Car camping is renowned as one of the best ways to experience a true sense of freedom and adventure. Costs are low and opportunities for exploration are endless.
When you first get started, the first question is usually, “where do I park/sleep for the night?”
In this article we’ll walk you through the options for sleeping on the road + provide helpful information & apps so you can map out an epic car camping trip.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s sum up car camping sites into two categories:
Stealth & Dispersed.
1 - Dispersed
If you are looking to escape from the hustle and bustle - dispersed campsites and their locations should be at the top of your list.
This type of car camping takes advantage of camping on public accessible land and is completely legal.
BLM land (Bureau of Land Management) and National Foresters are your best friends.
They are riddled with dispersed campsites, epic vistas, and take you away from private land that you aren’t allowed to camp on.
Sounds good, but how the heck do I find them?!
Glad you asked!
On X Offroad and Trails Offroad are two of our favorite apps for finding dispersed car camping sites.
Both have difficulty ratings on trails as well as helpful updates from users and admins about potential obstacles. Use these ratings and obstacles to determine if your vehicle is suitable for making it to your desired campsite.
Take your time when researching potential trails and camping spots. We recommend finding a general area where you want to camp/visit, then search for adjacent trails.
Example - if Moab is on your bucket list for car camping - go to the map view, zoom in on Moab and look for nearby trails. Do these trails mention dispersed camping? Does the app/users mention private land that you can’t camp on? Are the obstacles something your vehicle can clear?
You can often see user posted images of campsites with epic vistas and bookmark those trails/spots.
2 - Stealth
When traveling between sites on a long road trip or visiting specific towns/cities - you’ll likely find yourself needing to do a bit of stealth camping.
Stealth car camping is another way of saying “sleeping in your car within urban areas”
This type of car camping is where you’ll hear stories about the dread “knock” in the middle of the night.
The “knock” being security or law enforcement letting you know that you can’t sleep in your vehicle where it is currently parked.
The trick to successful stealth car camping is to be stealthful!
Doing research on potential sleeping sites beforehand is extremely important. We highly recommend you download and use iOverlander.
It’s an app with user generated information that locates camping spots in urban areas.
Most spots have information shared from people who’ve already camped there including:
- Road noise
- Interruptions
- Internet Service
- General facts about the site
Once you arrive at the campsite, it’s important not to stand out. You want your vehicle to look like every other car in the lot.
Do not - cook, shower, drink a beer on your tailgate, play music, hang clothes out to dry, etc.
Ideally you want to get to the site in the dark/dusk, climb into the back of your vehicle from the front seat, put up your window covers, and refrain from leaving the vehicle for the rest of the night.
Once the sun comes up, you are good to go. If you only planned to sleep there one night, feel free to disengage stealth mode!
Make your coffee, cook your pancakes, be respectful, and if someone tells you to leave - no problem - you were about to leave anyway :)
Last, but not least!
The most important thing when it comes to sleeping in your car, is planning ahead.
Download the apps mentioned and take some time mapping out your car camping adventure. You can even download maps/spots to your phone to help if you lose signal.
Have a plan B for car camping sites so there’s no stress if you get to your site and it’s already taken.
No matter what happens, make sure to enjoy the ride! Some of the greatest stories come from inconveniences, so don’t fret if things go a bit sideways :)
If you are looking for more tips/tricks to car camping, check out the rest of the articles in our car camping guide!
Need a sleeping/storage system to make dispersed or stealth car camping more convenient/comfortable?
Check out the Hele Box! It’s lightweight, multi-use, and fits in most SUVs/Trucks.
Now get out there!!