2020-19 A SPECIAL REPORT, FINDING A CAMPSITE & SAFETY TIPS

2020-19

A Special Report

Sometimes that camping spot
is at the end of a dead end road.

FINDING A CAMPSITE AND A FEW SAFETY TIPS

Campground: Blue Ribbon Fairgrounds, Deer Lodge Montana. $15 includes 30 amp electric. Glassy sites against a fence. Cattle were on the other side of fence grazing. Basically in-town camping.

Fairgrounds, in Deer Lodge Montana

Campground: Pinestone Gravel pit. BLM trail-head parking. Just off highway, no services, ok for overnight stop. PS I did not stay. Read blog for further info.

no picture available

Campground: Pipestone TMA dispersed sites. Online description did not match site. Possibly GPS was slightly off. Road in was 3 miles of washboard. Uneven site location. Did not stay. I might have needed to go a bit further down the road as the place I stopped did not completely match the online description.

next to ATV trails, not very level.  
ended up leaving as I saw possible rain clouds coming in
and I was on 3 miles of dirt road

Campground: Subway shop, Whitehall Montana. Parking lot. Asked if I could spend the night in their parking lot. Gave the ok. Close to highway, but easy to sleep with steady noise. And breakfast and coffee in the morning.

Subway parking lot.  I asked if I could 
park overnight, and of course have breakfast in the morning

FINDING THE PERFECT CAMPSITE

or Maybe just a decent campsite including safety concerns

I’m devoting this blog entirely to finding campsites along the way. Whether it be one in a commercial campground, Government campsite, such as state parks, county parks, Federal etc. and of course a fair amount of information of Boondocking and Dispersed Camping on BLM and Forest Campgrounds.

A special shout out to Yooper Ranger Ron a super good friend for many years, he had asked a while back if I would address safety concerns while boondocking and to Clint who wanted additional info on Boondocking.

I should have enough info and experience to address all of these issues. I’ll start off by listing the phone and tablet APPS that I use in finding a campsite. You can do a search on your App store to find these.

My Favorite Camping APPS (Aug 2020)

FreeRoam

Free Campsites

RV Dump Sites

RV Parky

Passport America (a half price club, $40 a yr)

UC Public CG (Ultimate Public Campground)   *******

iOverlander   *******

Types of camping:

Commercial campgrounds. I use Passport America to find commercial campgrounds that offer half off the normal camping rate to PA members. There are limits to length of stay and often to season restrictions. Always check their campground notes for those limits. I always call to see it they have space available and still honor PA rates.

I’ve noticed campground fees rising dramatically. Recently when in the Alpine Wy area their was a local in-town campground charging $80 a night. They are approx. 75 miles from Jackson Wy and the Grand Tetons, but still. RV Parky is a good resource for finding commercial campgrounds and includes cost of campsites as well.

In Bozeman Montana, a couple of RV parks range in price from $80, $55-$65. Further out, $34-$48.

The further you get out away from larger towns, attractions, etc. the cheaper it will be. Personally I like the smaller towns but that may not be what you want all the time.

PV Parky will provide you with a whole mix of commercial campgrounds, forest campgrounds and even Walmart parking lots. Just click on a link and it will give you quick info on $$, and reviews. Always something I check out.

RV Parky screen shot
most of the camping apps have similar screens

screen shot of all the camping
apps I use, I've listed my top 
APPS, but there are more that are helpful 
as well

Safety Concerns when Boondocking
and Dry Camping

Now as far as safety concerns, whether it be out boondocking or staying in a commercial campground, there are things to look out for. If the commercial campground has a lot of permanent campers or MH’s, I’m always a bit cautious. Like the time someone siphon diesel fuel from my truck overnight. Washington state, lot of permanent Rvers. It’s a good idea to lock out outside storage bays as well. I’ve never had anything stolen from my RV but a bit of caution never hurts.

In most cases when I’ve stayed at a, shall we say sketchy campground, staying only overnight, I would leave the truck connected to the camper, hook up, open the slides, go inside and felt totally safe and comfortable.

