Night stops with RV

Get away from the Interstates...every small town in the US has a city park. Or a school..or church. Any of these three places are prime over-nights zones. Talk to people...ask the question..."Do you think it would be alright if we over-night here"...

We are just home from a 7 week wander in the west and apart from a week at a pal's place, we paid for five camp nights. There is no need to shell out that kind of cash. Never any safety issues.


Gary Haupt

Rest areas, Walmart, truck stops. All 3 will usually do, and each has their caveats.
Rest areas usually fill up late day with big rigs, and if you do find an empty lane, the noise and smell might be problematic. Haven't had any safety issues at them. Doesn't mean it can't happen, just nothing so far.
Truck stops are OK, but few have lots of RV parking, and it's usually not a good idea to use "truck parking" areas to overnight. During the day when they're less full, maybe just for short periods. We've asked at a few Pilot/Flying J locations and the manager said go ahead and park there, because it was marked Truck/RV parking. If it's marked Trucks or Trucks Only, avoid.
Walmart is a funny animal. It's usually OK, if you're not the only overnighter, but you can always run into problems. We've had a couple of scares over 10 years of stopping at Walmarts for the night, and you just have to be aware of your surroundings in them. We try to avoid anything close to the center of a city. Better to stay at the ones just off the interstates, or near the outside edges of town. Even that can be dicey, though.
Gary's suggestions are also good ones.

Freecampsites.net
Campendium
RVparky

azrving wrote:
Freecampsites.net
Campendium
RVparky

Also good suggestions.

Most Cracker Barrels have overnight RV spaces. I suspect they hope you will then go inside for breakfast!

As your husband should know, the rest areas and truck stops are crowded with truckers trying to obey the new mandatory rest period regulations and they don't take too kindly to campers spending the night. Walmart's policy of welcoming overnighters has been abused to the point where communities are starting to ban the practice.

This is basically what campgrounds are for. Plan to be in one by late afternoon and stay a night or 2 if there's something in the area worth exploring. Unless you're trying to get into a popular state or national park on a summer weekend, advanced reservations aren't necessary and spending a lunch break on the road with RVParky or AllStays and a phone will be all you need to find a place to stay that night.

If you want to get into Yellowstone, Grand Tetons or Glacier on a summer weekend, you're probably too late to make reservations now. Keep checking for sites that open up due to cancellations.

The further west you go, the easier it will b able to find public land to camp on. Use campendium and Free Campsites to find these.

We don't have a schedule and we don't make reservations. When we want to stop driving we almost always use a campground. They are everywhere so you don't have to look very far. We just stopped at a state park in SC and it is so nice here we decided to stay a few day.

azrving wrote:
Freecampsites.net
Campendium
RVparky

I'll add Boondockers Welcome and Harvest Hosts to this list.

As well, we're fans of Walmart for quick overnights:

Overnight Parking at Walmarts – good or bad idea?

We don’t do Walmart’s, rest areas, truck stops, etc as we normally get off the road by mid afternoon. But we don’t usually make reservations for overnight stays either. After determining approx. where we will be stopping I will call ahead to make sure an RV park has sites available before I head there and pull in to find it full.

FTd for 7 yrs traveling secondary/backroads
Never used a rest stop/Walmart etc
Always used a CG or boondocked.
Rarely just 'overnighted'---------traveled max of 250 miles between stops and stayed at least 2 nights

Retired...so no hurry to get anywhere
Used Reservations for Holidays/Touristo Spots otherwisejust found a place as needed

You are NOT in vacation mode any more. :B