Whats going on everybody!
Welcome back to the channel.
If you're new to the channel, my name is Brandon.
I travel around the country full time with my girlfriend Andrea and our German Shepherd Zeus.
We boondock and live off grid everywhere around the country.
So, everywhere we go is free camping, and in this video I'm going to show you how to do it.
I'm gonna show you how to use the best tools to find free camping, differentiate between the
apps and websites that we use, and kinda just give you a pretty detailed overview of finding
free camping.
Alright, so I'll go ahead and get started by showing you guys how we found the campsite
that we're at right now.
For this one, we happened to use Campendium.
It's an app.
They also have a website.
Go ahead and click on that.
Where would you like to camp? Lets go "My Location".
Thats the easiest way to find free camping around you.
So basically, it'll give you a map of the area, and all those green trees are going
to be free camping areas.
And these guys are RV parks and things like that.
So, ill show you the spot we're at right now.
Lake Santeetlah.
This is our little green tree.
Click on the place here.
And when you get into here, it'll give you a star rating, it'll tell you the price, usually they're free.
Cell signal, yes.
Tents are ok.
Gives you all this kind of great information.
You scroll down, it'll give you the map.
You can open it in maps, or it gives you an address.
And down here are all the reviews.
So, it's always nice when people leave reviews and it feels better when you're looking for
a campsite and you can find multiple reviews.
It makes you feel a little better about driving a few hours into the middle of nowhere for
a campsite.
So, it'll show you things like t-mobile has signal, AT&T, Verizon, but no sprint.
So those are good things to know, especially if you're planning on spending... you know,
14 days which is allowed out here.
It's good to know what kind of service you're gonna be getting.
It also shows you if pets are allowed, facilities.
This one happens to have a vault toilet, I don't see it on here anywhere.
Might be up in the reviews somewhere.
Thats a basic overview of Campendium.
And if you wanted to search a different area that isn't highlighted here, you can pretty
much do something like...
Let's see if Chuck Swan State Forest has anything.
So, you just pretty much zoom to an area, click search this area, and it'll show you
everything around.
So, another app that we like to use is IOverlander, and i'm going over the apps first.
They're not necessarily in any order that we use them in, we just kind of use a collective
of all of them.
But this is IOverlander.
And it's the same general idea of Campendium.
So you can add places to the map by clicking "check in" or just go to the map to look for
places.
So, once again we'll just click the little find me button.
So this one, as you can see, doesn't have our campsite.
And that's why we like to use a collective of all the apps and websites.
Because some have good campsites, and some just don't have em.
So, there is another one on the other side of the lake that wasn't on Campendium.
And, so this one will give you the GPS coordinates up here, tell you the altitude.
Let's see what else.
It'll give you a big description of the campsite.
If you scroll down, it pretty much shows you all the same amenities as campendium does,
just in a little bit of a different way.
And some reviews down here.
You can copy the coordinates straight from here, copy to your clipboard, and put em into
your own map system.
I use in route.
It's like an $11 purchase, but it's been pretty good to me so far because it does all kinds
of crazy stuff.
Get started.
This is our route right now, i actually was able to plan this out from Kentucky.
And these are all of our waypoints going through the loop of Florida and back out.
So, lets see where are we?
Click here.
We'll go map.
Paste those coordinates in there.
Search.
And it'll show you exactly where that campsite is.
Using the uh...
What did we just use?
We used IOverlander.
Using IOverlander, is pretty much the same as using Campendium, but once again i just
recommend using a mixture of the 2.
I wouldn't consider one better than the other.
They're both kinda the same general layout and just using a mix of both of them will
give you a better kind of broad variety of campsites to choose from.
So, now we'll go into the websites up here.
They look like apps just cause I saved them to my home screen on the phone.
But, if you're looking for BLM land, this is a great way to find BLM land on the BLM
site.
So you click on there, and it takes you to BLM.gov.
Thats all you need to type in.
And if it'll load out here...See cause we have signal out at this campsite, it's loading.
Alright, so once you get to the BLM website go over here.
Click Visit.
And you go straight down here.
You can go search by location or by activity.
And the amount of activities that they have on BLM land is honestly pretty cool.
I'll show you a little bit of the list here.
I mean they've got things like horseback riding, motor boating, off road vehicle trails.
Lets see what else they have.
Snowmobiling, wildlife viewing.
A whole bunch of stuff that you can do on BLM land.
And that one that we just landed on is actually something you'll wanna take into consideration.
When you're staying on BLM land, you're gonna hear gunshots occasionally.
At first we were a little concerned.
We heard gunshots and we didn't know what was going on.
But, now that we understand that they're allowed to be hunting out there and some of them allow
like target practice and things.
So, just getting used to the sound of gunshots every now and then is kinda something you
have to get used to out on BLM land.
But we're gonna go to camping for this video.
And, we'll go location.
We'll just go California.
California's got a good amount of BLM land out there.
Click search.
Alright, so once you get into there.
190 results for camping in California.
And it'll just give you a huge list of all the campsites, camping areas, all the BLM
land available.
So we'll go ahead and click on one of them.
And it'll take you into the piece of lands individual kind of page here.
So it'll tell you High Rock Canyon. we'll wait for that picture to load there whatever
that is.
And it'll give you things like Latitude/Longitude.
Thats usually the most important thing, finding how to get there.
