What to do when parks are your thing?

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TonyDtorch said:
that's where I'd be living then, out here in CA it seems most state or fed parks are very limited when it comes to hook-ups.

if that was the case here,  I'd be living 6 months at Yosimite and 6 months at Doheny.... :)
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Native Californian here.  In my youth, we spent the whole summer camped out with my grandparents (Dad and Mom visiting on  weekends and vacations) in the Sierra National Forest at Huntington Lake.  Then the rest of the US discovered our paradise and restrictions on camping for long periods in one spot began.  Am I bitter?  Yeah, well, maybe a little bit.  ;D
 
UTTransplant said:
Most state/national parks has limits on the number of days you can stay there, so they don't work for long term stays. We travel instead of staying in one place, and most public parks have a dump facility you can use. If not, the campground host knows where the nearest one is. It is a bit of a pain to take a vehicle to a dump station instead of doing it at your sites, but well worth it if you like more natural settings.
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yes, it's a pain if you want to stay a couple weeks at a time somewhere beautiful,  I have a motorhome after I pull the slides in, I can just drive it there.

Now imagine a trailer.
 
TonyDtorch said:
that's where I'd be living then, out here in CA it seems most state or fed parks are very limited when it comes to hook-ups.

if that was the case here,  I'd be living 6 months at Yosimite and 6 months at Doheny.... :)
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Well they do usually have that pesky 14 day stay limit... ;
 
NY_Dutch said:
Well they do usually have that pesky 14 day stay limit... ;
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even the middle of nowhere BLM land has a 14 day limit... :(

about the only thing you can do is stay on the move,... or go to an rv park.
 
SeilerBird said:
There is BLM land right by the south entrance to the Grand Canyon. I have stayed there for free a month at a time.
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Tom,
How long ago was that?      I heard they are enforcing a 14 day limit in  Navada BLM land.
 
I agree with the original poster however I have found that at the right place I have enjoyed my neighbors.  I don't like other people's music, drunks or loud people.  Many places though have been delightful with wonderful people.  It has pushed me out of my comfort zone and I needed that.

Nonetheless, I love the boo docking option and will do that when possible.
 
TonyDtorch said:
Tom,
How long ago was that?      I heard they are enforcing a 14 day limit in  Nevada BLM land.
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It has been a few years since I was there so it might have changed, however this is in Arizona. There is so much room to camp there that they would have a hard time enforcing it. I just can't imagine them driving around all night looking for people who have been there longer that two weeks but maybe they do. The government is always short of money for the parks so I can't imagine them wasting it like that. Also very few people camp there because very few people know about it.
 
that could be it, Tom....no problems = no need for enforcement.

They don't enforce the 2 week limit at Slab City CA either ...but it's Slab City and nobody cares about anything they do as long as they don't kill each other.
 
There isn't a two week limit at Slab City ... it isn't BLM land.  It's an old WWII military base that was transferred to the State of California and somewhere along the way deciding who was ultimately responsible for the land fell through the cracks.

Now no one wants to take it over because of all the needed cleanup, but that may change soon.  CA has re-zoned a lot of the land on that side of the Salton Sea for large scale solar and geothermal power projects and there's a good chance the Slabs may be buried in solar panels.
 
Lou Schneider said:
CA has re-zoned a lot of the land on that side of the Salton Sea for large scale solar and geothermal power projects and there's a good chance the Slabs may be buried in solar panels.
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Now THAT could be a pretty sweet place to stay!  They just need to put the solar panels up in the air about 15' and put a power plug on every pole.  Lots of shade to park under and power too!!
 
JFNM said:
Now THAT could be a pretty sweet place to stay!  They just need to put the solar panels up in the air about 15' and put a power plug on every pole.  Lots of shade to park under and power too!!
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many of the newer parking lots here in so. cal have those solar panel carports.  ...it's shade and free power.
 
