The Admin's Blog

Happy New Year, campers! May yours be totally awesome and full of free camping!

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RTR 2011

Its free! Everyone is welcome to the 2nd Annual Rubber Tramp Rendezvous. Tents, vans, RVs, car campers, etc. There will be seminars and evening campfires. Come on out and meet other full time road warriors or just come out to learn about the lifestyle. Last year’s RTR was a blast!

 
 
When: January 10th -24th 2012
Where: Dome Rock Road – Quartzsite, Arizona
What to bring: Yourself and EVERYTHING you will need.
 

Read about the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous!

The official Rubber Tramp Rendezvous 2012 website
   http://cheaprvliving.com/Renezvous.html

Blog Posts about RTR 2012
   RVly Ever After
   Suanne Online

A list of posts about RTR 2011 from bloggers that attended it
   List of RTR2011 Blogs

Our announcement from last year
   http://freecampsites.net/rubber-tramp-rendezvous/

Talk about the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous!

RSVP on the event page on facebook
   http://www.facebook.com/events/240817195950201/

Join the discussion on the Cheap RV Living forum
   RTR January 2012 is scheduled!!

Seminars at Rubber Tramp Rendezvous 2012! – Calendar

• Ham radio, CB, and FRS radio for vandwellers.
• Solar Power How-To
• Budgeting: Who’s Living on the least money, and tips on how to do it from everybody.
• Work Camping.
• Cheap Dental, Eye-wear and Prescriptions from Mexico.
• LED lights.
• Birdwatching as a vandwelling hobby.
• Making money from creating balloon art.
• Solar cooking with a Sun Oven.
• Where to Park: Stealth in the city, Boondocking on public land.
• Geocaching as a vandwellers hobby

An RTR 2011 Seminar

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We hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying the holiday season.
May you find joy where ever you are.

In addition to Christmas, we here at FreeCampsites.Net have another reason to celebrate. On the evening of December 24th, 2008, FreeCampsites.net came online for the first time ever. That was three years ago today.

I started it because, as a new RVer, I was having a hard time finding free camping using the “traditional methods”. I wanted to be able to see campsites along our route without having to know the name of every little town we were going to pass through. The website has been a huge help to us. We now have thousands of visitors a day. We hope that each of you find the website as useful as we do. Thank you! Your comments, support and submissions are what makes this website so handy.

Warmest Wishes!
Jenn and Johnny

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On this oh so spooky holiday, we have the pleasure of showcasing this not so creepy camper. It’s covered in bats, but they are the friendly “bite the bug before it bites you” kind. This super cute camper belongs to our fellow caver friends John and Brenda Shultheis of Hoosier Cavers.

Brenda and the camper.

Brenda designed and completed the custom paint job herself. “All it needed was paint and some bats!” – Brenda

The entrance to the bat cave...erm camper.	The front of the camper.
The rear of the camper with the flap down	The inside of this teardrop camper is decorated, too!

Mosquitoes don't stand a chance in here with these bug eating buddies!

The rear opens up to a full kitchen.

“This is a home built model. It has a stove and oven built-in.  It also has a bed, 12v lights, and vent fan that has 3 speeds: light, storm and hurricane. It can run on AC with shore power, so we can backwoods or campground camp. It’s so totally awesome and very, very comfy.”

- Brenda Shultheis

The camper is hooked up and ready to go.

While this rig is more than capable of getting to just about any boondocking location, you will most often find it parked next to a hole in the ground. That is because the entire Shultheis family believes in cave conservation. They organize and participate in cave clean ups and restorations all throughout the year.

Cleaning up the mess inside of Guy Stover Pit

What is a cave cleanup? It is exactly what it sounds like. It is removing all of the stuff that doesn’t belong there. You see, there are these big holes in the ground called sinkholes. For decades, perhaps centuries, people have been treating them as if they were giant trashcans. They have thrown all kinds of stuff into them including cars, baby diapers, cows, washing machines, cans, clothing, mattresses, needles, and a whole host of other things. If you can name it, it has probably been tossed down a sinkhole. The people who tossed the stuff in didn’t think anything about it. Out of sight, out of mind. What they didn’t know is that they were possibly poisoning themselves by polluting the ground water. The same ground water that their wells provide them. In addition, caves and sinkholes offer a habitat for a variety of species such as cave beetles, cave spiders, cave fish, cave crickets, cave salamanders, bats and woodrats, just to name a few. When pollutants are introduced, the inhabitants can become ill or die. Many of the creatures living in caves cannot live above ground. Some of them are only found in one specific cave.

Here is a video and pictures of their last clean up. If you would like to join Brenda and John on a clean up or just want to help out in some way, please do not hesitate to visit their website for more information.

Camping and telling ghost stories around the camp fire go hand in hand. Why not spend this Halloween telling stories surrounded by ghouls in their own haunts? We have gathered up some notoriously haunted free camping locations along with some not so spooky but fun places for you to enjoy. If you know of any we haven’t mentioned please tell us about them by posting in the comment section below.

Mississippi  -  New Mexico – South Carolina – Virgina – Nationwide

Witch Dance – Natchez Trace, Tupelo, Mississippi

Along the Natchez Trace, at mile marker 234 near the center of Mississippi, there is a place where witches are said to have left their mark. A sign at this location reads: 

“The old folks tell tales of a coven of witches who once gathered on this very spot to dance. Whenever their feet touched the ground the grass withered and died….to never grow there again. Impossible? — maybe so, but look around for a hidden spot where no grass grows”

They must have practiced some strong magic because those spots are still visible to this day. Or perhaps, they still dance there from time to time.

