theboondork's RV blog

How I find boondocking spots in the national forest.

7/28/2020

If the pics need clickin, clickum.

Boondocking in the national forest dispersed camping Colorado Picture

I had a choice of boondocking in the shade under the trees, or in the sun. My four 100 watt solar panels made the decision for me.

I didn't drive far today since this trip was not about getting anywhere as much as looking and learning.

I found another boondocking spot in the national forest, which the Forest Service refers to as "dispersed camping," and as far as I'm concerned, the more "dispersed," the better.

You may be interested to know how I find these dispersed camping spots, or you couldn't care less, but I'm going to tell you anyway. When I'm in the national forest driving down a paved road, I look for dirt roads going off into the woods, which look relatively well-traveled. I'll go down that road for a while looking for places where people have pulled over and camped. They're usually easy to spot, it will be dirt instead of grass, and there will often be a stone fire ring or two. And if there are no signs telling me I can't camp there, I figure I'm welcome.

If I don't find a place like that within a few miles, I'll go back to the paved road and look for another dirt road. Now common sense tells you that you don't want to do this if you're pulling a humongous trailer or driving a 40-foot class "A." You should always look for boondocking spots in a vehicle easily capable of turning around on a narrow dead-end road if things don't pan out the way you had hoped. And this especially applies to Colorado. Where easily accessible dirt roads can quickly turn into a Jeep trail that gets worse and worse before you realize the depth of the do-do you're in.

But this time, I found a sweet, easily accessible spot with all the signs of being a popular boondocking area. And unlike yesterday is actually reasonably level and even gave me options of shade trees or open land. And living on sunshine the way I do, I chose the open area.

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A nice comfy level spot for the night. A blue sky, a pretty view, no neighbors, plenty of social distancing, and best of all it's free.

Boondocking in the national forest Colorado Picture

I seldom need four-wheel-drive. But when I'm looking for boondocking spots it's very comforting knowing it's there.

Purple wild flower.

The view from my window.

2 Comments

OFM

7/29/2020 12:14:11 pm

Your running around so easily with the slide in camper has got me really thinking about moving to a lot smaller rig like a Casita. Now that 80% of my toys (yaks, bikes, hiking etc) are gone forever, I am hauling a lot of weight and length I do not need anymore. hmmmm

Tom

7/29/2020 02:44:36 pm

It is true, traveling in the little Bronco camper is pretty much the same as traveling in the truck, in that I don't give any more thought to where I'm going to go and how I'm going to get there than I would just driving the truck alone.

It is such a sense of freedom after manhandling the Arctic Fox for most of the year, which is why I call it a mini-vacation because it's a vacation from my stress and worry of dealing with the Arctic Fox. But most of that stress and worry comes from two major reasons, for me backing up a trailer does not come natural and never has, and hitting a dead end road with no way to turn around, is my biggest nightmare.

Having a lighter smaller trailer like you're considering would get rid of some of the problems but for me I would still have to back it up, and it might help turn around in that dreaded dead-end road but it would still be a problem.

If I had your abilities to travel lightly I think I would consider a lightweight truck camper like the NorthernLite. Their at least as big as a van inside but their fridge, stove, and bathroom, are more RV like that most vans. And you can drive it and Park it mostly like you would the truck alone.

Or maybe a small, agile, class "C" which is light enough to be used as a daily driver so you don't have to pull a toad.

As you can tell my idea of getting rid of traveling stress is not to be towing something. But those are all personal problems and probably don't affect most other folks. On the plus side of towing my first fifth wheel was a 24 Tahoe GlideLite which I easily towed with a 1/2 ton truck due to its slightly less than 4000 pound weight and I found it to be fairly easy to deal with so a smaller lighter trailer can be less stressful than a bigger one.

I like the idea of an all fiberglass shell such as the Casitas have. It seems like that would be a lot more leak resistant, and have fewer problems than trailers with rubber roofs and sticks holding the walls and ceiling up. I think we talked about them before and I wasn't too thrilled with their idea of insulation was a layer of Reflectix glued to the interior. And I'm not sure if they're designed as a full-time live board trailer. But you certainly would have a lot of new friends in one of those rolling egg groups.

But I agree at this geezerly stage of our life especially with YOUR advanced years that something smaller and easier to deal with is probably a good idea. Like you, I no longer care much about the hobby's I used to have. And I think I could be perfectly happy with nothing but a camera and a laptop. So getting a smaller place to live often crosses my mind to, and as long as its got wheels I think I would be happy.

Tom

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How I find boondocking spots in the national forest.

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