Reference books for dry camping?

[John E Davies]

I have a ton of books and atlases on back country exploring and expedition travel, but nothing on RV camping in the boonies, for free or very minimal nightly cost. Any recommendations?

 

This one caught my eye, I am a huge fan of Corps of Engineers campgrounds. They tend to be very nicely maintained and cheap; it does however seem that they don't advertise, so finding them can be a real challenge.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Camping-Corps-Engineers-Complete-Campgrounds/dp/0937877581/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482269427&sr=1-2

 

Any other recommendations? I am specifically looking for western states, nothing east of the Mississippi....

 

Thanks,

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[rideandfly]

John,

 

We're big fans of ACE campgrounds. When visiting ACE lakes,  visit their headquarters and ask for maps and CDs.

 

Also use this recreation/ACE website:

 

https://www.recreation.gov/campgroundDirectoryListByAgencyID.do?contractCode=NRSO&agencyID=70902

 

Here's a sample of free handouts, the website address on the CD has changed:

 

 

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

 

 

[DavidS]

The Technomadia people (http://www.technomadia.com), former Oliver owners, recommended the frugal-rv travel guides for boondocking at http://www.frugal-rv-travel.com/RV-Travel-Guide.html. They have 6 boondocking guides, on New Mexico, Southern Utah, Southern Texas, Arizona, California Sierras and Coast, and California Desert and Eastern Sierra.

 

I looked for reviews before I bought the Utah book for $17.  The reviews were excellent and I bought a copy. It comes as a pdf file. I loaded it onto my computer, iPad and iPhone. I put it in the Kindle app on the iPhone and iPad, but the iBook app works also. If I am driving, my wife will be the researcher / navigator, and she likes paper, so I printed out a double-sided copy and put in a report binder. The book is 140 pages.

 

I bought the book a few weeks after our trip to Capitol Reef last October, and so I have not used it yet to find a campsite. I did look thru the descriptions and directions for the sites near Capitol Reef, and the information looked good from what I had seen.

 

One good  thing is that the GPS coordinates are hot linked. If you click on the GPS coordinates it opens up in Google Maps, on the computer or on the phone. Very cool!

 

The web site says "It is a copyright violation to share these files with anyone other than the purchaser," and I respect that. However I doubt the author will object if post one page from the Capitol Reef section to give you an idea of what the descriptions look like.

Boondocking-in-Utah.pdf

[DavidS]

I found a pdf version of the State by State Guide to ACE Campgrounds that Bill has in his photo, and this is downloadable: http://cdm16021.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16021coll11/id/900/rec/3

[ScubaRx]

John, we bought this book and have used it several times with success.