Hi I'm David and today we're talking about how to find a camping spot in a national forest.
There are 154 national forests and 22 national grasslands in the United States.
These are public lands that are managed by the US Forest Service and they offer both dispersed
camping and also developed campgrounds that are built by the US Forest Service. Dispersed camping
free off the grid camping outside of a designated campground. That means there are no amenities or
hookups. And while its not a developed campground there are usually established campsites with a
fire ring and its recommended that you use these sites if you have an RV or vehicle so as not to
disturb the forest. Just be aware that some dispersed camping areas can only be reached
with a high clearance four wheel drive vehicle so its important to research the site before you go,
I'll show you how to do that in a moment. The amount of time you can spend in one dispersed
camping location, it varies from three to thirty days, but in most cases the state limit is 14 days
in a national forest. You can always look up the specific details on the US forest service website.
If dispersed camping isn't your thing you can always pay a fee to stay in one of the developed
campgrounds. Right now I'm in a developed campground in the Sam Huston National Forest.
Its a nice big paved RV pad with full hookups, a firepit, and a picnic table. At this time in 2022
the fee to stay here is $30 per night and there's also a senior discount if you have a golden age
pass. Not all developed campgrounds have full hookups but they'll usually have at least a water
refill station, a fire ring, a picnic table, and a parking spot with some kind of restroom facility,
even if it's a vaulted toilet. Sometimes locations have showers as well. The US Forest Services'
website is very useful but my favorite way to find a good camp spot in a national forest is by using
Campendium.com. Its just a wealth of information and reviews from people who have actually been
to the campground you're looking at. So on the national forest page on Campendium
you can see some of the top rated campgrounds in the United States. And if you scroll down you
can click on view map, which I'll show you in a second, for now just for an example I'm just gunna
click on this one. So on a Campendium listing you can see the name of the campground,
the address, the phone numbers, the website, which will be the forest service website, the GPS
coordinates, and these handy icons. This one says open seasonally, four wheel drive recommended,
those are very good things to know before you drive out there. If you click on a photo, then
you can see all of the photos taken by previous campers, Campendium users. Now if I go back to the
listing and scroll down I can see the overview, the last price paid, longest RV reported,
all good stuff to know, the pad type is dirt, here are the months that it is open seasonally,
the elevation, the maximum stay, and weather or not tent camping is allowed. Here is the map if
you want to look at the map, the Q and A section is very handy. This one says, "can I take my RV
up there?" And if you click on it here is a very recent answer that says, "Absolutely I've seen
type of RV parked in various locations." Good to know. If I go back to the listing and scroll down
I can see the cellphone coverage, overall ratings, and most importantly I can see the reviews. Now on
some user profiles they list what kind of vehicle they're in, like this one I can see they're in a
fifteen foot travel trailer and they have a very helpful review there. This user is in a 27 foot
airstream, and sometimes in the reviews they'll talk about the conditions of the roads and what is
was like getting to this campground because some of these you need a high clearance vehicle. Now if
I go back to the national forest page I can click on view map and now I can use all of the usual
Campendium filters in the search section such as RV hookups, cellphone reception, the RV length,
the elevation, and more. Then you just zoom in to find a national forest that fits your style.
Well I hope now you have a better idea on how to find a camp spot in a national forest.
Don't forget to check out Campendium.com and also go to Roadpass.com to find out more about
all of their RV and travel related apps and services. Thanks for watching, till next time.