Post your Sneakiest Stealth Camp

What does KOA have to do with this topic?

I bought a truck camper to explore and travel to remote places. We drive sometimes into the night...we stealth camp all the time why pay some KOA $60 to sleep for few hours...?? not a big deal...the beauty of a truck camper is you can park where a 40' bus can't and experience the real beauty of this county...enjoy your cookie cutter KOA's

Idaho has many opportunities for camping just off the main travel routes. Heck, You can even overnight up to 14 hours at rest areas. The state is 1/3 public land, so that tells you there is a lot of space for boondocking. When I lived in Virginia I once got ran off the wildlife management area in Powhatan even when I was pointing at the signage that specifically stated, "Camping limited to 14 days." The state cop had no time for it. Sometimes we educate them, but they usually don't like it when they are caught unawares.

The operative word here is STEALTH.

Done properly, NOBODY ever knows you where there. No harm, no foul.

Hell no I'm not going to post or brag about my spots...

I was never there.

We don't stealth camp much. We have fallen in love with state parks for camping, and living in Britain it is a struggle to find anywhere to stealth camp that is legal or not in a noisy service area, or 18 inches from the edge of a fast road.

We did have a great night camped on top of a mountain above a fjord in Norway. I wasn't aware of any signs saying we couldn't camp, but I didn't want to take any risks of upsetting someone. It was on a parking pull-out on a road ploughed through the snow on the top of the mountain. A road only used by tourists, since sensible locals used the modern tunnel that cut straight through the mountain at sea-level.

We parked up and went for a walk in the snow, and waited for the little remaining tourist traffic to die away before actually camping. I levelled the truck on a couple of rocks rather than using my obvious bright yellow levelling ramps, didn't place anything outside, minimised the use of lights inside and even brought the steps in so anyone passing would just see a parked vehicle.

I did recently make a mistake. Near Glacier NP we drove down a dirt road heading for a national forest area when we found a quiet area in a gorge where we could pull off the dirt road into an area just below and out of site of the road. I thought it was public land - there were certainly no signs indicating it was private.

So as you've probably guessed, at about 9 PM there was the sound of a diesel engine drawing up to the camper. I threw on my shoes and stepped out smiling and said "Hi, my name's Steve". His name was Jerry and it was his land and actually the public land started only a mile down the road where there was a proper campground. I apologised and said it was my mistake. He said his main worry was high school kids coming and messing around. He said he wasn't going to run us out providing we didn't start any fires or shoot anything. I assured him that we certainly were not going to be doing either and thanked him for his understanding.

Had I known it was private land I wouldn't have camped there. Even in retrospect, knowing that Jerry let me do it. I'm also aware that the situation could have worked out very different if I had taken a different stance with Jerry, if I had spread stuff around the camper, maybe even if I didn't have an English accent.

Steve.

rjxj wrote:

SidecarFlip wrote:
When we go to the UP of Michigan SOP for us is stealth camping. There are many, many dirt roads that lead to well head access' off the pavement and most aren't gaited. You pull in off the road a little ways and spend the night. Do that in the lower as well. I have a State permit on my license plate and an ORV sticker too. That allows us to legally access any seasonal road leading to State land. There are a lot of them.

One of my favorites also leads to our hunting property with numerous turnouts just TC sized. I've spent a solid week on the road leading to our property and never seen a soul.

Never seen any signage excluding anything or person on any access road. They usually say "Seasonal Road", Limited access.

It's legal. Also print off the registration card. The only problem for many larger RV's in Mich is not knowing which two track to go down. TC does make it easy.

Most of the established ones will be on topo maps and a lot are actually named roads. The one that accesses our ground is actually named 136th street. With a big RV or a pull behind, you could get in deep do-do pretty fast, I agree. Some are easy, most aren't and some are downright wicked. Our 136th street has a creek crossing and some serious off camber stuff to negotiate. I just put the truck in 4L, lock the hubs and idle in. Most of the ones (seasonal access roads and gas and oil easements) in the UP are easy. Pretty flat up there until you get over by Wisconsin and then it gets lumpy.

I have the Recreational permit on my plate tag (extra 10 bucks a year) and that gets me in all state campgrounds (there are a bunch) plus all the seasonal access roads that lead to state land. I run an ORV sticker too just to be covered in case I run into a DNR person.

Another time just outside Yosemite I went looking for a spot in a particular campground but the campfire smoke was intense, like an inversion layer and no wind. So we proceeded further up the road running deeper into a river canyon and found the gravel road ended at a Dam run by a small power company. The area where the road widened where huge trees, beautiful river and water falls. It was a great night since we got plenty of 'sleepin Inn' and no pounding on the door. It was a great experience and morning was wonderful there.

When on the road on a longer TC trip which includes staying with friends or relatives, the choice is always to stay in our TC in front of their home or on the property, if not in an HOA zone. We have done this a lot; hardly stealthy or sneaky. Just low key. Our friends and relatives always put up resistance to staying the the TC, but as I see it, it's the least invasive of the sleeping options. Of course we stay up late swapping stories about the good old days, but when it's time, we quietly retire to the sanctity of our mobile boudoir. No steps to put down; nothing changes shape; no set up or fold down.

SidecarFlip wrote:
When we go to the UP of Michigan SOP for us is stealth camping. There are many, many dirt roads that lead to well head access' off the pavement and most aren't gaited. You pull in off the road a little ways and spend the night. Do that in the lower as well. I have a State permit on my license plate and an ORV sticker too. That allows us to legally access any seasonal road leading to State land. There are a lot of them.

One of my favorites also leads to our hunting property with numerous turnouts just TC sized. I've spent a solid week on the road leading to our property and never seen a soul.

Never seen any signage excluding anything or person on any access road. They usually say "Seasonal Road", Limited access.

It's legal. Also print off the registration card. The only problem for many larger RV's in Mich is not knowing which two track to go down. TC does make it easy.

When we go to the UP of Michigan SOP for us is stealth camping. There are many, many dirt roads that lead to well head access' off the pavement and most aren't gaited. You pull in off the road a little ways and spend the night. Do that in the lower as well. I have a State permit on my license plate and an ORV sticker too. That allows us to legally access any seasonal road leading to State land. There are a lot of them.

One of my favorites also leads to our hunting property with numerous turnouts just TC sized. I've spent a solid week on the road leading to our property and never seen a soul.

Never seen any signage excluding anything or person on any access road. They usually say "Seasonal Road", Limited access.