Ive actually found casino campgrounds to be awesome. The few I have stayed at have had fairly roomy sites, though some have shared utility islands in between so your "backside" neighbor can be close. The parties are at the casinos, so that's where people spend their energy. Not a whole lot of kids either, so its a lot quieter at these parks than at other campgrounds. The one drawback so far has been that they are pretty "suburban" with neatly clipped grass, lots of cement and curbs and younger trees. Not the wild look of more natural campgrounds.
 
SEE :). I'm in the other "camp".
I enjoy all the amenities of a CG. Where I live, I bought the 1 acre lot next door so I wouldn't have neighbors too close. When I'm camping, I sort of like the next door neighbors. I enjoy visiting with them, I can usually tell pretty quickly if they're not the visiting type. If they're not, I leave them alone.

Not only that, but, in a close-quarters CG, it's fun to watch people park their rigs. ;D ;D
 
Thank you all for your insights. I think that I may need to be pushed out of my comfort zone a bit and give parks a try.  I've spent 25 years as the pastor of a very large church.  Believe it our not; there is lots of isolation in the position.  I just need to get back in the mindset of close contact.

First, I need to learn to back up.  We took the new trailer out a few weeks ago and tried to park it in a space next to another camper.  Before long, there were a couple more people came out watching me fail and fail again.  Finally, one kind-hearted soul stood next to me and walked me back step by step into place.  Everybody, including me, got a big laugh out of it. 

Thanks for the tips everyone.

Dennis
 
There's nothing wrong with accepting help from your neighbors or even asking for advice or a second pair of eyes when needed.  None of us were born expert RVers, we all went through the same learning curve.

One tip when backing - where the trailer goes is determined by the track of the trailer's wheels, not the back end of the trailer.  The trailer pivots around the wheels and RV trailers have a long rear overhang, meaning the back end will swing back and forth as you back into a site.  Figure out where the trailer wheels need to end up and guide them along that path when backing up.  Trying to back up while watching the back end of the trailer will drive you crazy.

Pay enough attention to the back end so you don't run into anything, but watch the wheel path and let that determine where the trailer goes.

An empty parking lot (a church lot on a weekday?) is a good place to practice backing.
 
I stay on the move more than I care to, because I like nature parks rather than resort parks so many times I am under the 14 day rule. I prefer large grassy lots with native trees or shrubs etc.

I wish I could move once a month rather than twice.

Once in awhile in far flung places, one finds nice RV camps with roomy lots or separated by trees and shrubbery. I've been to one RV park where the owner is constantly planting stuff between the sites so that now the sites each have a lot of privacy even though they are't large. She has also planted a huge variety so every site is different. Smart owner!

I don't understand the concept of building RV parks to cram in as many RV's as close together as possible. I have 14 windows in my 28 foot Class C, I want to see my world, not hide from it.

Having a Class A parked 2 feet away 3 feet taller than me, means I get no sunshine or view. YUCK YUCK YUCK.

 
DearMissMermaid said:
I stay on the move more than I care to, because I like nature parks rather than resort parks so many times I am under the 14 day rule. I prefer large grassy lots with native trees or shrubs etc.

I wish I could move once a month rather than twice.

Once in awhile in far flung places, one finds nice RV camps with roomy lots or separated by trees and shrubbery. I've been to one RV park where the owner is constantly planting stuff between the sites so that now the sites each have a lot of privacy even though they are't large. She has also planted a huge variety so every site is different. Smart owner!
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:)The problem with a lot of trees & shrubbery is, it becomes a maintenance man's nightmare, if he has to dig anything up to fix it. lol
 
DearMissMermaid said:
I don't understand the concept of building RV parks to cram in as many RV's as close together as possible. I have 14 windows in my 28 foot Class C, I want to see my world, not hide from it.
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It all comes down to bringing home the bacon - the more sites a park has, the more money they take in. I get the point, though - some are extreme. One park we stayed at in Utah years ago had awnings touching and even slightly overhanging the neighbor's slide outs. We lucked out and got an end site with our awning side open. We would never go back there but you know what - it was 100% full so it does not bother everyone.
 
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