Road Duchess' Guide to Free (Amazing) Camping!

Free, natural camping is a major perk of the Road Duchess life. There are so many options out there, especially out west. The land we like to find is secluded, easy in and out, wide open spaces with a lot of room between campers, beautiful scenery and all the nature you could want. Some places are better than others, but we usually find some pretty amazing spots.

In order to find free camping that's worth staying at, it takes a little research and diligence. Follow along with me to discover how we find all the amazing spots, for FREE!

Download Some Apps:

You're going to need to download a few apps. Here are the ones we use:

• Campendium

• the Dyrt

• Allstays

• iOverlander

• Google maps

Steps To Finding Your Perfect Spot:

After you have downloaded your apps these are the steps you will take:

1. Figure out where you want to go. Sounds obvious but this is step one.

2. Open Campendium and search the area you want to be in, go to filters and slide the price slider to zero dollars. See what's available. From here you can get a lot of info from previous reviewers as to the condition of the spot. You can find out if it will accommodate your size rig, if it's easy to get in and out of, etc. If the info you are looking for isn't in the reviews, you can ask the community and they will generally answer in a timely manner.

3. Open the Dyrt and compare reviews to the sites you are looking at. On this app you will likely find the same spots as campendium and possibly even more. Continue this process through all the apps until you are satisfied with a spot that seems promising.

4. Open Google maps and switch the map to satellite view. Check the area to see if it looks doable for you. I look for rigs parked there to get an idea of where people are camping.

Once you have decided on a spot to stay in the next part is planning your arrival. Since you will be traveling in a nomadic palace on wheels you will need to contend with fresh water as well as a dump station (unless you have a fancy composting toilet - not jealous at all!). Campendium wins here again with being able to see dump stations for free (filters > check dump stations). A lot will have fresh water available at the same place, otherwise some reviewers will mention where to grab it, or nearby campsites will often have it available, sometimes for a fee.

Snagging The Best Spot!

The key to successfully snagging the best spot in the location of your choice is timing timing timing! We almost always plan to arrive on a Tuesday or Wednesday and generally as early as possible. This has always worked well for us. Trying to arrive on a weekend is going to be a lot harder to find any spot, much less the best one. Remember these spots are first come, first serve. This is both a benefit and a potential problem depending on how you handle it. We much prefer it because we find getting reservations at rv parks to be a tedious and time consuming process usually ending in frustration, not finding a spot for long enough (we like to camp about 14 days at a time), or rather expensive.

Most free camping is on forest service or BLM land. It almost always has a time limit. Many are up to 14 days, some more popular areas may be limited to only a few days. Definitely respect the time limit to give others a chance to enjoy the space too.

If we've been diligent enough in our research we generally won't have to unhitch and scope, but sometimes when it's really mountainous, tree-y, super busy/popular, or at all sketchy to bring the rig to we will unhitch in a safe place near the entrance and drive to find our spot. If we do this, two of us will stay at the spot to "claim" it and then the other 2 will drive back to get the rig and meet us there. People can get real territorial about these spots and you don't want your spot stolen before you get back with your rig! In the image below, we were scoping out a VERY popular site near Crested Butte and had Lily and I not waited there while they went back for the rig, it would have been taken by another rv that was scoping things out and this was literally the last spot. They ended up leaving unsuccessfully, timing was that close.

Side note: We *may* have been buzzed by a tiny bit of lightning, but it was totally worth it! 🤣⚡️

Staking out our spot in Crested Butte

Once you've found your perfect spot, enjoy it! And be sure to Leave No Trace! Here at Road Duchess we take clean living very seriously and that includes leaving each place we camp in better condition than we left it. Good luck out there!

Happy Travels!