Newbie question - Can you boondock in a campground?

[BuffaloBoy55]

Originally Posted by SJMaye

Sorry, this is such a simpleton question.

Many times I can't find an available RV site, but see campsites without electricity, water or sewer available. Can you rent one of these spots for your rig and simply boondock there?

I don't know when you posted this, I am not here often enough. But why wouldn't you be able to? I have just purchased an older model RV Motorhome and we have the same newbie questions. We have only taken our rig out once to a KOA campground and it was an awesome experience. I would say when they say full up 'ask'. I learn so much from just asking others what they deal with and how.

[Tony Ramirez]

Originally Posted by mccoy826

Watch the overhead tree limbs. Most tent sites are wooded. Low branches top and sides will hit your roof AC or scratch the sides,
At one really crowded state park we told them a branch was too low. Guy pulled a chainsaw out of the back of his cart and cut the branch!

Most State Parks frown upon visitors cutting branches & trees, since it is destruction of state property. Some don't even like you gathering of fallen branches, wanting them to decompose naturally.

[fineline]

There are sites that can be used for either tent camping or RV but what separates them out from just tent camp sites is a level pad and length.

[ppine]

Totally normal. Mostly how I camp. I like the off-season and quiet campgrounds. If you rely on computer apps you are going to be in crowded campgrounds most of the time, especially in summer. My hobby is checking out new campgrounds in person when I am on a trip. I am always looking for the next one for the next trip. I have been in some large campgrounds near big cities in summer and been the only people there. Works best during the week.

USFS campground keep having shorter and shorter seasons. There used to be public campgrounds that were open all year. It cost $7-8 and you paid the iron ranger. Now some CGs have pay dudes and cost $50 or more. Senior card helps.

The only caveat is that a lot of the USFS campgrounds are older and were mostly designed for car camping. The large RV sites sometimes fill up first. Best to plan ahead but the remote sites always have room during the week.

[Triangle Drifter]

The words are sometimes interchanged but generally dry camping is using a CG without power or water at site but with a restroom of some type nearby and it costs $.

Boondocking is not a formal CG. No power, no water at all, no restrooms, no $, no defined campsite.

[ppine]

Not really. But most of them do not have hookups.

[Phil G.]

SJMaye, here is your Post #1 with your question at the end:

"Sorry, this is such a simpleton question.

Many times I can't find an available RV site, but see campsites without electricity, water or sewer available. Can you rent one of these spots for your rig and simply boondock there?"

To precisely answer your question: If allowed, you can only "boondock" there if those type campsites fit the definition of "the boondocks". Here is that definition:
1. wild, desolate, or uninhabitable country
2. a remote rural or provincial area

If the type campsites you meant don't meet 1. and/or 2. of the above definition, then your question probably should have been - "Can you rent one of these spots for your rig and simply DRYCAMP there?"

By the way: Probably spots meeting the actual boondocks definition here in the U.S. would not have any rents, or very low rents ... associated with them [i.e. public lands]. We like to boondock drycamp in our self-contained motorhome, but finding places here in the U.S. with no other campers close by in the prime months can sometimes be a real challenge. My preference would be to pay for true boondock drycamping spots isolated within vast private land holdings that are quantity controlled, and activity-type controlled ... by the land owner.