By Rachel Puryear

Bookdocking (parking and camping in a travel vehicle without hookups for power, water, and sewage) is the ultimate way to experience van/RV life – parked somewhere out off the grid in beautiful nature, self-contained, and free to move around on your own terms, and schedule. Truly living the dream!

Sure, campgrounds have many comforts and conveniences to offer, and you’ll want to do that sometimes – but other times, maybe because you want to be off the grid or don’t have a campground available – you’ll want to boondock.

Of course, as great as the boondocking experience is, it does require some preparation in order to get the most possible enjoyment out of it – as well as stay safe, and even out of trouble.

Utilities

Out on the road, you’re going to need some or all of the same kinds of utilities that you need (and largely take for granted) at home – electrical power, gas/propane power, and clean water. However, while these can be connected to public utilities at home, if you’re camping without hookups, then you’ll need to supply them yourself.

For power, your options without hookups include battery power, generators, and propane for many stoves and fridges (though these do have electric options so you don’t need propane).

Generators run off of your fuel line. They are powerful and handy, and often necessary to power things like heaters and AC’s and microwaves – but can also be noisy and they use fuel (some have a feature where they shut off automatically if your fuel level is low). You may need to run them with the windows open due to fumes, and to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning. Some sites prohibit them at night due to the noise. Accordingly, these are best reserved as a backup option for battery power.

Having a “house battery” (or installing one if you don’t already have one) can be a great option for power while boondocking, too. Extra heavy duty RV and deep cycle marine batteries can connect to an inverter, and power most of your electronic needs (it may or may not enough for a microwave, AC, heater, or other heavy usage item). However, this can power your electronic gadgets, likely an electric fridge, electric cookers, lights (LED lights are great for conserving power) and so forth. These batteries can be recharged by running the engine, plugging into power hookups, running a generator, or through cheap and environmentally friendly solar power (so long as there’s enough sunny weather most days).

Note: For lights inside your vehicle, using energy-friendly LED lights can help minimize the drain on your battery, and help you use less power.

For powering small items, like chargers and CPAP machines, a jackery is a great option for a portable battery source. These can easily be recharged again while you’re driving or perhaps while at a Visitor’s Center or cafe. And it’s quiet at night.

If you’ll be in a place where WiFi and cell service will be limited (which is the case in many areas where you’ll want to boondock), it’s a great idea to download online maps of the area ahead of time, as well as bring paper maps (the old school way) along with you.

Weather and Wildlife Readiness

In camping and traveling, you will need to be prepared to deal with changing and perhaps unpredictable weather, as you won’t have the kind of central AC and heating systems you have at home.

Of course, some climates and seasons will be more favorable than others to a pleasant camping experience. Not so cold that it will be freezing, and not so hot that you’ll sweat all night. This is a consideration to make before traveling.

The most comfortable temperatures for most people for boondocking, which minimize the need for power cooling and heating, are between about 40°F (4°C) and 80°F (27°C), taking daytime highs and nighttime lows into consideration.

However, weather at times can be unpredictable, so it’s ideal to be prepared for that. Of course, that means balancing bringing enough gear with having limited space, so it’s a matter of likelihood – for instance, you probably won’t need snow gear for a summer in the tropics, but having rain gear would be prudent. Likewise, if you’re high in the mountains in Fall, you probably won’t need air conditioning – but some extra blankets for nighttime are a wise idea.

Regarding wildlife, seeing animal and plant (and more) life in their majestic glory in nature is a big part of what we travel for! However, visiting their natural habitats can pose some concerns for you and for them, so a little awareness can go a long way.

Safety

This isn’t meant to alarm you – a great many people travel all the time, and they are overwhelmingly safe and secure on their trips. However, things can happen out there, and so awareness is important.

You may be far from civilization, and even from other people while boondocking. While this is largely the point, it also means you’re further away from getting help quickly in the event that you need it.

Accordingly, it is important to take extra good care of your health and be cautious to avoid injuries, in order to minimize the need for such interventions as much as possible. If you have special medical needs or risks, you probably already know that you’ll need to exercise that much more planning and care.