BOONDOCKING

IF IT DOESN’T FEEL RIGHT, DON’T STAY

BLM land on opposite side of river from Parker AZ
This was what I'd rate a perfect boondocking spot, other campers
near by, but not too close.  Though one lovely couple 
brought me brownies on day... and they were very good.
social distancing of course

Now that I’m doing more boondocking and dispersed camping, I find I have a preference to being within eye sight of other campers. Lots of space between of course. An example of a place I didn’t feel comfortable at was the one listed above: Pinestone Gravel pit. Blm trailhead parking. (the name alone should have been a clue) As it turned out, the camp area (Really just a parking area) was just that, next to a gravel pit, so not particularly a great looking place. An older bus conversion was already there, so I parked a good neighborly distance away. After a short time, an older car drove in, circled our campers and then parks against the fence line, facing my camper. Hmm.

those campsites are all listed at the beginning of this blog.

Not much time went by and an old truck comes by, stops at the car parked against the fence has a short exchange and leaves. The car remained. The older bus camper exits. I’m left there with a vehicle which is probably dealing in drugs or contraband armor (ones mind can go off on some interesting scenarios.) I decided to leave.

I quickly opened my Google maps, clicked on satellite view and zoomed into the next town on down the highway. From the satellite image I could see a parking area near the off ramp, gas stations etc. Drove the 10 miles down the road, found the parking area behind the gas station was full of truckers, drove into the Subway parking lot and asked if it would be ok to spend the night and of course I’d stop and have breakfast in the morning. So it all worked out well. Without having to worry about strange vehicles in the night. PS as soon as I parked at the Subway parking lot, a second Class C camper pulled in and did likewise. We’re no dummies.

(Crocodile Staging Area, Hog Canyon OHV Trail System)
this turned out to be a really good spot

Not only did I feel it was a safe place,
surrounded by farms and ranches, but the canyon
had many attractions worthy of exploring.

Now let me describe a good example of a BLM ATV parking lot for ATV trailers, Horse Trailers and also available for Rv camping. (Crocodile Staging Area, Hog Canyon OHV Trail System) I reported on it in a report from Utah, Kanab. A few picnic tables in a common staging area, but otherwise just a dirt parking lot. It was along Johnson Canyon Road. Not only did I feel it was a safe place, surrounded by farms and ranches, but the canyon had many attractions worthy of exploring. I saw ATV folks come and go, a few horse trailers and even had horses in a paddock next to the parking area. In other words, it was visible by the local community, farmers and folks driving along Johnson canyon. Not completely isolated. Making it a good option for me.

Arizona has lots of BLM land available for boondocking and I’ve always felt comfortable at any of the spots I’ve stays at in the state. Many of them along the Colorado River from Yuma, Quartzsite, and Lake Havasu area.

boondocking sites.  Caution should be taken when entering
these sites, roads are often in bad condition.
I often take the first spot up front if the roads don't look good

this was BLM land in a canyon just north of Lake Havasu City, AZ
it's looks empty from this picture, I took the first site entering the canyon
it was packed to the gills with Rv-ers

on a reservoir, the dispersed campsites were off of long individual roads
leading down to the lake.  each one, like this are for only one camper,
or a group that had arrived together. I had the spot to myself.

Safety: What do I carry? Well, I’m not a gun person and personally I don’t particularly want to be in an area where I would think I’d need a gun. If you feel comfortable carrying a gun, all the best to you.

What I do carry, and it’s more for the possibility of keeping wildlife at bay, ie bears.

• Air Horn (makes lots of noise to scare any critters away) (or as a call for help)

• Wasp Spray (works as well as BEAR SRAY in a pinch and sprays a really long distance)

• Pepper Spray (keep it by the door in case you’re concerned about someone coming up to your camper that you don’t know, you can easily have it at hand if needed)

I was camping in Canada at lake Louise, a spectacular area and great campground. I asked the Ranger about the big chain link fence around one of the camping areas. He told me it was a new experiment around the tent campers. It was electrified and at each of the corners an extension of the fence jutted out. The ranger told me a bear came racing through one of the corner extensions that was also electrified and the bear just kept on going through it. At the time, I was in my small 5^th wheel camper within a short distance from that fence and I had no fence around my camper. My camper could probably have been opened like a tin can by a can-opener by the first bear that came along. That trip I saw all three types of bear in Canada, the White bear, the brown bear and the black bear.

Note to campers: If you have smelly garbage in the camper, don’t leave it in the camper overnight, remove it to the dumpster. Bears have a very keen sense of smell. Don’t encourage them. Oh and don’t fall for the trick to use “Irish Spring” in you storage bays to keep mice away. Bears love the smell of shampoos, soaps etc, they think it’s food.

