How To Find RV Parks, Campgrounds, and Dispersed Camping Locations

6
4903

Finding the perfect RV camping location is now easy. There are many websites and apps available for campers. You can search by so many different options to find RV parks, campgrounds, and dispersed camping (boondocking) campsites.

These provide searchable directories of campgrounds, dispersed camping locations, filters for available amenities, reviews, photos, videos, and more.

This post gives info on websites and apps for finding campsites. It includes both paid and free dispersed camping locations.

It can be overwhelming to know what resources can help. They aid in searching for the perfect RV park or campground. This includes boondocking, also known as dispersed camping.

We’ve used many websites and apps to help with our road trips across the US. New tools appear every year.

To aid your quest for the perfect tool to find RV parks, campgrounds, and dispersed camping locations, I’ve included a list below. It shows what types of camping locations each directory covers. This includes RV parks, campgrounds, and dispersed camping sites.

The list below shows which websites and apps include various RV campsites. It covers federal locations like National Parks and US Forest Service. Also, state and local spots like state park campgrounds. Plus, privately owned sites like RV parks, Walmarts, casinos, and truck stops.

RV Parks, Campground, and Other Location Directories

The main directories we use for finding RV parks, campgrounds, and other locations are:

Each has different types of information to help you find where to camp.

If you’re seeking a specific camping type, like at a state park or dispersed camping on public land, this grouping should help. It shows which of these camping apps and websites include each type of camping location:

RV Parks and Campgrounds

  • Privately owned RV parks and campgrounds:  AllStays, Campendium, RV Parky, Reserve America
  • State park campgrounds: AllStays, Campendium, RV Parky, Reserve America (see list of states below), Freecampsites.net
  • City/ county campgrounds: AllStays, Campendium, RV Parky, Reserve America, Freecampsites.net
  • U.S. military campgrounds: AllStays, Campendium, RV Parky

State and Local Land

  • Rest areas: AllStays, Campendium, Freecampsites.net, RV Parky
  • State public land: AllStays, Campendium, Freecampsites.net, RV Parky
  • Tribal land: Campendium, AllStays

Privately Owned Land

  • Cabela’s overnight parking:  AllStays, RV Parky
  • Camping World overnight parking: AllStays, RV Parky
  • Casino overnight parking: AllStays, RV Parky
  • Cracker Barrel overnight parking: AllStays, RV Parky
  • Elk or Moose Lodge overnight parking: AllStays
  • Private land: Boondockers Welcome, Harvest Hosts
  • Walmart overnight parking: AllStays, RV Parky
  • Truck stops: AllStays, RV Parky

Federal Land and Campgrounds

  • US Forest Service: AllStays, Campendium, Freecampsites.net, RV Parky, Recreation.gov
  • US Fish and Wildlife Service: AllStays, Campendium, Freecampsites.net, RV Parky, Recreation.gov
  • National Parks: AllStays, Campendium, Freecampsites.net, RV Parky, Recreation.gov
  • Bureau of Reclamation: AllStays, Campendium, Freecampsites.net, RV Parky, Recreation.gov
  • Bureau of Land Management: AllStays, Campendium, Freecampsites.net, RV Parky, Recreation.gov
  • Army Corps of Engineers: AllStays, Campendium, Freecampsites.net, RV Parky, Recreation.gov

RV Campsite Websites and Apps

The summaries below offer an overview of our most used websites and apps. We use these when searching for our next camping spot.

I’ve noted if it’s available as a website and/or app. I’ve also mentioned any costs associated with its use.

We haven’t found a single site or app that lists all RV parks or campgrounds in one location. It’s useful to compare several to see what works best for you.

AllStays, Campendium, and RV Parky identify many RV parks and campgrounds. However, they do miss some for various reasons.

Further, no website or app has an exhaustive list of all the possible boondocking / dispersed camping locations either.