This area is also the staging area for the Witch Dance horse trail on the Tombigbee National Forest.

Bicyclist are allowed to tent camp at camping areas near the marker free of charge. This campground has restrooms, picnic tables, fire rings, fire grates, and drinking water (April through October). Water is available in the restrooms during the winter months when the outdoor water may be turned off.

The rest of us can stay at Jeff Busby on mile marker 193.1. It is a free campground with 18 campsites, centralized water spigots, vault toilets, hiking trails, a payphone, tables, fire rings and more.

Another option is an overnight stay at Paynatha Trail Head. It is just a few miles away but should not be utilized as a campground. If you do camp there, only stay for one night and, if there are already two RVs there, do not camp there.

A Haunted Homestead Hike – Grants, New Mexico.

This Sunday, head out to BLM managed El Malpais NCA haunted homestead hike. This guided five-mile round-trip adventure will take you from modern times to the bygone pioneer days.

The hike is free of charge. Drinking water will not be available so make sure to take plenty along with you. Bring a picnic lunch to eat at the homestead. The trail to the Armijo Homestead is sandy and meanders though junipers and pinyons as you venture deep into the Cebolla Wilderness. You should bring sunblock and sturdy hiking shoes. The weather promises to be excellent, but you should dress in layers to prepare for changing weather.

Free camping is available nearby at the Joe Skeen Campground. There should be plenty of time to set up camp after the hike. It is scheduled to end before 2pm. Well before 2pm.

Everyone interested in this spooky adventure should arrive at the Ranger Station (located nine miles south of I-40/Exit 89) at 9 am. Once there, everyone will carpool to the trail head as high clearance vehicles are recommended.

Contact the BLM’s office at 505-280-2918 for more info.

The Lizard Man – Bishopsville, South Carolina

Legend has it that in the fields and swamps around Lee County, South Carolina lurks a seriously scary, seven feet tall lizard. He is well built, covered in dark hair with scaly lizard like skin on hands, feet and face. The reptoid is said to have three toes on each foot and three fingers on each hand which end in a circular pads that stick to walls. The creature has an incredible degree of strength, more than capable of ripping into a car. It might have a tail.

“Sightings of a monster lizard from the swamp have struck terror into a small community in South Carolina”, The Sunday Times – 1988-08-07.

Christopher Davis, a 17 year old local, who said he encountered the creature while driving home from work at 2 AM on June 29, 1988 said “I looked back and saw something running across the field towards me. It was about 25 yards away and I saw red eyes glowing. I ran into the car and as I locked it, the thing grabbed the door handle. I could see him from the neck down – the three big fingers, long black nails and green rough skin. It was strong and angry. I looked in my mirror and saw a blur of green running. I could see his toes and then he jumped on the roof of my car. I thought I heard a grunt and then I could see his fingers through the front windshield, where they curled around on the roof. I sped up and swerved to shake the creature off.”

Lee State Natural Area offers inexpensive camping within the fiendish reptile’s territory. The campsites have both water and 30amp electrical hookups and can accommodate RVs up to 36′ long for only $12/night. For those brave enough to enter the marsh, there are two 1-mile hiking trails. If you want to go even deeper, there is a 7-mile equestrian-only loop and a 5-mile loop (road), which is open to equestrians, hikers, bikers, and motorized vehicles.

Virginia Is For Ghosts – George Washington National Forest, Virginia

There are numerous locations within the George Washington National Forest that are said to be haunted. In fact more of it is supposed to be frequented by ghosts than not. Braley’s Pond is one of the best known camping spots to see a spook.

On May 22; 2003, a brutal gang murder occurred near Braley’s Pond. The forest was also the scene of a suicide. The group investigated the area in July 2006.

Willis investigated the area with a group independent from the SVPS in the fall of 2003 prior to this investigation. She says that it was the scariest investigation she’s ever conducted. “Something came home with me that night,” she says. “I was basically haunted and it went on for weeks and months at a time.” Willis described the haunting as someone or something touching her.

“It felt like slime,” she says. “And I could feel it moving around on my skin.” Willis says that the other people that accompanied her that night were also affected, but in different ways: “One of the girls in the group tried to commit suicide the same night that we investigated the area,” she says.
- Shenandoah Valley Paranormal Society

Another chill seeker shared their paranormal encounter at Braley’s Pond. “Go to the picnic area. From time to time a spirit hovers over the small run that flows next to the campsites. Also if you hike around the pond and stay on the rugged trail that leads up the mountain, about a half mile or so up the trail I heard the sound of a horse walking and neighing also children’s voices were heard.”

The free camping area has picnic tables, fire rings, and vault restrooms. The sites are wooded. There are numerous hiking and biking trails in the area. The pond is stocked with Rainbow Trout.

For You Overnighters, Nationwide.

Bass Pro Shops has tons of free fun for you and your road tripping family. There will be crafts, trick or treating, costume parades and more. See the banner to the right for more details. Use their store locator to find a location near you.

While most Bass Pro locations are happy to accommodate the overnight RVer, not all are able to. Please be respectful of their policies. Do not set up camp (awnings, chairs, etc.) and do not stay longer than one night.

