Welcome back to Grand Adventure! I'm your host Marc Guido. Now, luckily for us
we live in the age of electronic information, and websites offer a
plethora of information for RV'ers -- whether it's advance planning a trip,
getting information while you're on the road, or even diagnosing and fixing a
problem with your RV. We're going to look at our own list, our own top 10 list of
RV-related websites on this episode (episode 30) of Grand Adventure so, stay
tuned!
But before we get going I'd rather set the right mood because I'd rather be
doing this out camping than in my living room. So ready ... set...go! There! That's much
better. Now, after the video expand the YouTube video description below for
links to each website that we're going to discuss in today's video. And remember:
this is our own totally subjective top 10 list, so if you have some RV sites
that you turn to regularly, please share them in the comment section below with
all the other Grand adventurers! So let's dive right into it. Coming in at number
10 is the internet forum, and our favorite amongst all RV internet forums
is iRV2.com. Now, just like all online forums iRV2 is a social gathering place
that's organized conversations into various categories. Each category
contains a list of topics started by members. For example, if we click on
"Travel Trailer Discussion" we'll see a list of the topics that have been
started by various members and the responses that have been entered by
members in response to the original poster. For example, I click here at "What
to look for in travel trailers" and the Wahl family is looking for ideas.
You can see various responses that have been provided. This is an absolute
treasure trove of information. If you're looking to fix and diagnose a problem, or
if you're looking, for example, for various camping opportunities. For
example, if we scroll down here a little bit we'll actually get to the "Camping
Travel and Trip Planning" section under "Camping Locations, Plans & Trip Reports".
"Boondocking," "RV Events & Gatherings" (these are rallies), and information on various
routes to follow. Turning to the social community to get your RVing answers is
an invaluable resource. Now our number 9 - Facebook - has similar benefits for the RV
camper. The big benefit to Facebook is that
there are a lot more internet denizens participating in Facebook then there
are in a single website like iRV2.com. What you want to do is go into the
search bar in Facebook and search on your topic. In this case I'm just going
to use RV. Then what you want to do is go up here on the top bar and
select "Groups," and if you scroll down you'll see that there are Facebook
groups for just about every aspect of RV'ing that you can possibly imagine.
Some of these are closed groups that require administrator approval for you
to join, while others are open groups where you simply need to select
the "Join" button. You'll get the same benefits from Facebook that you would
from a place like iRV2.com - you'll get to make new friends, meet new
people. You will get to find answers to questions that you might have and you
might even find a great new camping location or two for your efforts! Tied
for us at number 8 are Recreation.gov and each state's individual website
for its own State Parks. Recreation.gov is a central repository of campgrounds
operated by federal agencies, be it the National Park Service, national forests,
Army Corps of Engineers, BLM ...campgrounds operated by any federal entity. Now, you
can browse the website for information, or the obvious thing to do would be to
use the search bar. In this case we're going to use Moab, Utah and select that.
It's going to generate a list of locations, however these filters on the
left side column allow you to select only campgrounds and eliminate things
like day use areas, and tours, and what have you. That'll generate a list of
campgrounds in the Moab area operated by federal agencies. You can check
availability or make reservations right here online
at Recreation.gov. Tied for number 8 is the website for your own favorite
state's state park system. Most states have a website dedicated to their state
parks in total. In this case we're looking at Utah because that is our home
state. We can go to activities right here and select "Camping", and by clicking
further to "Tent and RV Camping" we can see a list of all the parks that offer
tent and RV camping across the state of Utah. Now, we can actually make
reservations directly from here by clicking on the "Reserve" button that
takes us to Reserve America, which is a service that a lot of states use to
maintain their state park reservation inventory for camping. You can check
availability, check rates, actually select an individual site and make your
reservation right here online at the website. Now, our number 7 favorite is
a list of US National Forest Service motor vehicle use maps, or "MVUMs". Like
all websites on this video, we'll list this one in the description down below
on our YouTube video page, but this is a list of U.S. Forest Service motor
vehicle use maps that have been completed and are available online as
PDF files. You can see that they're organized by state. We'll pull up as an
example, in Colorado the San Juan National Forest where they list the
motor vehicle use maps available online for each Ranger District. If we click on
one it will actually open the map as a PDF file. On that PDF file you'll find
Forest Service roads that are identified as legal for dispersed
camping, usually within 150 feet of the centerline of the road. If you need
advice and education on how to use these maps to find the perfect boondocking
spot, we highly recommend watching Grand Adventure Episode 6 entitled "Boondocking
101".
Number 6 on our list is tied between two different products from Google: Google
Maps and Google Earth. I'm sure you already know the benefits of using
Google Maps for navigation and for trip planning, but it also proves an
invaluable resource for finding places to camp. Once we zoom right in you'll be
able to get a better idea of where you're headed, but we can switch to
satellite view, which will give you an advance idea of what your camping area
actually looks like on the ground. If you go up to the hamburger menu in Google
Maps and select "Terrain" view, that'll draw a topographic map where the lines
spread further apart mean flatter terrain for camping. Once again turn to
our Episode 6: "Boondocking 101" for more information on how to use Google Maps in
your camping adventures. The 3D cousin of Google Maps is Google Earth. That takes
the same satellite data that's available in Google Maps, but uses topographic data
to create a 3D model of the ground that lets you see the ground as if you were
an airplane or a bird flying over. Once again, this is completely invaluable
information for trying to find that perfect campsite. You can get a really
good idea of what things look like ,or even the view you're going to have from
camp once you arrive on the ground at your destination.
