Is extemporaneous camping over?

[SuwanneeDave]

It seems like the number of RV campers has increased greatly over the past few years. This makes it harder to take off on a trip without advanced reservations. But this it makes it harder to enjoy life on the road

 

[SeilerBird]

I don't see a problem. There are thousands of campsites that are empty every night. Walmart is always open.

 

[DonTom]

It seems like the number of RV campers has increased greatly over the past few years. This makes it harder to take off on a trip without advanced reservations. But this it makes it harder to enjoy life on the road

Avoid January in southern AZ and stuff like that, and you're unlikely to have a problem. But December is fine, so that is when I go down that way. I think many want to get Xmas out of the way before they travel.

Even Organ Pipe Catcus Nat'l Mon., AZ (one of my favorite places to boondock)now needs reservations in January but not in December.

I only rarely make reservations. Almost never. I often do not know where I am going until I get there. I can change plans while in route and have done such many times.

But the most ridiculous one was when we were headed south to visit Bourbon Street in Louisiana. More than 20 years ago. Went more than 150 miles south before making a U-turn and ended up in Kamloops, BC Canada on that trip. I still never saw Bourbon Street or even Louisiana to this day.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[DonTom]

Walmart is always open.

Not in places such as Lake Havasu City in AZ when it comes to parking overnight. And notice they now close at 2300 hrs.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[AStravelers]

A lot depends on were you want to park in your RV. If you need to have hookups then it becomes more difficult. If you want or need developed campgrounds they have become pretty crowded or fill during busy seasons.

If you are well setup for dry camping so that you can park anywhere it is legal for you to stay, the places like campendium.com, freecampsites.net and others can point you to some very nice and some not so nice places to park overnight or for several nights.

Some National Forest campgrounds are first come first serve so arriving Monday through Friday mornings you can usually find a campsite. If it is not the the campsite you want, look for who is leaving in a campsite you want and snag it when they leave.

A great source of info for NF CGs go to this website: Campground Directory and National Forest Campgrounds

Picking a area of the country you want to visit 6 months to a year in advance, you can make reservations in several places and wander around the area. Not exactly extemporaneous, but you get to see that area of the country.

 

[ChasA]

Walmart is NOT a campsite. DonTom, you haven't missed anything on Bourbon street, unless you like the smell of piss, vomit, and bleach. The rest of NO is nice bu Bourbon street is appalling,

 

[DonTom]

DonTom, you haven't missed anything on Bourbon street,

That's nice to know. We made a good decision without even knowing it at the time.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[HappyWanderer]

We made reservations through the middle of October back in January, and things were getting tight.

 

[UTTransplant]

If you need hookups, life is more complicated. It is especially hard if you want to stay for a week or more. It is even harder if you want to stay in popular places like a coastal area. We enjoy remote mountains and forests so we have an easier time than many. We stay in public places Sunday through Friday morning, then head to a so-so private place over the weekend.

 

[House Husband]

Southern AZ. has not been a problem for us this year. BLM, KOFA and other public lands are highly unused this year.

Richard

 

[prnebs]

Walmart is NOT a campsite. DonTom, you haven't missed anything on Bourbon street, unless you like the smell of piss, vomit, and bleach. The rest of NO is nice bu Bourbon street is appalling,

I agree. Maybe 20 years ago it wouldn't have been so bad. Over the past 8 years we've been there a couple times. At first we could walk through & hear great music and there were several great places to eat. Last 6 or so years, it is just an armpit. So sad.

 

[lynnmor]

I don't see a problem. There are thousands of campsites that are empty every night. Walmart is always open.

Come to the northeast, summer is booked up and many Walmart's have no parking signs.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

How extemporaneous do you want to be? We always found that we could book the next stop either the night before or morning of travel, or even while enroute. However, we mostly avoided high traffic times or locales; if we wanted to visit a tourist mecca at a peak time, we made an exception and reserved early enough to get what we wanted. Otherwise, it was day-by-day.

 

[Skookum]

My perspective as a short-timer who has only been doing this for about 2 years is that extemporaneous camping is NOT over, but I've found it is tougher than it was when I first started a short while ago.

Besides Covid, there were existing movements in play - Van Life, Overlanders, Vintage Campers, and the FIRE (financially independent, retire early) crowd taking to the road on a budget, or workamping. To me, it feels like there's a lot of "recent" influx to an already limited number of RV parks. The "overlanding" crowd is the most notable, IMO, seems I can't go anywhere that used to be once quiet and relatively unknown, and not find someone in an adventure van, or camping on top of a pickup, etc. It's sad because many of them are itinerant, nature-loving slobs who leave behind trash and impact the wilderness, and authorities are now cracking down on dispersed camping.

My experience is that you may not be able to roll up on your intended destination and find a good or great site, probably no site at all if it's during peak use. But if you are flexible with your travel schedule, if you watch for openings and cancellations, you can create wonderful spontaneous trips and stops. That's what we've been doing for the last year while seemingly everything is booked.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Location, location, location...

Finding a spot to camp is not hard IMO. Finding a spot to camp where everyone else wants to camp "when" everyone else wants to camp is hard.

I don't like to camp where everyone else likes to camp when they like to camp so not a problem for me so far. I avoid holiday weekends/weeks completely.

 

[oldracerjones]

Along with the increase in RVers I've seen a big rise in the number of new RV Parks between Texas and Arizona (our last trip). Most are small, Mom and Pop affairs but they look new, clean and relatively unused. Maybe they aren't in any on-line databases yet....