As winter moves in, it is time for many full-time RVers or snowbirds to begin the migration south for warmer climes. There are many opportunities for free camping in the American Southwest. These range from free RV parks run by the city in order to attract tourists to vast tracts of desert where you can stay for months at a time.

Quartzsite, AZ

Quartzsite is probably the most popular snowbird location in the country. Every winter, this small town in the middle of the desert explodes into something approaching a small city as hundreds of thousands of RVers arrive for the rock show and the RV show. If you want to be around a lot of other full-timers or snowbirds, then Quartzsite might be exactly what you’re looking for.

There are five BLM dispersed camping locations within a few miles of town as well as a Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA). For $180 you can stay in Arizona’s two LTVA areas from September to April. If staying put that long isn’t quite your thing, you can stay at the dispersed camping areas for free up to 14 days out of every 28.

Carlsbad, NM

Everyone knows about Carlsbad Caverns, but did you realize there is also a lot of BLM land in the area where dispersed camping is legal for 14 days at a time? Carlsbad Caverns is, of course, the big tourist draw in the area. However if you enjoy hiking, climbing or caving, there are many other recreation opportunities in the area.

The nights do get a little chilly, but the daytime temperatures are balmy and the Guadalupe mountains offer some wonderful hiking and caving opportunities. Unlike Quartzsite, you may very well camp in an area where you can’t see another camper or even a car for long stretches at a time.

Padre Island, TX

Maybe the beach is more your style. What could be better than camping on the beaches of southern Texas? The Padre Island National Seashore allows camping for up to 14 days. A vehicle pass costs $10 for 7 days, so it’s not quite free, but it’s pretty close. Padre Island is the longest stretch of undeveloped barrier island in the world.

Consider that last statement. Now imagine camping on a warm sandy beach and not being able to see a high rise condominium or hotel. If you get tired of deserted beaches, you can also head north to Port Aransas and camp on the beach in the city limits for a few days!

These are just a few of the possibilities for this winter. There are many more spots throughout the southwest ranging from southern California to Texas that many snowbirds call home each winter. Sure, you could just head to a destination RV park and spend the winter in one place. Or, you could spend a little bit more money on fuel and stay at several of the wonderful free campsites on public lands instead.

Looking for a place to camp in southern California this winter that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg? Here are a few completely free camping spots that will keep you warm as well as keeping your wallet in your pocket.

Amboy Crater
Located along historic route 66, in the Mojave Desert, stands an extinct volcano, the Amboy Crater. The crater was once a popular tourist attraction along route 66, but with the decline of route 66 brought on by the Interstate system, the area has seen much less use. From interstate 40, head towards Amboy. Its roughly halfway between Barstow and Needles.

The land around Amboy crater is owned by the Bureau of Land Management. You may camp in the area for up to 14 days free of charge. Don’t expect much in the way of facilities, though. There is a large gravel parking lot and some picnic tables with shade. There are also a couple of vault toilets.

But, you came to hike inside an actual volcano, right? Go for it!

Box Canyon West
Located south of Joshua Tree National Park, near the small town of Mecca, is a beautiful canyon. Box Canyon has some gorgeous geology. The canyon walls are primarily sandstone and have been carved by wind and water into amazing shapes. On a full moon, you can let your imagination run wild and pick out many shapes within the canyon walls.

To get there, take Box Canyon road either South from I-10 or North from CA 111. There are plenty of places to pull off the road and camp inside the canyon, but access to the side canyons is blocked to vehicle access. Depending on the time of year, you may also see some gorgeous desert plants in bloom.

Traffic on Box Canyon road is light. Some areas have litter and very soft sand, so try to stay on a packed trail unless you’re prepared for beach driving and recovery. You could easily spend several days just hiking in the canyon! As with many BLM lands, you may camp for free up to 14 days.

Jawbone Canyon
Jawbone Canyon is an off roader’s paradise. With over 300 square miles to explore, you won’t get bored. Set in the Mojave desert, two hours east of Bakersfield, Jawbone canyon is pristine high desert with just enough access trails to get out and see it.

To get there, take CA-14 northeast from CA-58. Take a left on Jawbone Canyon road. From that point, you are on BLM land and can camp anywhere you like, but for more privacy, you might want to head in a bit deeper and find a side road.

If you’re looking for peace and quiet, Jawbone Canyon may not be the best choice on the weekends, but during the week, most of the ATV’s pack up and go home, leaving the area quite peaceful. As with other BLM land, you may camp for free up to 14 days.

Learn more about free camping locations in California.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3706798

Today, we’re rolling the beta interface into production. Some of you have been using the interface for a while now and we appreciate the feedback we received. We hope to accomplish a few things with the new map, but primarily we want to make searching for campsites easier.

New Features

• The new interface is all about finding campsites where YOU want to camp. It will display the closest listing to the point you clicked on the map. We don’t care if these locations are spread across state or even national borders.
• If you’re not sure just where on the map the area you want to camp in is, you can type city and state names into the search box above the map and we’ll figure it out for you.
• We sort the listings for returned camp sites by distance from the point you choose. This let’s you quickly find the closest sites to you.
• When you can’t find anything you like in our database, try turning on the ‘Unverified Sites’ checkbox. This will show you listings that are not in our main database. These sites are often pay sites and may exceed $10, so be sure to research them before heading out.
• Finally, we want to make it easy for you to find and share the same search results. If you copy the link from your address bar after a search, you can send it to a friend and they will see exactly the same search listings you do.

