What is Boondocking?

Boondocking definition: self-sufficient camping in a remote area without any amenities such as water, electricity, and sewer.

One of our goals this year was to see a long list of National Parks out West. In order to afford this, boondocking was the way to go! This summer we primarily boondocked and only stayed in campgrounds if it was too hot or we wanted hookups. We wild-camped in New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado! 

There are varying versions of boondocking campsites. Some are named campgrounds with numbered sites, others are just open fields where you can park anywhere you’d like. I like having numbered spots because I know someone won’t park right next to us, but I also like the open areas because we can park where we think has the best view. Depending on the popularity of a site depends on how long you can stay. The typical time is 14 days. But in Jackson, WY it was only 5 days. In Montana the limit is 16 days! It varies spot to spot, state to state.

Each campsite is also first come, first serve. Out of all of our camping, the only time we encountered a completely full spot was in Crested Butte in mid-August this year. We ended up talking to a Forest Ranger and he led us to a different, gorgeous spot that was not on the website we use to find spots. 

Boondocking is very popular among the van life community. Living in a camper is not very expensive, but if you’re constantly staying in campgrounds it adds up. Having this option allows us to see and do so much more. 

Favorite spot in Leadville, Colorado

How do we camp without amenities?

We are able to camp in our fifth wheel with no amenities because Martin is a very smart man and installed a 2,000 watt solar panel system on the roof of the camper. We have 800 amp hours of 12 volt battery, as well as a Victron Inverter. With this set up we can run just about everything in the camper aside from our air conditioner. I am so thankful we don’t have to use a generator and can set up camp anywhere.

For our water and sewer, we have two tanks in the back of our truck that we pump in and out of the camper. If we are good at conserving water, we only have to fill the truck tank once a week. We got our transportable sewer tank earlier this year and it has been a game changer. We had an old tank that held half of the amount, so now that we have such a large tank we can go a week or sometimes two without having to dump. 

The benefit of being near National Parks or popular tourist towns is most of them will have some sort of dump and water fill station. The towns with the easiest set ups were Crested Butte, Buena Vista, and Leadville in Colorado, and in Montana, Gardiner and Whitefish area had fantastic resources. Some of these are free dump and fills, some cost money. Most of the time it is about $10-20 for a dump, and $5-10 to fill our water. If you do the math, having to do this just once a week means we are only spending about $40 for two weeks of camping. Compared to a campground that is $60+ per night. (Usually around National Parks they can run $90-150 a night). In the grand scheme we are saving so much more money by boondocking.

How do we find campsites?

There are many ways you can find boondocking campsites, we typically use iOverlander because it is one of the only free resources left. (They are trying to make it cost money now, sadly). We also are in some Big Rig and Boondocking Facebook groups that have a community of people posting their favorite spots. There are many options out there however, like Campendium or The Dyrt. I also Google search areas where we are going to see what comes up. Sometimes we find spots through recreation.gov. If we are staying in a National Forest, they do a good job at describing their campgrounds to see if it is an option for our big camper or not. 

My favorite campsites:

Gardiner, Montana

I had never heard of Gardiner before we visited. It is right on the border of Northern Yellowstone. The town is touristy, but not too much. It is tiny and in the middle of nowhere! Our spot was about 10 minutes up a washboard dirt road, but it was worth it. The view was incredible. In the evening, all the hills around would turn into a golden green from the sunset and it almost looked fake. We were pretty much the only campers out there for the two weeks we were there in June. 

Las Cruces, New Mexico

We ended up at this spot by complete accident. In 2022, it was our first time ever boondocking. We had a nightmare experience trying to park in someone's backyard in Alamogordo which led us to leave early and find Las Cruces in a pinch. This spot is easy to access and only about 15 minutes outside of the city. It has a gorgeous view of the Organ Mountains on one side and a view of Las Cruces and the mountains beyond on the other. The city of Las Cruces is one of my favorite places we have visited.

Crested Butte, Colorado

I mentioned this spot earlier, but we only found this site because of a Forest Ranger. It was not on iOverlander! I was definitely nervous driving blind down the 2 mile dirt road, but once we got there I knew I would never want to leave. We were surrounded by mountains. There was a crystal clear stream about 200 ft from our front door. And on top of that, there were adorable cows that would visit every day and eat the charcoal out of all of the fire pits. I loved them as my neighbors! Another great thing about this spot was its proximity to Crested Butte. It was easy to run into town if needed. In town, they had a water and dump station run by the city that was cheap and easily accessible. It is the little things that add up!

As we close out the summer, we have left Colorado and left our last boondocking spot for the next while. I am going to miss the freedom that comes with boondocking and I will miss the views most! 

Interested in learning more about boondocking? Let me know! I would love to answer any questions you may have and encourage you to try it out.