The first leg of my recent road trip was across Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma and into New Mexico. One of my goals, as it is every time I hit the road in the Wanderer, was to stay in the wilderness and avoid civilization except for the need to gas up.
As I noted in my previous post, I usually sleep in the cargo bed of the Wanderer. During this trip, I tent-camped only once. Using the cargo bay has a lot of advantages: it gets me off the ground on a smooth and level platform. It’s much faster than putting up and taking down a tent. I used a bug net over it several times until I got up to altitude. I never had to use the camping tarp to prevent rain, because the weather never threatened rain.
Here are keys I look for: National Forests, Wilderness Areas and BLM land.
National Forests generally allow dispersed camping, unless it’s specifically marked off-limits.
Understand that National Forests are not National Parks. A good example of that is when I did the Blue Ridge Parkway. If you’re on the parkway or the roadside adjacent, you are in a National Park. Dispersed camping there is a no-no, but they have well marked campgrounds (usually all spots reserved during high season and on weekends). But if the Park goes through a National Forest, as it does in many stretches of the Blue Ridge, if you…