Don’t Like It?

If you don’t like the new interface or have trouble with it for any reason, don’t worry. There are still links to ‘USA’ and ‘Canada’ on the map search page. Clicking on any of the map options will set that to your default view when returning to the site. Simply choose a new tab and it will continue to be your default view until you choose another.

Please, let us know your thoughts on the new interface. We want to make the site as user friendly and accessible as we can. If there is a feature we can add that will enhance your user experience, let us know. If you find a bug… PLEASE let us know. We can’t fix what we don’t hear about.

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We have added the Google Plus One button to our pages. Its your way to recommend our site on the web. When you click it, you let people in your social circle know that you think that our page is a good resource for free camping and boondocking locations. Each click is only for the page you are on. So, if you click on the +1 at the top of this page, you will be recommending this blog post.

Don’t forget, we have recently added other ways for you to bookmark our pages and to share them with your friends. Place your cursor on the orange box with the white cross near the top of each page to see a plethora of options including Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, email and many more.

Thanks for your continued support!

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West Branch State Forest Campground, located in Dickinson County, Michigan, was closed in 2009 by the DNR due to budget cuts. It was reopened, illegally, over Memorial Day weekend.

An unknown party mowed the grass, jimmied open the doors to the restrooms and removed the roadblocks, a large berm and some boulders, that the DNR had put in place to keep people out.

According to John Pepin at The Mining Journal, the DNR doesn’t know who is responsible or why they did it, but they sure would like to ehm… “talk” to them.

DNR officials said they aren’t sure whether someone just really wanted to camp at the campground or if whoever re-opened the campground was attempting to make a statement about the DNR’s plan announced in April to close 23 more of the rustic state forest campgrounds.

Either way, DNR law enforcement officers want to talk to the perpetrator.
           – John Pepin at The Mining Journal

When this unmanned campground was shut down, its facilities included 18 primitive small trailer/tent sites, vault toilets and potable water from well hand pump. The camping fee was $15 a night. It was one of twelve state forest campgrounds that were shut down via Executive Order 2009-22. The state closed 20 campgrounds in 2007. And, as you may remember us telling you, the state plans on shutting down yet another 23 campgrounds this year.

The good news! Dispersed camping is allowed on State Forest land without a fee, if the camp is one mile from a designated state forest campground and it has not been banned by Order of the Director. Campers must post a camp registration card at their campsite. Camp registration cards may be obtained at any DNR Operation Service Center or from the Forest, Mineral, and Fire Management Office in Lansing. (Note: dispersed camping is also allowed on a limited basis within State Game Areas. For more information call Wildlife Division).

Read the full story over at the The Mining Journal

There is also an anecdotal story about it on gawker.com

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We have removed the Canada tab from the main menu and placed it into the map menu.

We have added the ability to share the front page maps via email, Facebook and numerous other social mediums. You might have noticed some of these share boxes throughout the site already. You’ll recognize it as the orange square with the white cross inside. This will not only allow you to share the main pages and individual campsites, but also allow you to send your friends a link to the beta map with the current results. Just click on the share icon when you want to share the page that you are on and pick a method.

Based on the feedback we received, the following changes were made to the beta map interface.

• More map sizes. You can now select small, medium or large. Once you do, your selection will be remembered and will be your default map size on future visits. You will always be able to change it later just by selecting a different size. We started with a small map because, as nomads, our bandwidth can be limited and we wanted the map to load as fast as possible. It’s definitely better to have a choice than one size fits all. Thank you for your feedback.
• The popup info window that you get when you click on a campsite has been changed to reduce scrolling.

Please continue to tell us how you use the interface and how you would LIKE to use it. And really… let us know if something is broken; please include the browser you are using, the version number and your screen resolution if at all possible.

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I know you guys think we just hang out at the beach drinking margaritas all day, but you’re wrong. We really do work a bit on occasion. Although you might be right about the margaritas…

But as proof that we do work on occasion, I’d like to unveil our fancy new interface (you might need to hit the refresh/reload button to see it). It’s pretty whiz-bang. Hopefully, you’ll get the hang of it pretty quick. See that little tab marked ‘Beta’? Click that. If your browser explodes, we’re guilty. If not, I hope you’ll like our next generation interface.

By all means, drop us a line here if something isn’t working right in the beta interface. Do keep in mind though that it is beta and things might suddenly change on you overnight. Ok, that is all. Go play!

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We have added a new site fee type: Pass or Permit Required. It is in addition to the “Free” and “$10 or less” types. This will allow sites that, like the BLM LTVAs, are a supreme value but do not quite make it into the $10 or less category because your out of pocket cost is more than $10. Another example of a Permit or Pass Required site would be a Texas Wildlife Management Area. They require you to purchase a $12 Limited Public Use (LPU) Permit to recreate on them. However, the LPU is good for one year and allows you to stay at any of the 22 Texas WMAs that allow camping at no extra cost.

I know some of you are looking at the picture on the right and saying “Whoa. I can submit campsites? I had no idea.” It’s true, you can, and it’s much appreciated. Click here to submit a site in the USA and here to submit a Canadian site. Yep. It’s that easy.

