I'm going to the US from june to august, and my plan was to rent/buy a car, moving from state to state to hike
Thought I'd sleep in the car or in my tent near the trail but apparently it is forbidden to do so in national parks. You can't even camp when you're not paying for a camping spot.
How do you sleep when hiking ? Do you always stealth camp ? I hear the park rangers are very strict and will give you fines if you don't sleep in approved camping ground.
National parks are huge, am I supposed to leave the park to sleep outside ?
The states I'll visit are Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah and maybe Wyoming and Idaho if I have the time.
I'm aware of the tolls at national park entrances and the pass that you can buy for your car, but can you really not sleep legally there ? I won't have enough money to pay for camping every night (I also won't be in national parks all the time, these times I'll probably wing it and stealth camp)
Also I'm looking for cool alternatives to national parks for outing if sleeping there is not possible, could you post cool spots from these states ?
You have enough money to buy a car but not enough for the 15 dollar campsite fee?
yeah, it adds 1k to my budget if I sleep on camp sites every night for two months
Hiding a tent in national parks is easy, the only trick is hiding your car. I work a maintenance job for the NPS so I surprise people camping in parking lots pretty regularly. The smart ones pack up their shit at 6am and go, the dumb ones are still brewing their coffee when the rangers make their morning rounds.
To my knowledge, no parks have law enforcement patrolling past 9pm unless there’s an emergency. So it’s easy to pull off.
But yeah, sounds like you’re conflating national parks with national forests. In a national forest or BLM land you can camp, light fires, shoot your gun, whatever.
Google ‘USFS interactive visitor map’ for the most reliable map data for what’s national Forest land and what’s national Park.
The park I worked at jacked the camping fees up by 40% this year. Frick those guys, don’t give them any money.
Also look up policies of the specific park. Some national parks are “all-night” parks, where you can leave your car at the trailhead all night and they can’t prove you weren’t just night hiking (unless a ranger sees you brushing your teeth and eating rice krispies on your tailgate)
Other parks require you to hang a camping permit in your windshield if you’re parked overnight. Though as I said above, no one goes around checking until 7 or 8am.
Are you guys insane? Every single park allows for back country camping and at MOST all you have to do is go to the visitor's center and get a free permit to put on your tent. And some don't even requite a permit. I was camping in the badlands 3 days in a row and no permit was needed. The question is: are you willing to go off trail a bit to camp. Some people say no, in which case I'd just find a place on BLM land if it's nearby or pay for a camping spot.
GSMNP does not allow backcountry camping, you WILL sleep in ze shelter and you WILL pay ze parking fee, goy
You don't know wtf you're talking about. Getting a backcountry permit at the park near me is $35.
wasting your time with those states
at least visit the east if you want good nature
The next time, if there's one
I'd love to go to the appalachians
only a small fraction of american public land is in national parks and has such restrictions
National forests< this
Also, BLM land is free to camp for like 2 weeks then you gotta move but done both many times
most national parks have national forests right outside of them, you can do dispersed camping there for free
I genuinely hope OP buys a shitty 2 wheel drive car and drives out into bumfrick nowhere blm land and gets stuck and then has to call a specialized wrecker company to save his ass.
>stop living outside of corporate slave system! i will make u feel bad about choosing a different lifestyle!
ur glowing
wash your penis.
>I genuinely hope OP buys a shitty 2 wheel drive car and drives out into bumfrick nowhere blm land and gets stuck and then has to call a specialized wrecker company to save his ass.
Why? Are you israeli?
I hope he gets eaten by a bear. A hate non-Americans so much it's unreal.
Everything's paved now.
National Forests and BLM Land let you camp for free at the vast majority of sites for two weeks at a time. There will be some restrictions depending on the land and specific site, usually to do with camping within proximity of water.
BLM land will have the least restrictions and will be pretty accessible, mostly due to not enough enforcement personal, but it also draws the most degens. National Forests will generally be less accessible and father away from towns baring a couple rare spots such as mountain towns. However they're your best bet for camping in wilderness if you want it. And if you really want it you can hit up the designated
Primitive Wilderness areas.
If you’re out west, consider disbursed camping on BLM land and forest service land for free. No services, but free. The closer to the Mexican border you get, the more precautions you should take. But to use California as a reference, anywhere from mammoth lakes north is very chill. I live in northern Nevada and regularly camp in the Tahoe national forest and mammoth lakes area. National parks can be very overcrowded and annoying, so keep that in mind.
also, shower in truck stops.
