Newbie - What size will most Nat parks allow
The admiral and I will be transitioning from our boat to a MH. She's agreed to go from the admiral to a DW. :B We've been to a RV show and have settled on a Class A but nothing is set in stone. T...
Forum Discussion
The largest motorhome most state and national parks will ALLOW is 45 feet, which is the largest motorcoach allowed on the highway in most states, without a special permit.
Down from there, fitting into RV sites, getting into campgrounds and using campsites, finding parking elsewhere, getting across size restricted roads (like Going to the Sun, or city streets), the smaller your vehicle the more places you can go. You can go almost anywhere a street vehicle can go, with an under 20 foot van. You can park that size in almost any primitive campground and either sleep where it is parked or pitch you tent a short walk over in the camping area.
In public parks, you don't really find scenic areas separated from "big rig" areas, but what you do find is RV camping areas with parking places and service connections that fit RVs of any size, and because these areas get filled with RVs they look more like parking lots than campgrounds. Then you find other campgrounds with connections or big parking spaces, and you get people with smaller RVs and a lot of people in tents, and it looks more like a campground.
If you want to go RVing full time, or for an extended time, you choose a size that is comfortable for you living style, you take it where you can take it (which is almost everywhere) and you don't worry about the other places you might have gone, or camped, if your RV had been smaller. Many users of class A, and even smaller motorhomes, will pull a smaller second vehicle to get around in, get to those few scenic places a big rig can't reach.
It is always a compromise of space and comfort vs mobility. A smaller RV will go where a bigger one can't. A Jeep carrying camping gear will go where no RV can go. A four-wheeler, trail bike, or snowmobile will take you and your gear where a Jeep won't go, and abackpacker will walk into places where no vehicle is permitted to go.
If you are thinking about what size motorhome will get into those scenic empty meadows beside the lake with mountains in the background, shown in the RV brochures, those places mostly don't exist, not for RVs in our parks. Places like that might exist in the parks for people who will walk to them, but the RV brochure pics are usually set up on private land, if not totally faked in an image editor.
Down from there, fitting into RV sites, getting into campgrounds and using campsites, finding parking elsewhere, getting across size restricted roads (like Going to the Sun, or city streets), the smaller your vehicle the more places you can go. You can go almost anywhere a street vehicle can go, with an under 20 foot van. You can park that size in almost any primitive campground and either sleep where it is parked or pitch you tent a short walk over in the camping area.
In public parks, you don't really find scenic areas separated from "big rig" areas, but what you do find is RV camping areas with parking places and service connections that fit RVs of any size, and because these areas get filled with RVs they look more like parking lots than campgrounds. Then you find other campgrounds with connections or big parking spaces, and you get people with smaller RVs and a lot of people in tents, and it looks more like a campground.
If you want to go RVing full time, or for an extended time, you choose a size that is comfortable for you living style, you take it where you can take it (which is almost everywhere) and you don't worry about the other places you might have gone, or camped, if your RV had been smaller. Many users of class A, and even smaller motorhomes, will pull a smaller second vehicle to get around in, get to those few scenic places a big rig can't reach.
It is always a compromise of space and comfort vs mobility. A smaller RV will go where a bigger one can't. A Jeep carrying camping gear will go where no RV can go. A four-wheeler, trail bike, or snowmobile will take you and your gear where a Jeep won't go, and abackpacker will walk into places where no vehicle is permitted to go.
If you are thinking about what size motorhome will get into those scenic empty meadows beside the lake with mountains in the background, shown in the RV brochures, those places mostly don't exist, not for RVs in our parks. Places like that might exist in the parks for people who will walk to them, but the RV brochure pics are usually set up on private land, if not totally faked in an image editor.