Just for a refresher, we should probably go over the three fee categories.

Free
This is our favorite type! Choose this option if there are no costs associated with the campsite. No day-use fees, membership fees, or permit fees. A permit or pass may be required but at no cost. The site must also be free for everyone. No age or military status restrictions.

$10 or less
This option is for “cheap” camping locations. These campsites cost $10 or less a night. If you have to stay for more than one night for the price to be $10 or less, then you should either select the permit option or refrain from adding the site (i.e. a $300 month rate at an RV park doesn’t belong on this site!). The price must also be the same for everyone. No membership, age, military, or status restrictions.

While we rarely use these sites, we do understand their value. This really comes into play in areas where there aren’t any free spots, where it would cost more than $10 to drive to free spot, or in an area where dumping and filling your water costs the same as staying in a $10 campsite who provide those facilities for their guests.

Pass or Permit Required
This is the new option. Choose this option for places that require you to purchase a pass or permit to camp in the area. BLM LTVAs are an example of such a system. You pay a reasonable, one time fee and you can camp at the location for months at a time. If a permit is required but at no cost, please select “Free”.

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Did you see it? For about 15 minutes tonight, the FreeCampsites.net you are used to seeing disappeared and a maintenance page popped up in it’s place. Sorry about that, but it was all in the name of progress!

Tonight’s maintenance should pave the way for some cool features. We made some large changes to the back end. However, most everything should look and function the same as it always did. We worked hard to ensure that bugs were not introduced, but we don’t have a Q/A team (any volunteers?). If you run into any problems after tonight’s upgrades, please let us know.

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Are you adventurous? If so, you may like this.

Now, this tool is a bit different than the rest of the site. It will give you GPS coordinates and names for POTENTIAL campsites that are not yet listed here at Freecampsites.net. That’s right, you’ll be seeing some of the raw data we’re working with and will have a chance to visit campsites before they officially make it onto the site. The Adventurous Map will display up to ten of the unchecked sites in the database within two hundred miles of a point you select.

We’re giving you access to this tool for a couple of reasons. First off, this is a beta test for new code that will be integrated into the site in the future. We’ll be adding whiz bang features to this as we go along. Please let us know if/when you find a bug!

Secondly, there are almost a thousand GPS points in our unchecked database. We could use a little help entering them in order to keep the newfangled features coming. So, if you do the research on one of these unverified sites, please let us know by submitting it. Just make a note that it came from the Adventurous Map so we can clean up the database.

Finally, a disclaimer: We’ve done our best to sanitize this data, but we know that some errors have crept in. We can not guarantee that every site listed is free… or even actually there. Please proceed with caution.

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Water management is a big deal for long term boondocking. Water is almost always the resource to run out first unless you happen to be camping next to a pretty clean water supply and take advantage of it. In this article, we will look at a few things you can do to make the most of your water resources during an extended boondocking trip.

Many people extend their water supplies via jerry cans or large water tanks. It’s a quick and easy way to get a bit more water for your trip. You may even want to invest in collapsible water jugs so that they take up less space when empty. This method also means that if you have a vehicle besides your camper, you can run into town and fill up your water jugs without moving the rig. If you go this route, you will still need to think about how you are going to handle gray water.

My favorite method of water management is plain old conservation. There’s nothing flashy about it, you just need to realize that water is going to be what makes you pack up the campsite and head back to town and then try to handle it accordingly. For many people, the biggest drain on their water supply is bathing. Now, I’m not saying you need to go without a shower until the ranger can locate you by the smell, but if you don’t smell bad enough to run your spouse out of the camper, maybe you can skip the second shower of the day.

Alright, I get it. You don’t want to stink. Well, if you really must shower, learn to take Navy and Army showers. Navy style showers consist of turning on the shower long enough to get wet and turning the water off. Next, you lather up and scrub without running water. Finally, you turn the water on and rinse the soap off. Easy as can be, but you save the water that most people would just leave running in their home showers.

Army showers use even less water. You fill up your helmet (or your bathroom sink) and that is how much water you get to use for your ‘shower’. It’s the same basic principle as a Navy shower, except you don’t use the ‘getting wet’ phase. You do that with a damp soapy rag. It’s best to use one rag for lathering up and a second for rinsing the soap off so you don’t get too much extra soap in your ‘helmet’. With a bit of practice, even long haired folks (take note hippies!) can wash their hair and body in a gallon of water. You might not be Sunday-go-to-meeting clean, but you probably won’t be mistaken for Bigfoot… at least not by the smell.

After showers, dishes are one of the things that tend to take a lot of water. My favorite method of doing dishes (I don’t think I ever expected to use THAT phrase) is pretty good on water conservation. First, find the biggest dirty pot you have. Fill it halfway with hot water and dish soap. Now, use a sponge or dishrag and wash the rest of the dishes over that pot with the soapy water. Rather than rinse them right away, pile them up in the clean side of the sink. Once you have a sinkfull, rinse them using just a trickle of water. If you rinse a dish above the other soapy dishes, the run off from that dish will help rinse the ones below it, requiring less water for those.

One final topic of water conservation is using the toilet. First of all, use as much water as is required. Trying to unclog an RV toilet is considerably worse than trying to unclog a household toilet as they are rarely airtight and a plunger won’t do anything but make a mess. The best way to cut down on water usage is to use only as much toilet paper as is required. The more paper in the toilet, the more water you need to flush in order to prevent clogs.