It'll also give you kind of spoken directions.
Lets see.
Phone, I usually call them.
Honestly it's pretty easy to give them a call.
And I usually ask them what I'm looking for, and ask them to give me the kind of like the
best option in the area for my specific needs.
I'll usually call and ask for things like...
Do i need 4x4 to get to these trails?
Is it a steep road?
Is it not a steep road?
Things like that, you can just call the office and ask them a few questions, it makes it
super easy.
They're really knowledgable.
And they always help out.
So, definitely give them a call if you feel lost trying to find BLM land.
It also shows you the amenities or activities that are allowed out here.
So like this one allows hunting, horseback riding, camping, biking, OHV, i think i know
thats like off road vehicle.
I don't know the exact words for it.
And it'll give you a big description again down here.
So, for BLM land, the BLM website is the easiest way to go.
Lets see.
So now we'll go out to another website.
Free campsites.
And this one is basically just... this is...We use this one most often honestly.
Enter a location, its super easy.
We'll do something like...
Colorado.
A bunch of my friends from back home are planning a skim/surf trip to Mexico so they're all
sending messages in the group chat.
Sorry about all of those notifications up top.
So lets see.
Free campsites will give you a big...
Pretty much the same thing again as Campendium and IOverlander.
You got your basic map, area up here to type in where you want to go, and this is your
little legend here.
It'll show you free camping, paid camping, permit camping, and research.
I don't really know what research means but I always look for the free camping.
All these little green sites a free sites.
If you go and click on one of them, it'll take you in just like the other apps.
It'll give you a little overview up here first before you go into it.
It'll show you the star rating, and a little description.
It'l show you all the activities here just like the BLM land.
Lets click on another one.
Alright, this ones got 5 stars.
Click on this one here.
If it'll load here...
There we go.
Alright, so this is a free campsite, 5 stars, give you the GPS coordinates, elevation 8,500,
Forest service management, so that'll be the next thing i actually bring you into is forest
service.
And how to find forest service land.
And that stuff is awesome, thats just like BLM land staying 14 days and just usually
no neighbors, no noise, and surrounded by nature.
So we love doing BLM land and forest service land.
It's awesome for off grid living and boondocking.
So, for free campsites, It'll actually give you a little weather forecast down here.
I never really noticed that.
But they'll give you a little weather forecast and another description.
This is the map down here, and people add photos down here.
And nobody's obviously left a full review.
No reviews for this campsite.
Alright.
So thats free campsites.
This is usually our go to.
We start off with this one and if we can't find something good on there, we'll go to
the other ones.
So to find National Forest dispersed camping, just go to Google and type in the national
forest that you're looking for.
Whatever area you're in.
For the sake of this video we'll do...
Lets go White River in Colorado.
We'll go White River National Forest.
And after you type in the name of the national forest, you're gonna want to hit "vehicle
use map" And it's usually the first one on the list.
Says here, White River National Forest vehicle use maps.
Click on that one.
And it'll take you to the National Forest Service page.
And scroll down to the maps here.
So they've got summer here and winter here.
And they'll break it down by different sections.
So, we'll just click on the first one up here.
Not every single section is gonna have dispersed camping either, so we'll see here if they
do.
Finding National Forest Service land takes a little bit more time than the other options,
but definitely worth it.
This one does have dispersed camping.
This is the legend up here in the corner.
And if you scroll down, you can see dispersed camping.
And it's got 2 dots.
On this side, on each side of the road.
So, when you're looking at the roads, it'll have a dot on each side in a line.
So we'll go over to the map and look at that.
Alright, so here's some.
See the 2 dots on either side of the road?That basically just means that where it starts
to where it ends, you're allowed to camp there.
Most of them are 14 days.
Some of them have a different stay limit, so be sure to check the website just to be
sure the exact stay limit.
But once you have this, basically just compare it to any map system on your phone and drop
a pin.
That's usually how we find ourselves to National Forest Service land.
And while I'm at it, i figure i'll show you guys some useful tools to use on the road,
so ill go up into my maps and weather.
Inroute, like is said is my choice of navigation and setting a kind of a route plan system.
MyRadar is a great weather app.
Shows you all kinds of different layers.
Everything you'll need to know for the weather going on in the area.
And Gas Buddy is awesome.
Gas Buddy will show you the lowest gas prices in the area or if you can make it 2 hours
down your trip and find cheaper gas.
It's a great way for budgeting.
So that just about sums it up for free camping.
Those are most of the sources that we use.
But, i'll show you one more thing.
And that is if you are on the interstate on a longer trip, and you just wanna stop somewhere
over night.
You can use the rest areas.
So you can go ahead and type in "interstate rest area".
I'll just type that in.
See what comes up for that.
So, it'll show you where the rest areas are.
And there's actually a website called interstate rest areas.
And this will show you pretty much every rest area in the country.
And you can use these for an over night stay.
Nice and easy when you're on the road and you really can't find a spot.
So we use these...
Look i mean theres...
You can rest everywhere.
So, thats another good one just like a last resort kind of thing.
We'll use that if we really can't find a campsite, or if we just don't want to show up in the
dark.
So i hope that gives you guys a little bit of a better idea on how to find free camping
on your own.
If there's anything that i missed, feel free to leave a comment below this video and i'll
try to get back to you.
I love helping you guys out, so seriously feel free to leave a comment.
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