Our fifth favorite is an online directory of RV dump stations at
Sanidumps.com. Sanidumps describes itself as the most comprehensive RV dump
station search and we believe it! Go here to the region and we select the United
States . Search that first, and then we scroll down and
we select our region of the United States. In this case we're going to
select Utah because that's our home state.
We'll hit that and submit, and if we go down below we see not only a list of dump
stations by city, but just above here theres the Google Maps icon and you can
actually see them in a map view of the state. But in this case we know that
we're looking for one in Sandy, Utah, so we'll scroll down here to Sandy and
we'll select that, and here's a comprehensive list of dump stations. This
list of icons that they first show you will indicate whether potable water is
available, if they have limited hours, if they're big rig friendly. But then you get
specifics for each dump station including latitude and
longitude, price and what features are available. If we select one individual
one like this one at the Maverik we'll get detailed GPS coordinates, driving
directions as to where at the site the dump station is located, and a map with
directions capable on how to get there.
Occupying the number-4 slot is FreeCampsites.net, an online directory
of free camping locations, mostly boondocking spots. Now, we'll be the first
people to tell you that we find the user interface on FreeCampsites.net to
be a little clunky, but if you're looking for a free place to camp this is
definitely a website worth checking out. The easiest way to get started is to go
to the search bar up top and enter a location. We're going to stick with Moab for
the purposes of our example, and this will show you on a map a list of the
campsites available for free or close to free in the Moab area. By mousing over
the campsite reviews in the right hand column you'll see an arrow on the map
pointing to that location. If we click on it, it'll give us details like it's a dirt
road to get there, you have a 14-day stay limit, what activities are available in
the area. Down below you'll actually see user reviews along with photographs where
available, and then the detail of the reviews. Newer ones
like that one up top do show cell phone service that the reviewer picked up
while there, but that's a recent development and older reviews - most of
the reviews you'll find on the site - do not have that info.
Oh, there's a guy who actually put a video of his campsite on
FreeCampsites, so there's a plethora of information available. Coming in at
number 3 is ArcGIS, a free online mapping program. ArcGIS allows you to
create online maps using publicly available layer data. The reason that it
made our top 10 is we created a map for our users that shows public land
management all across the United States. In the left-hand column in the legend
you'll notice that each category has a different color designating who is the
land manager. Here in Western Utah the yellow is BLM, and the little blue
sections are SITLA, or school trust land which is Utah state-operated land.
If we zoom in we can actually get right down to the street level, so that way if
you're in the field you can verify that the spot you're planning on camping at
is actually on public land. And before you leave the house you can use this map
to plan your adventures before you even get there, finding boondocking sites on
public land. One more time I'm going to refer you to "Boondocking 101", our episode
6, for information on how to use this map also to your advantage while
planning your camping trips. Now, if you're worried about gas mileage,
my best advice to you is find another pastime. However, nobody likes to spend
more money than they have to, and that's where GasBuddy.com really shines. Using
GasBuddy.com we've actually saved 35 cents by going just one more exit down
the freeway. They indicate that they have 60 million users, and users upload the
prices of the gas at the pumps every time they stop at a gas station. This is
another one of those user-contributed sites where contributions make the world
of difference. The best thing to do is to go to the search bar. We're going to use
Midvale, Utah in our example. I'm a cheapskate so I'm going to leave the
grade on regular. I'm going to click "Find Gas" and it's going to show me the prices
that have been reported by users. You can see that at the Maverik - the first
station listed - that price was uploaded just 40 minutes ago, so you're pretty
darned sure that it's accurate. You can also click here on "Map" and it will show
the gas prices on a map display in the area. If you click on an individual
station, the price on the map, it'll actually show you up above which station
that is. Now GasBuddy also has mobile apps both for iOS and for Android, and
you can use the location services on your phone to find gas near you quite
easily. You can sort it by price, find the cheapest station, pull in and fill up for
that next stretch of the road. And, drum roll please. Our number one favorite
site for RVing is ... Campendium com!! We love
Campendium. It's a database of not only RV parks but boondocking si tes and all
manner of campsites as well as dump stations. You'll notice in the top bar
you can actually browse by RV parks, you can browse by free camping, national
parks, national forests or state parks. However, where Campendium really shines
is the search bar. We're going to stick with Moab, so we're going to put in Moab
again and search. This is a much better user interface than you'll find on
FreeCampsites.net. It'll list the campsites along
with their reviews, the summary of their reviews I should say. Now if we click, for
example on one of them - Sand Flats Recreation Area, you'll see that there
are 35 photos uploaded by users. You'll notice that they list the GPS
coordinates, the last price paid, and a key here is cell phone coverage. If you
work on the road or if you just need cell phone coverage, almost all the
reviews show you how much they got and on what carrier. You'll see that these
reviews, for example this first one here are quite extensive. People go to great
pains on Campendium to provide detailed reviews of the campsite and what they
thought of different aspects. Each one of these reviews is quite a bit
longer, it's just a matter of clicking on that little
"more ellipse" at the end of each summary. We can't tell you how much we enjoy Campendium,
but this is one more of those sites where it's only as good as the
user contributions, so if you visit a site make sure that your write a review,
upload a photo or submit a blog post, and let everybody know about your
experiences in that campsite for those of us behind you! So there you have it,
our own personal top 10 list of websites for RVers. Again, if you have
some of your own, put them in the comment section down below to share! And also
down below, give us a "thumbs up" if you like this video. If you have any
questions or comments, put them in the comment section and like usual, we'll do
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remember: "Life is Nothing but a Grand Adventure." We'll see you soon!