UC Public CG (Ultimate Public Campground)

It lists: City parks, County Parks, Fairgrounds, State Parks, National Parks, National Forests, Army Corp sites. Any campground run by a Government agency.

helped me find this awesome spot in Ashley National Forest
Flaming Gorge area.  stunning locations

Or this spot on Fremont Lake, Wyoming
a developed campground on NF land.
not utilities, but paved campsite and picnic table
some with awesome lake views.

This particular APP has been my favorite for the past two years, as I often like to stay at County parks, City Parks and even Fairgrounds. Ultimate Public Campgrounds lists them all. Iowa has the most city parks of any state, and they are just the prettiest campsites I’ve ever stayed in. Texas has a number of very basic city parks, often with full hookups and they are free, especially in the smaller towns that hope you stay and spend a few bucks on food, gas and stuff. Last year, I used Ultimate Public Campgrounds quite a bit and mostly ended up staying in Fairgrounds. Usually in town or close to town. Easy place to do my touring, picking up supplies etc. And often, I would be the only one staying at the Fairground. Lots of open space.

Moss Park, Orange County Park, Florida
on two lakes with a nice canal connecting the two.
wildlife, huge campsites, Live Oaks, pines. etc.

Army Corps of Engineer, campgrounds are simply awesome. Usually on Reservoir/lakes, they quite often are paved campsites, with electric and water, some having full hookups and seniors get half off.

I’m not going to share my favorites with you because you’ll just fill them up and I won’t get a chance to stay there anymore. Oh and they all require advance reservations, particularly if you want to stay a week or two, so make you plans in advance.

Last night I stayed at the end of a dead end road, next to a Lowes Lumber yard. Initially there were only two campers and one person living/traveling in their vehicle. By the next morning, the dead end street had about 8 car campers and a half dozen rv campers. I probably would have been better off at the local Walmart parking lot or in the Lowes Parking lot.

or this rest stop on a county road
in Montana.  

Being close to Bozeman Montana, I decided to check out The Gallatin National Forest for a campground. Most all were listed online as first come first served, no reservations. Well, not all info on the internet has been updated and now, they are all reservable. Not a single site available. A campground host suggested I check out the trail head parking lot just down the way. Said it was hardly used compared to others further on up the way that are always packed. So here I am at Hylite Trail Head. Nice paved parking lot and only about 4 cars at a time. Bikers and hikers mainly.

at a National Forest, Trail head parking lot
I would only stay if it was not crowded
and there were no signs indicating overnight
camping not permitted

Note to campers: Trail heads in National Forests and State Forest often permit overnight stays. Just check for any signs that would indicate otherwise. Often nicely paved parking lots as well. I stayed in one in Oregon that is used during winter for cross country skiing. They not only permitted overnight camping, but had picnic table on the edge of the parking lot and a pit toilet.

2011-31 St Louis Missouri

2011-31

St Louis Missouri

Campground:  Belleville MH and RV Estates.  $150 wkly rate.  Full hookups, 50amp.  An older established park on the SW side of town, Fenton.  A few well maintained MH’s separated from the mainly Rv park.  Neat, clean and nice concrete pads.  Quiet tree lined area and close to shops and restaurants.

Before I left the Mark Twain Lake area, I stopped into a General Store to do laundry.  The place is a regular country store selling all the usual convenience store stuff, coffee and quick lunch items.  The store has tons of fishing lures including live bait and camping equipment, even clothing and way in the back of the store are 4 washers and dryers.  Oddest place I’ve been to too do my laundry.  Kind of funny walking through the store carrying my laundry basket to get to the washers and dryers.

St Louis

I’m not usually this close to a big city, but of course I had to come visit my Niece Kim and family.  So while here, I’m taking advantage of  some big city attractions.  I’ve already done the wonderful zoo and Budweiser Brewing Beer tour on past visits so today I headed downtown to their large Art Museum.  It’s housed in one of the original buildings built for the World Fair held here back in 1904.

I was able to attend the “Monet’s Water Lilies” exhibit $10.  Otherwise the art museum is free to the public.  The special exhibit include the three large three piece painting of Water Lilies.  A grand scene that hasn’t been put together since it was first created.  The exhibit included Ipods for a personalized tour of each of the paintings.  Something I really appreciate.  It was perhaps one of the smallest special exhibits  I’ve ever attended with only about half a dozen Monet paintings in all.

