{"id":1804,"date":"2008-09-26T10:42:11","date_gmt":"2008-09-26T14:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/?p=1804"},"modified":"2008-09-26T10:42:11","modified_gmt":"2008-09-26T14:42:11","slug":"free-campgrounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/?p=1804","title":{"rendered":"Free campgrounds"},"content":{"rendered":"

For all of our cheapskate travel, we don’t often spend time in truly free campgrounds. \u00a0 We seem to either be in paying situation or staying off the established campground system, in private driveways, parking lots, and county parks. Free campgrounds are widely available but generally they are also scattered far off into the boondocks. The US Forest Service maintains a lot of free campgrounds in national forest areas, and the Army Corps of Engineers also has developed quite a few. \u00a0 The Bureau of Land Management has many, which they divide into short-term and long-term visitor areas.<\/p>\n

\"navajo-nmon-campsite.jpg\"<\/a>If you are looking to really get away, these are great options. \u00a0 We tend not to use them because they are often too small for our rig, too rugged to get into, or too far from services that I need for work. \u00a0 But on occasion we have, and they’ve always been nice spots, often located near rivers or open recreation areas.<\/p>\n

One nice thing about free campgrounds is that there’s no rush to get out before “check-out time.”\u009d \u00a0 They usually have a 7- or 14-day limit, but there’s often no need to register at all, so you can just pull in at your leisure and you’re left alone.<\/p>\n

On Thursday we were all set to go, since we’ve explored most of Navajo National Monument, but then in the morning a few work tasks came up that I needed to deal with, and we decided it was smarter to just stay for the day and get things done. \u00a0 The sun was shining brightly all morning and so we had plenty of solar power for the laptop, and if I stood on the picnic table and faced a large juniper tree to the east, I could reliably make phone calls. \u00a0 That gave me the full complement of technology I needed to get my job done.<\/p>\n

Being in a free campground there was obviously no cost associated with this extra day’s stay, and in fact we were saving money by not moving. \u00a0 To top it all off, the campground is undeniably pretty. \u00a0 If we’d moved we might not be in such a nice spot, so why rush away? \u00a0 When you find a nice free campground, stick around and enjoy it. \u00a0 With gas prices as high as they are, it makes sense.<\/p>\n

Our extra day has yielded a few unexpected perks. \u00a0 In the afternoon a bit of weather moved in, to our great surprise, and we actually got an hour or so of light desert rain. \u00a0 It is is so dry here that we were able to stand out in the rain talking to neighbors without actually getting wet. \u00a0 Since desert rain is scarce this time of year, it was sort of a treat.<\/p>\n

Our neighbors a few sites away turned out to be a couple from FL with two homeschooled children, who had previously spotted us in Grand Canyon and Page. \u00a0 The kids were six and eight years old, so Emma was completely engaged all afternoon. They are going to do the Betatakin hike today.<\/p>\n

This morning we really are going to move on. \u00a0 The plan is to try to find some place to do laundry in Kayenta or Chinle (both rather small towns, it’s a long shot), and then proceed to Canyon de Chelly National Monument for the weekend. \u00a0 The camping at Canyon de Chelly’s Cottonwood campground is free, too. \u00a0 I am told that there is little chance of me getting online this weekend, but I’ve been told that every step of the way in the last month and yet somehow we managed to do it most of the time.<\/p>\n

But first, we have one more surprise from the desert. \u00a0 We hear long rumbles of thunder in the distance. \u00a0 At 7:30 a.m. in late September (and a 10% chance of rain in the forecast) we didn’t expect a thunderstorm, but there was clearly one out there to our south. \u00a0 It threw a few sprinkles our way, and now has moved on, so we will too.c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For all of our cheapskate travel, we don’t often spend time in truly free campgrounds. \u00a0 We seem to either be in paying situation or staying off the established campground system, in private driveways, parking lots, and county parks. Free campgrounds are widely available but generally they are also scattered far off into the boondocks. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}