A common source of toilet water usage is rinsing the sides of the bowl. Many people will hold the lever open until enough water has run through to remove any stains. We have found that a better solution to this is to keep a small spray bottle full of water in the bathroom. A directed squirt does more to clean the sides of the bowl than running water through the toilet and takes both less water and electricity for the water pump.

Some folks even use spray bottles for showering and dishes. If you happen to find a good pressure spray bottle, it’s actually a great way to conserve water. It’s much easier trying to take a shower when you can pump up the bottle rather than having to squeeze the trigger constantly. Small bottles are great for this, but a ‘bug spray’ type bottle works fairly well.

Of course, when heading out to the woods, make sure you have empty wastewater tanks and a full white water tank! If you happen to be camped near a free dump station with water and are only going to stay a few days, go nuts showering and cleaning, then fill ‘er up again.

What do you need to boondock? You don’t actually need anything at all. Anyone that sleeps in the woods is, more or less, ‘boondocking’. Now, if you want to boondock constantly and be comfortable, that is another thing entirely. If you are happy with a tent and a backpack, there’s probably not much we can teach you. If, however, you are planning to take an RV out and bring the comforts of home with you, we might just have an idea or two you can use.

Before we even start talking about what to bring, there are two important things you should memorize about your rig. How tall is it and how much does it weigh? When you get to that scenic, hundred year old covered bridge, you definitely don’t want to become part of the landscape!

Everyone is going to have different things they want to bring along when they head into the wilderness. Some people are not happy without satellite television and an internet connection. Others are happy with a few books and a guitar. We will discuss a few of these luxuries in future articles, but for now, let’s stick with the basics. We all need to eat, drink and stay warm or cool. That is what the basics of survival boil down to. But, we are talking about being comfortable as well!

Regardless of how you plan to get where you are going, you will need to think about water. If you are only going to be camping near streams, you could go very minimalistic and just bring a backpacker style water filter. Otherwise, you will need to bring your own water. For most RVs, this is not a problem. The real question is how big your holding tanks are. Water is almost always the first resource you will run out of. Consider, you need water for drinking, bathing, cleaning dishes and flushing the toilet. Water conservation will become completely natural if you spend enough time boondocking.

Waste water is also a consideration. If the area is secluded enough and the weather is right, you might consider taking showers outdoors! As a general rule, you should not be dumping your gray water on the ground forty gallons at a time, but you know that, right? Using the outdoors shower or even washing your dishes outdoors is a little different, though.

Do we even need to mention food? You have been eating your entire life and I doubt you plan to stop just because you will be out in the woods. Well, here are a few tips anyhow. Most RV refrigerators aren’t as big as your average household refrigerator. Camper vans or people car camping may not even have a refrigerator. Of course, the bigger your refrigerator, the more goodies you can bring along, but don’t forget about staple foods that can be stored anywhere. Sure, you could bring frozen corndogs and microwave them, but it is a much better use of space and resources to bring say pasta, a can of tomatoes and a little ground sausage. Black beans and rice takes no refrigeration at all, but makes quite a tasty, nutritious meal.

These days, many people are happy with a burger from a fast food joint or a frozen meal that requires a few minutes in the microwave. Think about whether or not you really enjoy that sort of food or just eat it because it is convenient. If you are going to be camping out in the woods for a few days or weeks, it is much easier to bring along ‘real food’ and cook it. You have all the time in the world; why not use some of it to make a healthy meal that really tastes good?

Finally, we started out talking about how to be comfortable while boondocking. For most people, that means find a comfortable temperature. For fulltime RVers, the best answer to this is to move to a comfortable place! When it starts getting hot, we look for places with shade and elevation. When the weather turns cool, the deserts start looking a lot better. No matter how well insulated your camper may be, the best climate control system is still Mother Nature.

Still, there are those times when you actually want to camp at the ski slopes or near the beach during bikini season. The best tip I know is to dress appropriately. If you dress for winter and come inside to a camper that is fifty degrees, it is comfortable and does not burn through propane like trying to maintain seventy-two degrees would. If you are relaxing in the shade with a cold glass of water and a breeze, you will rarely need an air conditioner. Your body will acclimate to the temperature if you dress reasonably and do not insist on over exerting yourself in unreasonable conditions.

Okay, we understand that the weather can not always be perfect and some times it rains. No matter how well you plan, you will still end up needing climate control once in a while and you might just have to watch a bit of television because it is the season finale of your favorite show. There are gadgets galore to help out with this and we will talk about some of them, but your first consideration is how you are going to power them all.

From least complex to most, your choices are the alternator from your vehicle, a generator, and solar panels. Some fulltimers even use wind energy as a supplemental source of power. This can be a pretty complicated decision, so we will look into the technical side in a separate article. Briefly though, your alternator will charge your batteries without buying any new equipment, except perhaps an inverter if you need AC power. In the long run, the cost of fuel to charge batteries will probably outweigh the cost of either other alternative unless you are already planning to do a lot of driving.

A generator is going to have some up front cost associated with it. This cost is variable and, not surprisingly, you get what you pay for. A quieter, more fuel efficient generator can cost quite a bit more than a loud generator that is a bit less efficient. And, just like your vehicle, you are going to need to carry fuel to run it.