The rest of the museum contains a mixed collection of art, my favorites being the European Art collection, Cubist and Contemporary art.  A few rooms had recently been redone.  The walls were painted in deep rich jewel tones and the paintings were all hung at perfect eye level making for a grand intimate display.  Amazing how the art work popped out against those darker rich colored walls.  One of the security attendants said they had just re-hung the paintings in those rooms and it was like having friends come back into your life.  She had missed seeing them for most of a year.

I’m visiting my niece Kim and her two daughters Megan and Camy and hubby Aaron.  They live in an elegant Dutch Colonial style home in an older established neighborhood.  The house has been expanded upon and is a perfect mix of traditional and modern open style concept living.  A warm home with tons of light and two active kids who I might add like their Uncle Dougie a lot.  

Plans have been aborted since first Megan was ill and now Camy has gotten the same bug.  Hope I didn’t catch anything.

Electronic Gadget Update.

For all you Rv’ers who travel a lot, having your favorite music in the vehicle is a must.  Since many of us have converted our Cd’s into MP3 music, we need a way to play it through our vehicles stereo system/radio.  Now of course the newest vehicles already come equipped with connections for your Ipod and MP3 players, but those of us who have vehicles say pre 2007, we don’t have the built in connections.  I recently discovered that there are wiring kits that can be added to ones car radio to permit the plugging in of MP3 players as well as smart phones which of course have everything from Internet radio apps to Pandora radio stations.

I had used an FM transmitter, a small device that sends out a radio frequency and connects to the MP3 player.  Unfortunately it doesn’t always work well when near larger  metropolitan areas that have a lot of completing radio stations to interfere with ones signal.
I went to a Best Buy and had them install the wiring kit for me.  Not cheap, but so well worth it.  The handy person can go online and find the right kit for their car radio and install it themselves for around $65.  Of course the other option is to just install a new radio with the headphone and USB connections already built in but that also requires a special wiring harness and kit to make the new radio fit the vehicle.

I am beyond ecstatic to be able to plug in either my MP2 player or my smart phone (an Android) to be able to play music and it can even transmit the GPS ladies voice over my radio for instructions on how to get to that next destination. She now gets to tell me I’ve taken the wrong turn in stereo. Imagine.

Cahokia Mounds

Wow,  after stopping by Kim’s house and picking up the girls, we all headed out to the Cahokia Mounds.  There on the Illinois side of Mississippi river and within viewing distance of St Louis.  Now all those who have followed my travels know that I’ve visited a number of Indian mounds as far south as Florida on up through Ohio and now I’m getting the chance to visit the largest Indian Mound site in North America.  The Cahokia Mounds are the largest prehistoric Indian site north of Mexico.  It’s big.  Really big.  The 2200 acre site is protected through the Indiana State Parks and is a World Heritage site.

This is the 1st level of steps to the top, the 2nd set is just as long

All of the mounds that were in St Louis have all been bulldozed away during it’s rapid growth as a city.  But these 80 plus mounds on the east side of the Mississippi have been preserved.  With an estimated population of 20,000 it was the largest prehistoric Indian settlement north of Mexico.  Monks Mound is the largest covering 14 acres with multiple levels and rising to a height of 100 feet.  It’s definitely the largest Indian Mound I’ve seen in North America.  Archeology has gone through quite a transformation over the past 50 years, as one of the mound sites was excavated in the 1960 and completely destroyed.  That wouldn’t happen today and some of the new techniques for looking deep within sites like this without disturbing them will no doubt provide new discoveries in the future.  A 40 foot high peaked building would have sat on the top of Monks Mound.

During a planned expansion of hwy 55/70, archeologists completing a survey of the area discovered 5 circular sun calendars.  Tall wooden posts evenly spaced with one in the center for determining the changing seasons.  They call it Woodhenge and it may never have been discovered it it hadn’t been for the planned road interchange construction.  Which was later revised and moved.

Imagine the sophisticated structure they must have had set up to manage, feed and sustain a population of 20,000 Indians.  And with only wood and stone tools to create not only these structures, but to farm with and develop such a large community.  All to gradually decline in numbers and dissipate after about 250 to 300 years.

On my last couple of days in the St Louis area, I finally caught the dreaded “bug” from Camy or Megan and have been really under the weather.  I’m just starting to feel better and will begin my trek south tomorrow.

And more pictures on Picasa.