The Admin's Blog

Dispersed camping provides a rustic alternative to established Florida State Park sites, which often include amenities such as shower facilities, electric hookups, and other modern conveniences. As with most dispersed campsites, those in Florida are most often found deep within nature conservation areas managed by the state or federal government. These primitive destinations appeal primarily […]

Arizona A permit is required to camp on Arizona State Trust lands. Learn more: https://freecampsites.net/arizona-state-trust-lands/ Minnesota Minnesota’s school trust lands are largely open to the public for responsible recreational activities including boating, camping, hiking, hunting, mountain biking, off-highway vehicle (OHV) use, rock hounding, skiing and snowmobiling. Public access, however, is restricted when school trust lands […]

BLM LTVA – That’s a lot of letters. It stands for Bureau of Land Management Long Term Visitors Area. LTVAs are places that have been set aside for campers who would like to stay in one area for more than the normal 14 day allotted limit. A flat fee is paid for a permit. Once […]

Campers gather together to clean up public land near Ehernberg. RVers, vanlifers, and other campers are meeting up near the Arizona/California border for camaraderie, to celebrate the holidays, and to clean up public lands. It is a proactive effort to keep public land in the area open and available to all. Public lands are utilized […]

The clean up took place west of Quartzsite along the Colorado River. It is a popular camping area and most people who camp here keep their campsite clean. Unfortunately, not everyone does and even little bits of litter add up over the years. We had a total 14 people attend this cleanup. We covered about […]

Many campers are having a hard time locating a place to camp in Arizona and New Mexico. That is because some forests are closing their gates in response to the extreme fire danger in the southwest. It is pretty common for there to be fire bans every summer but, in the ten plus years that […]

Bear Safety Tips Stash your trash – Use bear-proof containers when available. If they’re full double bag trash and lock it in your trunk or RV. Never leave trash outside. Store Attractants Safely – Store food, beverages and toiletries in air tight containers and lock in your trunk. Many bears have discovered that coolers, bags […]

A lot of folks are missing out on 14 days of camping on the most beautiful tracts of land available. These lands were granted to the state by the feds to be liquidated to developers. All revenues are to be used to fund Arizona State education and educational institutions. However, you must purchase a permit! […]

Are all of the campgrounds full for the 2017 Total Eclipse? Here are some options you might not have thought of or even know about. Best of all, many are free! Below, we’ve listed some gems for you to check out in each state that the eclipse will be visible. Want more options? Be sure […]

You can now set a delay between the time you submit a review or new listing and the time in which it appears on your profile page. By setting a timer from a week to 3 months, you can share your experience with others and still enjoy a sense of privacy. You will always be […]

Many people enjoy the solitude and primitive experience of camping away from developed campgrounds and other campers. “Dispersed camping” is the term used for camping anywhere in the National Forest OUTSIDE of a designated campground, and is generally allowed anywhere except within 100 feet of a lake, trail, or stream or where posted as closed. […]

See where you’ve been! Personal pages have been expanded to include all of your recent activity, including a map of your travels based on your campsite reviews and submissions. Here, you can find your reviews, photos, videos, and blog posts all organized in one place. You may view your profile page by clicking your username […]

California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife offers a wide array of camping opportunities. (1) Antelope Valley Wildlife Area – No motorhomes or camp trailers permitted. Camping allowed only from May 1 through October 31. (2) Ash Creek Wildlife Area – Allowed. (3) Butte Valley Wildlife Area – Allowed. (4) Cache Creek Wildlife Area – No […]

Merry Christmas and Happy Anniversary from the Free Campsites team! Christmas Eve marks eight years of working with you to provide the best free camping information on the web. We’ve been through a lot of changes over the past eight years. We were not expecting a day when there are more phones than laptops back […]

In order to improve speed, reduce bandwidth usage, and to enable offline use of our website application we require application caching. While most browsers allow for these features in incognito/private mode, Apple’s Safari browser does not. On an iPad or iPhone, you must exit private browsing to use our website. Disabling private mode on a […]

Here I’ll try to present some options for solar, starting with a minimalist approach, and ending with full blown 100% off the grid. A. Maintenance only system, with room for expansion: 15 watts of solar for every 100 amp-hours of battery storage. Charge controller: Grape Solar COMET 12/24-Volt 40 Amp Solar Charge Controller – Buy […]

Charge controllers are a key part of the system. Their job is to charge the battery bank as quickly as possible without over doing it and ruining the bank. Lead Acid batteries are peculiar beasts. They love to be charged and if possible each and every cycle should be brought back to 100% state of […]

Our solar system is going to look something like this: panels–>charge controller–>battery bank. There are several panel types. Some are more efficient than others. In the main, what is most likely to be used are either monocrystalline or polycrystalline. Mono appear to put out slightly more current under perfect conditions, but real life testing may give […]

I’ve been harping on about doing an energy audit. Here are some suggestions as to how to do so. 1. by direct measurement 2. by doing calculations. For direct measurement, find a watt meter such as the inexpensive Kill-a-Watt meter, plug in the rv shore power cord. Total load will need to be kept under […]

For those of you who only wish to maintain a bank between trips, simply add a good charge controller that has a battery temperature probe on the battery bank (my current favorite is from Grape and is capable of up to 40 amps of current on the output side) and 15 watts of panels per […]