Solar panels are the silent choice that require no fuel at all. As of this writing, solar power is in the same price range as a quiet, efficient generator if you shop around and handle the installation yourself. The complexity of the installation and figuring out just what is needed can be a daunting task, however.

What is boondocking? If you are new to camping, you may ask this same question. Boondocking is essentially camping without hookups. You may also hear it referred to as ‘dry camping’. Often, dry camping means staying in a campground without hookups, whereas, boondocking typically means staying in a completely undeveloped area. You may also hear people talk about ‘dispersed camping’, which is the official term often used by government agencies.

The real question to ask is whether or not boondocking is right for you. If you enjoy being outdoors soaking in peace, quiet and natural beauty, then it just might be. If you prefer to be surrounded by neighbors and have lots of defined recreational activities, then maybe you would be happier in a campground. While boondocking, you often need to amuse yourself rather than go to the campground’s swimming pool or the golf course down the street.

At Freecampsites.net, we understand that both types of camping are valid. Different people have different desires and people’s needs change regularly. We try to accomodate both types of camping without breaking the bank! Ten dollars isn’t what it used to be, so campgrounds that meet our most important criteria tend to be closer to boondocking than fancy resorts. However, there are still plenty of activities for people in the right mindset.

Did we scare you off yet, or have you decided that free camping might just be for you? The good news is that if you decide to try boondocking, you will find some of the most serene and beautiful campsites anywhere. You may very well end up with the kind of campsite that you, literally, can not pay for! If there was anyone around to collect your money, they’d stick fifty campsites on the land and ruin what makes it special. These are the gems that make a boondocking lifestyle worthwhile.

We won’t claim that every site we list is like that. Most are not. They are, however, a good jumping off point to explore the area. Most of our listings are small campgrounds on public lands. Many of these are gorgeous. Additionally, you can often find dispersed camping areas near them which may be more beautiful and secluded. We want to enable you to get out there and explore this beautiful world we all share. And please, come back and tell us what you found!

 I have added a new feature to the site. You can now view the four day weather forecast for the campsite you are interested in. Please let us know if you experience any problems or discrepancies.

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There is a meeting scheduled that should be of importance to anyone who enjoys camping on our public lands. The American Lands Access Association, a group who’s main interest is protecting our recreation rights on public land, will hold an open meeting on Wednesday morning, January 19th between 9:00 and 12:00 at the Senior Center in Quartzsite, Arizona. All are welcome and encouraged to attend. The main topics will be:
* Current and proposed Legislation regrading public lands.
* Current and proposed Regulations -
BLM Lands
USFS Lands
* Affect of Solar Energy Projects
* ALAA – who we are and what we do
* Learn how to become part of the process to save access and our rights to use our public lands.

The meeting will be held on:
January 19th between 9:00 and 12:00 at the Senior Center in Quartzsite, Arizona.

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Rubber Tramp: A person who travels and lives out of their vehicle (normally an RV, van, bus, etc.). Also see nomads and gypsies.

There will be gathering of RVers, car campers, vandwellers, and wannabes over the next couple of weeks. It will be held just outside of Quartzsite, Arizona. There will be informal seminars on installing solar power, work-camping, getting medical services in Mexico, living on public land, and how to install a high-top on your van. There is also talk of a talent show. For a full schedule and directions, visit the host’s website.

It’s that time of year again. As of December 24th, Christmas Eve, we have been online for exactly two years!

We currently have 1,126 campsites listed in the US and Canada.

Thanks to everyone for your support.

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Are you tired of reading articles by the same so-called experts month after month? Ever wonder how they came to be ‘experts’ in the first place? Do you think that just maybe, you might be just as qualified to write on the same subjects you’ve seen butchered time and again by ‘professional experts’?

Well, have we got a deal for you. Freecampsites.net is adding a guest blog and we’d like to hear YOUR expert opinions! If you spend a significant portion of your life working on something, you become an expert. Now that we’ve determined that you’re an expert, all you have to do is write an article on a subject you’re ALREADY an expert on and let the rest of the world know about it.

Of course, if you’d like to be published on Freecampsites.net, your article should be related to camping or full-timing. Sorry, but no matter how much of an expert you may be on keeping alligators in your basement, unless you can manage to do that in a fifth-wheel, we just don’t care!

Easy, right? So, what’s in it for you? Well, for starters, you will be recognized by your peers in the community as an expert! Still not enough? OK, how about if we include a link to your own blog or website and maybe even a bio blurb at the bottom just like the other ‘experts’ whose opinions you’ve been reading?

Just send us a copy of your article along with the name you want to be published under and a link to your site and/or a short bio (one paragraph or less, please). That’s all it takes to start down the road to fame and fortune as a professional expert. As a special, one-time offer, you may submit a series of articles for the price of one! Just pay separate shipping and handling costs for each additional article.

If you would like to submit an article, simply email the aforementioned information to admin@freecampsites.net along with either your first born son or a pony. Please include any special care and feeding instructions.

Freecampsites.net is not responsible for any physical or financial harm caused by sudden fame and fortune. Experts are solely liable for their own protection when chased by hordes of raving fans. Please do not try this at home without expert help.

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Everyone’s camping style is different. Some people have never been into an RV park, while others have never camped outside of one.