One explanation is the vast public land, especially in the western US, makes listing every dispersed camping spot impossible. There are nearly infinite possibilities. (More on tips for searching for dispersed camping locations is presented below.)

Despite these limitations, we’ve found that AllStays, Campendium, and RV Parky are invaluable.

Without them, we wouldn’t have had our many camping adventures. They’ve shown us many beautiful locations across the United States.

I’ve used Moab, Utah as the base for the sample images below. This shows how each website looks when searching for a location.

I used the Sand Flats Recreation Area in Moab as an example of the campground listing for each location. 

AllStays (app & website; free and $29.95 annually version)

How to find rv parks using allstays

We use AllStays all the time and it’s a favorite by many RV’ers as it has so many helpful features. 

AllStays offers similar search results to Campendium and RV Parky. However, it includes more features and filters not found on the other two.

For example, the pro version includes Elk and Moose lodges. Many of them offer discounted or free camping at their locations for members.

The pro version of AllStays also includes the ability to search for RV dump stations. This is an invaluable feature, especially for campers who are fond of dispersed camping.

Moab Search with AllStays

I used the free version to search for RV camping locations in Moab, Utah for this post.

With the free version, you can only filter by one item at a time. You cannot filter for private state parks and 50 amp electrical connections, for example. You’d have to search for private state parks first. Then do a search for 50 amp campsites, and somehow cross reference the two search results.

With the paid version (currently $29.95/year with an auto renewal membership), you can filter using multiple criteria at once. It makes finding that perfect campsite that much easier.

Moab Sand Flats Recreation Area
Recreation.gov search results for Sand Flats Recreation Area in Moab, Utah

With the free version on the AllStays website, you get the full state results. Then you must zoom in to the town of Moab. You’ll be presented with a map with potential camping locations.

Once you select a potential campground, you can see details about the campground. Details include the price, amenities, and navigation instructions, including a street view image pulled from Google Maps.

AllStays differs from Campendium and RV Parky in that users cannot enter their own reviews of campgrounds. Instead, AllStays automatically does a web search for reviews of a particular location. It then presents links to other sources such as RV Park Reviews (described below), Trip Advisor, and other outside travel review links.

Similarly, AllStays searches for photos using Google, rather than allowing users to upload their own images of camping locations.

Campendium (app & website; free)

Campendium map of Moab UT RV camping
Campendium search results for Moab, Utah

Campendium is a website we use frequently to search for RV parks, campgrounds and dispersed camping locations as we’ve camped in 28 states in our Airstream in the past 18 months. Campendium is free to use and is available online as a website and an iOS app version.

Campendium includes RV parks, public and private campgrounds, and a growing list of dispersed camping locations. It does not include overnight locations you may be interested in stopping at on longer roadtrips such as Walmart or Cracker Barrel, however.

To find RV parks and other locations, you can search by location name and then sort the list of results by distance, highest rated, or best review ratings.

You can also filter the list of potential campgrounds and RV parks by category which includes all public lands (e.g., BLM, National Parks), type of public land (i.e. which agency runs it), rest areas, and more.

Users can also search by price, type of hookups available (e.g., full, dry camping), recreation activities (e.g., fishing, playground) at the location, and/or which discount clubs (e.g., Good Sam, KOA, military discount) are accepted.

Sand Flats Recreation Area in Campendium
Campendium search results for Sand Flats Recreation Area in Moab, Utah

Once you’ve identified a potential camping location, you can read reviews from other campers about the campsite, price paid, link to the official website (if available) for making a reservation, the exact GPS coordinates, what level of cell phone coverage is available, amenities, photos, and links to any blog posts about the camp spot.

If you want to save it as a favorite, you simply select the heart to add it to your list of favorite locations.

Campendium will also provide a list of nearby camping locations as well.

RV Parky (app & website; free)

RV parky map of moab
RV Parky search results for Moab, Utah

Next up is RV Parky. We haven’t used RV Parky as much as Campendium, but people seem to really like it for finding RV parks, so it’s worth checking out.

