areas. 
    • Continue to engage in fishing within 50 yards (46 m) of a bear.
    • Harass, feed, touch, tease, frighten or intentionally disturb any wildlife.

The prohibitions above do not apply to persons:  

  • Engaged in a legal hunt; 
  • On a designated bear viewing structure; 
  • In compliance with a written protocol approved by the Superintendent; or
  • who are otherwise directed by a park employee.