I'm in CO and honestly wouldn't camp on any BLM land within 20 minutes of a decent sized town. Any convenient BLM is chock full or sketchy people and complete dipshits you don't want to sleep within line of sight of.
Depends on where you're going, a lot of the more popular parks even require backcountry camping permits. Generally campsites aren't that expensive though.
Pro gamer move, if you're going to be paying for entrance and amenities for 2 months straight, see if you can get one of the America the Beautiful passes. I'm not entirely sure if the "standard amenity fee" thing counts as campsites though.
https://store.usgs.gov/2024-annual-pass
>America the Beautiful pass
Definitely get this, OP. You will save a ton of money.
The anon who told you to get an America the beautiful pass is correct, it'll save you a lot of parking fees and gets you a discount at some camp sites if you want a vault toilet or maybe a real one and a shower at the camp sites. You'll probably be fighting for first come first served sites at camp sites. Most fri/sat are already booked through the summer for the nicer sites. Car break-ins are a big problem at some areas.
The ones telling you to go into the forest and BLM to car camp are right, too. You will need some GPS solution though. I use a Garmin watch and a couple apps and it gets me by. Overland Bound (free version) might be good for you to find truck stops/showers/hospital/gas when you have a signal. Gaia or All trails to see which hikes you'd like and get an idea of the area. All of them want a subscription for offline maps in the ~$60 range. Forest tracks aren't always like they are on the map but the roads to camp sites and trail heads are marked well and the road generally maintained. Hiking trails are the same for the most part. What are you trying to see? Sounds like the desert from your visit list.
I just did a trip to Utah heres how it went
>Night 1: slept in a rest stop the first night, free obvious
>Night 2: slept in a BLM campground near Temple Wash, set up tent at 7PM, out at 6AM, didnt pay
>Night 3: slept in a BLM campground the following night in Williams Bottom, Potash Canyon, paid only because I was worried maybe someone would come but no one did. I did leave my tent here all day long, unattended, so this site may have been checked given its 10 minute proximity to Moab. Set up tent around 11:00AM, left 5AM next day.
>Night 4: Sand Flats Recreation Area, dude at the gate let me in for free, told me he was leaving in 10 minutes and I could self pay for any campsites I found, if I found one, found an amazing campsite in a largely empty campground, stayed there from 5PM to 9AM the next day, didnt pay.
Night 5: Ponderosa Grove Campground, Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, showed up at 9PM, campground was largely empty, left by 6AM next morning, didnt pay.
In total for 5 nights I paid $20. Entrance to National Parks is free if you get there before the gates are in service, typically you are good if you arrive by 6AM, by 7 it is too late. Parks like Arches now require entry passes if you want to get in between 7-4PM. Why you would subject yourself to this is beyond me, simply enter the park before the sun rises, enjoy everything while it is cool and beautifully lit, then hit up all of the viewpoints and other stuff on the way back.
If youre doing a bunch of shit late in the day, or just lazing around your campsite doing nothing, you are probably going to have a hard time "stealth camping". What youre looking for is called Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. On BLM land it is easy to camp without being bothered.
Inside a national park you can camp but you must get a backcountry permit and camp a certain distance from roads if you want to camp in a park, i.e. you must hike in.
>Thought I'd sleep in the car or in my tent near the trail but apparently it is forbidden to do so in national parks. You can't even camp when you're not paying for a camping spot.
Not true at all. Some places you need a "back country permit" but they are 100% free and handed out at te visitor's center wit no issues. Typically the only rule is you ahve to be a half mile from a trail and not visible from any trail or road (realistically only the 2nd one matters) I recommend you download gaia GPS if you've never done off-trail camping.
>t. was camping in multiple national parks for free the last month
Just sleep in national forests
An option :
- Fly into Atlanta's International airport
- Take the Atlanta mass transit system, MARTA, to the REI store in Sandy Springs Georgia
- The REI store provides a shuttle service to Amicalola State Park.
Amicalola State Park has a nice lodge, restaurant and check in facilities for the Appalachian Trail.
The approach trail from Amicalola State Park is only 8.2 miles from the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.
You can spend as much time as you want on the Appalachian Trail without ever worrying about a vehicle.
Obviously you should visit a couple national parks while you're here as they're the best the country has to offer. But as another anon said BLM and national forest land both have way fewer restrictions. Dispersed camping is an option.
You can certainly get away with car camping depending on the location. I've done it in (non NPS) trailhead parking lots, walmart parking lots, etc.
Don't listen to the idiots saying East is better. Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Glacier, Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain; these are all west of Denver.