It is available for free as both an app and as a website version.

With RV Parky, you get the same federal and local/state public land and campgrounds included in results, with the exception of Tribal land.

However, RV Parky also includes privately owned locations such as common overnight stop destinations such as Cracker Barrel, Walmart, or truck stops while Campendium does not yet include these in the search results or map.

Results show up on the map and also as a sidebar to the left of the map. The results can be sorted in the sidebar by distance, rating, or name.

RV Parky also lets you filter results by star rating, the type of RV park or campground (e.g., public park, KOA campground), stores (e.g., Walmart, Camping World) with overnight RV parking allowed, gas stations, rest areas, and road warnings (such as low clearance bridges).

Users can choose which of these to show on the map. Additionally, users can filter by amenities available at the camping location such as water, pull-thru sites, wi-fi, laundry, fishing, and more.

RV park review of sand flats recreation area in moab
RV Parky search results for Sand Flats Recreation Area in Moab, Utah

Similar to Campendium, RV Parky lets you add and view photos and reviews and save locations to your list of favorites.

RV Parky doesn’t yet seem to have as many reviews or photos uploaded as Campendium at this point.

However, RV Parky also lets you add particular campgrounds to your saved trips, so you can plan your road trip and camping destinations with ease.

RV Parky makes it easy to contact RV parks or campgrounds to make reservations by providing their websites and telephone numbers. There’s also a user journal section for keeping notes about particular locations.

Note: I did find quite a few known BLM campgrounds in the Moab area (e.g., Hittle Bottom Campground, Drinks Canyon Campground), as missing from RV Parky, so hopefully it will be updated in the future to include more available locations.

Recreation.Gov (app & website; free)

Recreation.gov map of moab
Recreation.gov search results for Moab, Utah

Recreation.gov is a website run by the United Stated government to provide details on the many federally operated recreation facilities across the country. It includes more than 100,000 reservable locations (e.g., campsites) across the United States.

You won’t find private RV parks or state park campgrounds here — it’s exclusively focused on federal public lands.

As indicated in the table above, the participating federal partners of interest to RV campers are the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, US Army Corps of Engineers, and US Forest Service.

Many of these agencies run campgrounds or campsites that are available to RV campers to reserve in advance. However, some of their land is not available for reservations, but is still available for RV campers to use.

The website provides details about each location, photos, availability, and an online reservation system to make the process of reserving campsites on federal land relatively easy.

Users can search for different types of recreation activities, including camping, day use, tours, permits, and points of interest.

RV campers are going to want to choose “camping” in the “booking type” filtering option.

You can also limit your search to specific dates, so that you can make sure you find a campsite that is available for your specific travel dates.

Moab Sand Flats Recreation Area in recreation.gov
Recreation.gov search results for Sand Flats Recreation Area in Moab, Utah

Once you hone in on a specific campground, such as the Sand Flats Recreation Area in this example, you can see the cost per night, available dates, details about the camping area.

Recreation.gov provides details on the facilities available (e.g., bathrooms, electrical connections), natural features of the surrounding area, recreation opportunities and activities (e.g., hiking, mountain biking, star gazing), nearby attractions (e.g., state and national parks), and photos of the location.

Recreation.gov also provides campers with details on important need to know items, such as extreme temperatures, hours that generators are allowed, and whether water is available at the campground. Detailed driving directions as well as GPS coordinates and an interactive map are also built-in features of the website.

Reserve America (app & website; free)

How to find rv parks using reserve america
Reserve America search results for Moab, Utah

Reserve America is a website that allows users to search and make reservations for RV campsites in state, county, city, and private RV parks and campgrounds.

It includes only campgrounds that pay to be included in its system, so is not as comprehensive for finding available RV parks and campgrounds as Campendium, RV Parky, or AllStays.

