Being the second most popular national park in the United States, finding a great place to stay within easy reach can be a little intimidating. Luckily, as we’ve experienced with nearly every other national park we’ve stayed near, they are almost always surrounded by accessible public land. Because Grand Canyon National Park is best described as two unique experiences, we’ll split this post up into the BLM camping on the
A while back, we decided we wanted to experience Las Vegas, Nevada as a family. In our research, we found there were not a lot of good opportunities to boondock around the city. However, when we discovered our “Every Kid Outdoors” pass got us into not just national parks, but also into national recreation areas. This really opened up doors for us. The door that we were most excited about
When you’re living on the road, you occasionally need to pull off of the road to rest, eat, tend to acts of nature, etc. While exciting, and full of novel experiences, life on the road doesn’t tend to be a very lucrative lifestyle so free camping is one of the best ways to find success. Before you get too involved in looking for free camping sites, you’ll want to do
It’s no secret that we love to visit national parks. It’s also no surprise that we love to camp for free. Lucky for us, so far we’ve been able to find dispersed camping on public land pretty close to every national park we’ve visited, and Joshua Tree National Park isn’t an exception. Just as Joshua Tree National Park can be split roughly into two areas, so can its dispersed camping
As you may have guessed from reading Dadding on the Road for a while, we are Washington state natives. During the winter of ‘23/24, we decided to book a flight back to Washington for Dad and the kids. We wanted to visit the grandparents and let the kids rekindle old friendships from back “home.” While we were perfectly happy boondocking in Quartzsite, Mom wasn’t looking forward to a 2-hour, one-way
So far on our travels, there haven’t been many places where we had a need or opportunity to go back to. Standard Wash, specifically the Sandpit, is one such location. Just outside of Lake Havasu City, and right off of the highway, this large, relatively flat area is the perfect location to stay while touring this popular city in the middle of the desert. Getting to the Sandpit is a
If you’ve spent any time in an RV or in RV circles, you’ve probably heard of Quartzsite, Arizona. This tiny town in the middle of the Sonoran desert swells in population every winter from around 2,000 residents in the summer to over 1.5 million. How does “The Q” handle such fluctuations? Bureau of Land Management (BLM) camping! In addition to the innumerable RV parks inside the city limits of Quartzsite,
While traveling through Arizona, we had the opportunity to view Saguaro National Park. As we like to boondock, and the park sits on either side of a major city, there wasn’t much nearby. Luckily, we found Ironwood National Monument Access Point, just outside Marana, Arizona. The Ironwood National Monument access point is very easy to get to, and only 30 minutes from I-10. All roads up to it are paved,
After staying for half a year in Virginia, and driving through North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico, we were nearly at our winter base in Arizona. Tanque Rd BLM was the perfect spot for us to get out and recharge for a few days. It’s far away from cities and noise, but close enough to get supplies. Of all the spots we stayed at on our trip
Looking for a place to stay within spitting distance of White Sands National Park, we found the Baylor Pass Trailhead off of Baylor Canyon Road in Las Cruces, NM. This was just a quick stop for us as we were rushing to get to Quartzsite in time for The Boy’s birthday. But it wasn’t too bad of a campground and we wish we could have spent more time there. Camping