It’s a great idea to keep in touch regularly with someone back at home while you’re traveling, or someone who would notice and act on your behalf if you suddenly stopped communicating. Let this person know where you’ll be, when to possibly expect further communications, and what to do if they don’t hear from you as planned. Be sure, however, to keep this private and not publish your location publicly in real time – as it only takes one unsavory person to exploit that information and compromise your safety.

If other people are nearby, try and be friendly and build a rapport with nearby neighbors – they can be your allies in the event you need help, and of course reciprocate efforts at being a good neighbor, too. However, in the event other people around seem hostile or even suspicious (though this should not usually be the case), use your instincts and consider whether it’s worth it to stick around long.

With regards to wildlife, please help keep you and them safe by not feeding wildlife! This disrupts their natural diet and causes health problems, and encourages them to beg humans for more food – also increasing the chances of them becoming aggressive with humans, which can lead to them being euthanized.

And of course, although hopefully it goes without saying, do not tease or get too close to wildlife, especially baby and young animals – this can also provoke animal attacks, causing injuries to you and them. If mother/father animals feel their offspring are threatened, they will also likely attack, and their offspring are also fragile.

Possible Places to Stay

Boondocking gives a great sense of freedom, but for your sake and that of others, it’s also important to be thoughtful about where you park. After all, you don’t want law enforcement, or an angry landowner, knocking on your windows in the middle of the night.

Therefore, a balance between spontaneity and planning in boondocking is important.

There are plenty of places to boondock for free. For instance, on most public lands, you can park for up to a total of two weeks for free. Note that this is not the case in most national parks, although most of them have reserved camping areas.

Generally, you can park overnight in designated rest areas – see more about this option here.

You can park in neighborhoods so long as you’re not violating local parking rules – be sure to check street signage. But even if you do this, please be considerate of residents – choose spots not in front of houses, don’t stay for more than one night, and please keep noise and night lighting to a minimum.

Please make sure you’re not parking on private property without the consent of the owner. Not only is this common courtesy, but you don’t want to wake up to a tow truck hooking up your vehicle in the middle of the night, plus a police officer citing you.

Many areas have paid boondocking spaces available, and these are usually inexpensive, typically not more than $20 a night. Typically, boondocking spaces are first come, first served – so it helps to plan ahead and arrive earlier rather than later.

Other Essentials

There are some miscellaneous items you might need for your boondocking adventure, too.

Don’t forget everything your vehicle needs or might need in order to keep it in great working order, too – spare gas, fluids, owner’s manual, spare tires, tools, and so forth.

Also, just in case, make sure you have a roadside assistance service in advance that’s specific to vans/RV’s/camping vehicles (your program for your regular car probably won’t cut it) – see here for great services that will be able to help you.

It helps to create your own master checklist of items you need when you travel, that is personalized to you – and that can help you always remember everything you need when you hit the road, without having to figure it all out at the last minute each time.

Getting Rid of Waste

So far we’ve gone over a lot about packing it in – now, this section is about packing it out.

Leave no trace, and help visit sustainably by ensuring that your trash and sewage is disposed of correctly.

If you have a black tank (for sewage waste), you’ll want to make sure that’s empty before you get far away from places with dump stations, and plan for the next time you’ll empty these. Please keep nature beautiful and dump responsibly! If you’re using a dry flush toilet, however, you don’t need to worry about dump stations – just bringing enough refill cartridges, and dumping them in trash cans when you find them.

Same planning goes for a gray water tank (from sinks, and the shower if you have one).

You’ll need some space in your vehicle for regular, trash, too – and be sure to use public trash cans along the way as you find them, to avoid trash piling up.

As you get more experience with boondocking, you’ll likely get more conscientious about making your purchases – preferring items with less packaging, rather than more, in order to generate less waste. That’s a good habit for the planet, anyway.

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Thank you, dear readers, for reading, following, and sharing. Here’s to being ready and boondocking well. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” and subscribe, if you have not already.

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