However, some state parks have exclusively outsourced their campground reservations to the Reserve America system, so if you want to make an online reservation in a state campground in say, Florida, you’re going to need to use the Reserve America system to do it.

As of January 2019, the states that are included in the Reserve America platform are Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.

It also includes some municipal campgrounds and plenty of privately owned RV parks. Reserve America is a useful tool for finding many public RV parks and campgrounds.

Dead horse point state park in reserve america
Reserve America search results for Dead Horse Point State Park in Moab, Utah

Once in the Reserve America system, users can search by location, campsites that accommodate the length of your RV, and various other options, including whether the campsite has a water hookup, sewer hookup, is a pull-thru site, and other search criteria.

Users can search by available dates for a particular campground or campgrounds in a specific location, such as Moab, Utah. (I used the Dead Horse Point State Park as an example for Reserve America, as the Sand Flats Recreation Area is not included on their website.)

The Reserve America profile of the campground allows you to search by available dates, and also by specific campsites.

So say you stayed at a particular campsite in a campground several years ago and you wanted to stay in that exact same spot again, you can search in Reserve America to make sure it is available for your travel dates.

A map of each campground is included, as is an image of each campsite with its amenities such as the type of hookups included.

The Reserve America website also includes details such as the services and amenities located in the area, local attractions, directions, contact information, and more.

Boondocking (Dispersed Camping)

Boondocking, or “dispersed camping” as it is officially called by federal agencies, is camping without any hookups, usually in remote locations.

We’re big fans of dispersed camping, and have spent time camping at some fabulous locations, often having the entire place to ourselves.

It can be more difficult to find dispersed camping locations identified in the popular RV campsite directories such as Campendium, RV Parky, and AllStays, although they are increasingly adding dispersed camping locations as more and more users add boondocking spots.

how to find free camping via campendium
Campendium free camping section of website

For instance, Campendium profiles free camping opportunities on its website and provides instructions for how best to locate dispersed camping locations on public land using its search functions. Users can select “all public lands” as the category and set the price as “free.”

They’ll then be given a list of all free dispersed camping locations listed on their website for a particular location. Please note the resulting list won’t be exhaustive of all the possible dispersed camping locations in a given area, but it’s a good start.

At this time, searching for dispersed camping locations doesn’t appear to be possible on RV Parky or the free version of AllStays as there aren’t options to search camping locations by price on either website.

However, with the pro version of AllStays, there are numerous ways to find great dispersed camping locations, including searching for locations on BLM and/or US Forest Service land, as well as adding the criteria of “free” as a search category.

Note this option for combining search terms is only possible on the pro version of AllStays, but in our experience, it works great.

We use several other sources to find good dispersed camping locations, including the Free Campsites website detailed below and also rely on our own searches of the National Forests available boondocking locations, as explained in this USFS dispersed camping tutorial post that explains how to find great dispersed camping locations in the National Forests using the new interactive US Forest Service Visitor Map and official Motor Vehicle Use Maps developed by the USFS and available for free.

Free Campsites.net (app & website; free)

freecampsites.net map of moab, utah
FreeCampsites.net search results for Moab, Utah

The FreeCampsites.net website is very useful for finding great dispersed camping locations not already catalogued in Campendium or other camping location directories. As implied by its name, it is entirely free to use.

There is a website and an app version, but the app version is pretty limited in that it primarily directs you back to the website.

Free Campsites.net focuses only on campsites that are free or up to $12 to camp per night. It requires that all locations are open to anyone, and are not membership based or otherwise limited. We have found some incredible places to stay using this free website.

Users can search by specific location and then filter the results by some very useful criteria, depending on your rig type.

For example, you can filter by the access road — whether it is paved, gravel, dirt, or 4×4. You can also filter by free, paid, or permit sites. Free campsites are also filterable based on whether they are suitable for RV parking, tent camping, and by relevant activities and amenities such as dump stations and trash cans.

