At some nat. parks, the boondocking outside of the park boundary is better than the official campgrounds. That's definitely true at Joshua Tree. I camped in a dry lake bed overnight, then drove into the park to do the campsite shuffle described on page 1. But after looking around at how stuffed those campgrounds are, decided to stay in the nice, roomy dry lake bed.
For 2 weeks during the superbloom in the CA desert, I made 1 reservation for 2 nights at Furnace Creek in Death Valley. After a week out, I wanted free access to that gorgeous pool and the best shower room I've seen. Then I was back out boondocking again. It was great.