Different people have different energy needs, too. I know a man who has enough solar panels on the roof of his 5er to run his big screen tv, dvd player, refrigerator, and his A/C. Another friend of mine uses absolutely zero electricity while camping.

While we all use different amounts of energy, we only have a couple of ways to get it. Which one do you use? Please use the poll to select your answer. We would also like to hear your thoughts about your choice. Would you go with the same system if you had it to do over? Let us know by leaving a comment on this page or on the forum via the link below.

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Howdy folks,

A few of you may have noticed that your comments don’t make it onto the site. There’s a very good reason for this: comments are moderated. We love to have feedback and comments on site postings to keep things up to date, but we’re just not going to allow comments that bash the original poster or are generally negative in tone about the people working to add new sites.

By all means, correct any problems you notice, but do so in a civil manner. While this is an open forum, there is no need to add a lot of negative comments that give no useful information. Worse yet, I hate to see good information embedded in a flame as it means that information isn’t going to make it onto the site until an administrator gets around to editing the original post.

Like mama said, “If you don’t have anything nice to say…”

I suppose some of you noticed our 14 hour outage Monday afternoon into early Tuesday morning. It seems the site is growing, which is a good thing. The bad news is that it’s starting to outgrow our hosting plan and our provider shut us down when some of the backend processes took up too much CPU time.

For now, we’ve turned off some of the backend jobs that cause this sort of slowdown; it’s nothing that should be noticeable from a user perspective. In the near future, we’ll be doing more streamlining and will have to postpone some of the upgrades we had planned until we’re sure they aren’t going to interfere with other users on the server.

In the long term, we’ll probably have to move the site to a dedicated server in order to avoid this sort of problem in the future and bring you some of the whiz bang features we’d like to have. Unfortunately, dedicated hosting isn’t cheap and the site doesn’t make nearly enough from ads to even consider that option.

No, this is not a lead in to tell you we’re about to start charging for access. The information we currently offer will remain completely free as long as we can afford to keep the site online.

However, we may start to add some services or features that require a membership in order to subsidize the cost of the services we currently provide. There is also the possibility of an ebook for offline use. These are some of the ideas we’re kicking around as we try and figure out how to keep the site online (and free!) for you.

This is a community site, so we’re asking the community for ideas. Are there any particular features you’d like to see that you feel are worth paying for? Do you actually want an ebook for offline access? Tell us what you think!

Come Join Us!.

We have thousands of visitors each month, but very few are actually submitting sites. The majority of our listings have been submitted by a handful of loyal members. If you are a regular submitter and/or commenter, thank you! If not, we would love to know why not. We have set up a poll with some reasons that we think might be holding you back from participating in the site. If your answer was not provided or you would like to elaborate on your vote, please leave a us a comment.

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Hi folks,

Hopefully, not too many of you were trying to access the forums during our 5 minute maintenance window. Tonight, we took the forums down just long enough to upgrade to the latest stable release which fixed a potential security issue as well as added a few new features and interface changes.

I won’t try to list all of the new features here, but you’ll probably see a few new things. Hopefully, you won’t have to look too hard to find familiar features that have changed a tiny bit. We’ll still be making some minor changes to the forum software over the next few days, so shout if you notice something that doesn’t look quite right!

You might have seen our “Undergoing maintenance” page if you were lucky enough to try and access our page during the brief, 8 minute upgrade period last night.

While you wont see a lot of visible changes, last night’s upgrade was a very important one. I had talked about allowing users the ability to modify their own submissions and while it’s still not a go, the modifications that I made will allow me to bring that feature one step closer to release.

There are a few noticeable changes. You can now reply directly to other user’s comments. When you click on a thumbnail on a campsite’s page, you will no longer get giant images that take forever to display.

I applied a big update to the mapping interface today. The most notable things that you might see are a loading indicator and a read more link in the info window that pops up when you click on a site’s pin. There are also quite a few changes that aren’t so visible. Please let me know if you notice any bugs that I might have missed during testing.

We spent most of the day yesterday packing up camp, getting provisions and driving to our current location: Quartzsite. We stopping in last year but had missed all of the hoorah. This year, we were boondocking near by and decided to hop on over for the RV show.

While we are here, we plan on spreading the word about Freecampsites.net. If you are in town, you might catch a glimpse of our flier. All are welcome to print it out and post it.

Hope to see you at the show!

We have a few new tweaks for you today. By popular request, campsites are now displayed alphabetically at the state level. Hopefully, this will make it a little bit easier to find the site you’re looking for.

We’re continuing to speed up the delivery and caching of the site. Please let us know if you are experiencing any issues caused by the optimization.

Finally, we have added in a rating system that has been talked about for a long time. When you view a site now, you may rate it. Please only do so if you have been to the actual site. We’re not interested in collecting ratings on the quality of the post, only how you felt about the campsite. We have a few plans for this data once the community has rated enough sites to be interesting.

Welcome to the Freecampsites.net Admin weblog! This area has been created in order to improve communication with our users.

After all, you are the ones who make this site great. While there is a comments and suggestions section, as well as an announcements section of the forum, I feel those those are a little impersonal and that this is a better way to keep you informed.

I have been working on speeding up the site. I have seen a couple comments across the Internet saying that freecampsites.net is a great site, but that it’s a little slow. I had not personally noticed it, but I did do some metrics and checked out some test sites. They all pointed to the same thing: sloooow….
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