Map of campsite on Forest Road 0063 in Moab
Freecampsites.net search results for Forest Road 0063 in Moab

Once you find a location you’re interested in, you can see additional details about the camping location, including the GPS coordinates so you can find it easily, maximum recommended RV length, activities in the area, reviews, and uploaded photos and videos of the location by other boondockers.

Users can suggest additional locations to add to the Freecampsites.net website so that it continues to grow as a resource for fellow boondockers. Reviews can include the text of your review, star rating, whether you were able to get a cellular phone signal and by which phone carrier, and more.

Harvest Hosts (app & website; $99 annual membership)

Harvest hosts map of moab
Harvest Hosts search results near Moab, Utah

Another interesting option for finding great places to stay is the unique Harvest Hosts program. With Harvest Hosts, RV owners can stay overnight at hundreds of wineries, farms, and attractions across the United States, Canada, Alaska, and Baja California.

Guests stay for free at these locations once they’ve paid their annual $79 membership fee.

The hosts participate in the Harvest Hosts program as a way to introduce recreational vehicle owners (and renters!) to their way of life and what they produce. Although Harvest Host members do not pay the host directly for their stay, RV guests are encouraged to purchase at least $20 of the hosts’ products.

Campers are basically boondocking, as most hosts do not have any electrical or water hookups available for RVs to use. However, most rigs these days are set up for at least an overnight of camping without hookups without any difficulties.

It’s a small price to pay for being able to sleep among alpacas, goats, or in a vineyard that you have all to yourself.

We’ve had some really fantastic stays at Harvest Hosts locations across the country, as profiled in this Harvest Hosts post about some of our visits so far.

Boondockers Welcome ($15-30 annually)

boondockers welcome map of moab area
Boondockers Welcome search results near Moab, Utah

Another great option for finding boondocking locations is to use Boondockers Welcome. This is a website that has listings from fellow RV’ers who have private property (e.g., a house in a subdivision or land) who allow other RVers to come and park overnight for a few days.

It’s a great way to make new friends and save money while on the road. The cost is $15 annually for boondockers who also register as hosts for other campers, or $30 annually for guest privileges only.

Users can search for specific locations using a convenient mapping feature. You can search by distance to a given location, what size rig you’re traveling in, whether the host accepts pets, whether generators are allowed, whether barbecues are allowed, and more.

Some hosts will even provide services. Being RV’ers themselves, most are very familiar with the types of things other RVers will need having been on the road for a while. You can search hosts to find ones that have an electric or water hookup, wifi, pull through parking, and/or an RV dump.

And if you want to take your RV to South America, Europe, Australia, or Asia, there are Boondockers Welcome hosts there too!

Reviews of Campgrounds

rv park reviews map of usa
RV Park Reviews website

Once we’ve found a place that we’d like to camp, we sometimes do an additional search for reviews of the RV park or campground using either the RV Park Reviews website or Campground Views website.

These provide additional details about public and private campgrounds and can be searched by location or by campground name.

Both sites focus on specific RV parks or campgrounds, so you’ll only find well-established campgrounds in these review sites, rather than remote dispersed camping or free overnight camping options such as Walmart. It’s relatively easy to find RV parks and campgrounds using these tools.

RV Park Reviews usually has extensive reviews of most locations and includes many photos uploaded from users.

One benefit is that users are asked to specify the exact campsite that they stayed in within a campground, so you can get an additional perspective about what the best campsites might be for when you make a reservation.

Campground Views website
Campground Views website

The Campground Views website is unique in that in addition to photos of RV parks or campgrounds, they also upload videos of the campground so you can get a better sense of the whole environment. Users can add their own reviews as well.

The vast amount of online resources available to help RV campers find their perfect RV park, campground, or dispersed camping location is amazing. These websites and apps that I’ve listed here offer a great launching point for starting your next road trip or camping adventure.

If you have suggestions for other apps or websites that should be included in this list, please add a comment and I’ll update this listing.