Overplanning is a Disaster Waiting to Happen...

[DavidIowa]

If you own an Airstream and can just take off without "planning", it took an incredible amount of planning or luck to get to this point.

[J. Morgan]

Over planning can be a hinderance as it can be a natural tendency to focus too much on the plan at the expense of the goal.

Over planning leads to lack of flexibility, and can make a simple goal difficult, under planning can make achieving a goal impossible.

Balance is the key.

[Ray Eklund]

I notice that trailer owners living where "Public Lands" are scarce have to plan much ahead for a RV Park or Public Parks. There IS a definite difference in how you would travel.

After passing Central Kansas this game plan changes. More open space, larger rest areas along the highways and fewer towns.

Get into the Rockies and your options are so variable, you can pick an area and find National Forest, BLM or National Grasslands open to your tastes. There are also many RV Parks available, which pleases those use to planning ahead of their travel. Nothing like arriving late in the evening and there are no available places to pull your trailer into. National Forest campsites are found on many smaller scale maps, many are not even on these maps... so they exist and no one knew it was available. Sometimes access is bulldozed or a sign to indicate that this road is no longer to be used. Usually somebody with an ATV with no regard to off the road travel.

The "hunter camps" can be well developed just by being used for generations of seasonal hunters. The options are unlimited. As long as there is a road, a two rut or access OFF the main road... you have found your campsite. You must pull OFF the access road enough so other may pass. This is just common courtesy for others and the locals who may use the semi improved road for access to water their cattle, etc..

I can understand if you have driven 1200 miles, it is nice to know you have a place to rest. Unless you are camping south of Yellowstone, or at Jackson Hole... the thousands of possible sites are available... but you need to find them yourself.

My Atlas has GPS locations and comments like... "nothing to do". But, if needed, we will stop for the night and go on. We have found campsites that you would be willing to pay for the privilege off of the Interstate ten miles or less. This knowledge you build over the years. The nice spots... we mark with an X and add elevation, GPS or general information in the blank areas around the Atlas page.

We camp the Rockies. We understand how the "public land system" works for our kind of camping sites. I remember many years ago traveling to Buffalo, NY from Denver and back as a real experience in finding an evening pull out. Did find a campsite off of Highway 70 in central Missouri for the Graham Cave State Campsite that was very nice. Even looked around at the Cave where it is a protected archaeological site. Well worth the help yourself to a spot, camp site at a minimal cost with minimal facilities.

When traveling the West Coast where you see the Pacific Ocean... you are no longer in the "free public land and open space" land. Maybe further north up the coast it changes... we have not been there. We camp East of the Sierras and West of central Kansas. The "dry and high" camp sites. Don't confuse heavily populated and tourist attraction areas as the same as my kind of camping.

So, keep in mind that my experiences in our "Region" is not going to be the same for everyone. Travel across Nebraska and not until you get to the Panhandle do the National Grasslands become great camping options. There is a historical reason for why Public and Private lands are found. Much is written about land ownership in the West. Utah and Nevada are still trying to pry Federal Lands into the State system. Primarily "water rights", but this leaves the high and dry areas open to anyone with a will to "check it out".

If you think a private land owner in Indiana would be unhappy to see you toasting marshmallows on his land... it is worse out West. A "Private Property" sign is exactly that, even if it looks... empty. A rancher might appreciate if you ask first when in doubt.

Many argue about Private Camping versus Public Camping. When living in the West... the Public Camping makes most Private Camping obsolete to the locals. I have a long list of options that lack accommodations that many developed campsites offer, but that is why I have a trailer and not a tent.

Someday the public lands of the West might have restrictions for campers, other than the 14 day or 30 day maximum limits and you need to move. It can vary, but I have not seen any unreasonable rules. Just keep in mind that when someone with a Western State home says something that you disagree... where are you relative to that person in the USA?

Parking my trailer at Big Sur, California where I want, just is not going to work.

I have camped in Texas near Amarillo once on a dead end road near the Alibates Flint quarry. The park was "closed" that day. I do not even know how Texas considers State Lands and their uses. Someday I will have to get an Atlas, understand where in the western parts of the State are open. Someone might want to offer some insight. The western half of Texas is rough geology and to my liking. But I have my hands full where I am most familiar. I feel at home and comfortable going anywhere without reservations and only a beginning and an end. What fits in between is just a matter of discovery. When temperature and humidity are the same number... it is too low elevation for my tastes and I begin to look for 3,000 feet or higher campsites.

[Cottonboll]

Our last "grand tour"went something like this. It's 106 outside lets get the heck out of Tennessee. Drive north till it is 70 or less at night. Wisconsin. Turn left. Oops the State of Minnesota is arguing bout money all parks and rest areas are closed, no problem your turn to drive. Hello South Dakota, you can breath outside things are looking up. Badlands, Little Big Horn, Glacier,cherries on the East side of Flathead, Idaho,Utah, Arches,NFS near Eagle CO,friends in Brekenridge,Kansas, Missouri, and home. no Reservations. 27 day of pure joy. Trip of a lifetime. Colorado late August Into September. Hope we see you out there.


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[Jim Flower]

Originally Posted by Cottonboll

Our last "grand tour"went something like this. It's 106 outside lets get the heck out of Tennessee. Drive north till it is 70 or less at night. Wisconsin. Turn left. Oops the State of Minnesota is arguing bout money all parks and rest areas are closed, no problem your turn to drive. Hello South Dakota, you can breath outside things are looking up. Badlands, Little Big Horn, Glacier,cherries on the East side of Flathead, Idaho,Utah, Arches,NFS near Eagle CO,friends in Brekenridge,Kansas, Missouri, and home. no Reservations. 27 day of pure joy. Trip of a lifetime. Colorado late August Into September. Hope we see you out there.


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Very well done. Sounds like a perfect trip. Jim


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