Free Campsites of US and Canada

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pheonix
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I used it quite a bit last summer and found it helpful to an extent. boondocking.org can be a helpful supplement. There are certainly farrrrrr more options for free camping than are listed on either. Best bet--esp. if you are in the western half of the country--is just to head towards national forest land and drive up some forest access roads til you find a good dispersed camping spot. Camping is free and legal in federally-owned land unless posted otherwise/subject to restrictions, and this generally ends up meaning national forests. Often you'll find beautiful established sites with firepits set up by the forest service in order to limit the impact on the land to a few spots. Some of the best camping I've done, free or otherwise.
 
I used it quite a bit last summer and found it helpful to an extent. boondocking.org can be a helpful supplement. There are certainly farrrrrr more options for free camping than are listed on either. Best bet--esp. if you are in the western half of the country--is just to head towards national forest land and drive up some forest access roads til you find a good dispersed camping spot. Camping is free and legal in federally-owned land unless posted otherwise/subject to restrictions, and this generally ends up meaning national forests. Often you'll find beautiful established sites with firepits set up by the forest service in order to limit the impact on the land to a few spots. Some of the best camping I've done, free or otherwise.
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Good post and it's what I do generally. But the problem with that is, meaning random dispersed camping, at least in the east, is that alot of those roads are shit for one and you can burn through alot of gas riding all around trying to find something suitable. Often times getting by the water is next to impossible I've found.
 
ped said:
Good post and it's what I do generally. But the problem with that is, meaning random dispersed camping, at least in the east, is that alot of those roads are shit for one and you can burn through alot of gas riding all around trying to find something suitable. Often times getting by the water is next to impossible I've found.
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makes me want to bike to some nf's and do some bike camping off the paved trail....love riding bikes in the dirt and bike camping. sounds like the perfect match.
 
The back of some Walmart parking lots can be used for sleeping in a van, car, truck or camper. I've used quite a few for this but be careful around big cities and resort towns where they don't allow sleeping in parking lots of commercial areas. It's nice to be able to go in to use the bathroom anytime you want or to get some food if you are staying at a 24hour store site.
 
Some truck stops also allow people to sleep there in their campers,vans, cars or trucks. Even when I am on the road sleeping at free campsites it is nice to be able to go into a truck stop to take a shower.
 
I've mainly found that most big box stores or any store that is open 24 hours isn't usually a problem to park at. The main rule of thumb is if they don't allow overnight parking, just don't stick out and make it obvious you're camping. Staying in a vehicle that doesn't look like an RV helps out a lot as well as keeping quiet, I wouldn't attempt it in a full blown RV.

For walmarts that aren't 24 hours I've noticed they usually run a skeleton crew at night that parks off to the side. If you can find out where they park it's usually no problem to just pull in and sleep, walmarts have such high turnover it's doubtful everyone has memorized what everyone else working there is driving. With that said, there's usually way better options than big box stores for overnighting with a little research (freecampsites.net included)
 
ped said:
Good post and it's what I do generally. But the problem with that is, meaning random dispersed camping, at least in the east, is that alot of those roads are shit for one and you can burn through alot of gas riding all around trying to find something suitable. Often times getting by the water is next to impossible I've found.
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a hammock makes a world of difference in those situations, as long as you can find a spot to park!
 
The AllStays Camp & RV app updated recently with tons of information on free campgrounds. It's listed as "Free (Beta)", as a filter search. You can see at a glance if they're hike in or not, which is really, really useful. I also use the Ultimate Campgrounds apps for both US & Canada but somewhat more infrequently.
 
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