Mike and I have been traveling and camping with BB, aka Black Beauty, for six months now. Wow!!! How do we do it?
This is a beautiful way for us to travel and save money. We don't have to spend money on expensive hotels and we get to travel wherever we like, and stay as long as we like.
How do we do it?
When Mike and I are driving cross country, we stop by 6PM, find a Walmart that is RV friendly and sleep, or we find a RV park near the interstate.
Then we stock up on fresh juice, fruit, salads, etc., just for that day, and we're off early the next morning.
We have been to all of the major cities in the USA, so we now really like exploring nature so we find out about dispersed camping.
Free camping, also called dispersed camping, is allowed in all national forests for up to 14 days, unless noted otherwise. Mike does the research and finds places to camp on the side of main roads, or follow forest access roads that are often gravel or dirt.
These are available on a first-come, first-serve basis and the general rule is to camp 100-200 feet away from any road, trail, or water source.
Free camping in national forests is about enjoying nature, staying in our little bubble, and getting away from stress. There are no food, toilets, etc. With dispersed camping, so we have to plan to arrive fully self-sufficient, with plenty of food, water, and supplies for our bathroom needs. It's very important that we leave the site exactly like we found it so e always double check to make sure that we left nothing behind. The animals really don't like their neighborhood to be littered by people.
What is the difference in camping in a National Forest and a National Park?
We found out the hard way that national forests and national parks appear to be similar, since they are both public, protected landscapes. However, national parks have stricter rules about camping and only allow us to camp in designated fee camp sites.
We really enjoy camping in the national parks because we're right there in the middle of everything, but they get full really fast during summer season, with good reason.
We tried dispersed camping in a national park and the rangers had to ask us to leave because all of the fee camp sites were full, and this is when they told us about the wonderful national forests that allows dispersed camping throughout most of their land holdings. Woo Hoo! Thank you so much!
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