An RVer’s Guide to U.S National Parks

National Park visits make it to every adventurer’s bucket list, and with good reason. For RVers like us, they’re the ideal spot to park your rig and take in all that nature has to offer. In 1872, Congress established Yellowstone (pictured), the country’s first national park. Since then, we’ve built more national parks and monuments to explore.

The national park system has about 467 sites. Nearly 154 of those have camping sites, and only 63 have RV sites. That’s a lot of numbers, I know. But that’s why we’ve created this guide for you. If you’re considering a tour across our national parks, we've got all the RV secrets you need to know, whether you're a full-time RVer or a weekend warrior.

Beware of RV size restrictions

Most national parks have designated areas for RVs. They have large parking lots and places where you can turn around. However, some of them have size restrictions, especially if your RV is over 30 feet long. So, you need to check before traveling.

There's a misconception that you can't camp with your RV at a national park unless your rig is under 25 feet long, and there's a bit of truth to that. Most accommodations are for smaller rigs, but over half of the national parks with RV camping can accommodate rigs up to 40 feet long.

When they say size, they mean the overall RV length and height. If you have a class A motorhome and you're towing something behind it, you need the total length of the entire thing.

You also want to measure the height of your rig, especially in international parks, because some bridges have height restrictions. To check if your RV is the right size, and reserve an RV site, visit the Recreation.gov website. It's a great site! You’ll also get information about wi-fi and other things there.

Big Meadows Campground in Shenandoah national park, Virginia, has the biggest RV sites in the National Park System (NPS). They have sites that accommodate rigs up to a hundred feet in length.

Get solar panels for longer stays

Out of the 63 national parks with RV camping, only 36 have electrical hookups. Most national parks don't have any hookups at all. These are usually good if you're dry camping. So, check in advance and make sure that your rig is capable of being self-contained. We got solar panels so we could boondock for longer, amongst other reasons.

With these solar panels, we’ve done four days at a time with no electrical hookups.

Many parks have no hookups for RVs because they’re meant to preserve nature, and electric hookups could mess with that. The purpose of the NPS is to preserve a lot of the original beauty of this country.

Use the National Park Services app

We absolutely love the NPS app! It's a great app, even for a government entity. When you visit the recreation.gov website, there’s a grid where you can see available days, and it’s so helpful because these parks fill up fast! It's a great tool to use, and I always use it when I'm searching. National parks are often in very remote areas and sometimes have a nonexistent internet connection. Cell service is minimal too, but on recreation.gov and the NPS app, you can check if the cell service is good where you’re going.

The NPS website shows a generic cell service status, but an app like The Dyrt (pictured left) will show you exactly how good the cell service is there. You can see the cell signal for different service providers.

The Dyrt uses data that's collected from its users for input, so it's more accurate. This is especially crucial if you're working on the road.

Give dispersed camping a try!

When all our kids were at home, we camped a lot with them. We would go to the Sequoias as our favorite family tradition. We would go through the national park, but they would tell us that we could camp for free in the national forest. And that's what we always did. This is called dispersed camping.

In the national forest and BLM land, you can camp for free in a ton of areas. A lot of times, they’re immediately adjacent to the national parks. You can use The Dyrt to find those areas.

You can use The Dyrt app to search for specific sites. If you select the BLM and USFS options, you’ll find a ton of areas where you can camp for free.

Sometimes national parks have overflow parking, and that might be an extra fee. However, every national park has other options just outside the park or even miles away. You have commercial campgrounds, state parks, and county parks. You can stay at another park outside and take shuttles to the national park. Sometimes, these other RV parks are just outside the national park itself. Our favorite option is Harvest Hosts. Their locations offer free overnight stays for RVers.

Always book well in advance

I know this is an obvious one, but national parks can be fully booked for MONTHS. I recently tried making a reservation, and there was nothing available. There are no free spots for months and months to come. What I’m saying is that these things book up well in advance, especially if you're trying to go to Yosemite. Popular parks are booked up months in advance, so you need to book your dates quickly.

Since the cancellation fee is so minimal, many people block out an entire two weeks if they’re not sure of their camping dates. Consider doing that too if you’re not sure of the exact dates of your trip, and then cancel the days that you're not using later.

Some national parks allow you to book on a first-come, first-served basis. When you go to the recreation.gov website, look for an ‘FF’ sign. It means first-come, first-served. So, look for those if you want to try getting into a park last minute.

Can’t find your date? Look out for last-minute cancellations

Since some people don’t use all their booked days, there are often last-minute cancellations. There's a killer app for finding when those are. I mean, you can go on the website and look for openings every five minutes, but there are more efficient ways. You can use an app like Campnab to alert you when the site bookings open up.

Campnab is a fantastic app because it will let you get in at the last minute. Remember, it doesn't book the RV site for you; it's only an alert system. It alerts you when there are openings so you can reserve your site. It's way easier than trying to check every day.

Plan your tours in advance

This is an ironic one for us because the most we've ever planned was for ten days. That was it! We like to go with the flow, honestly. For us to get to Yellowstone, we must plan well, and that’s why we haven't been there yet. I know we mentioned getting a reservation in advance, but you also need to plan your tours and other park activities because sometimes those fill up as well.

When you get to a national park or an RV site, take your time. There's always so much to explore. Usually, you're close to national forests or hiking trails. We always ask somebody for recommendations. We almost always talk to the ranger or a park host. Those guys are great resources, so take your time and find out other places to go.

Alternative money savers for long-term campers

The entrance fee of most national parks is approximately $30 to $35, which is not bad. But there's better if you are going to be a full-time RVer, or if you're going to travel several times throughout the year. The America the Beautiful pass is worth the investment. It costs $80, and it lasts a year. You can buy it from a park or order online. If you order online, they'll mail it to you for $10.

An America the Beautiful pass will get you into approximately 2 000 federal sites across the country, including the 400+ national park sites.

There are other passes with varying degrees of discounts; some are even free. You can get a military pass, an all-access pass, a volunteer pass, a fourth-grade pass, or a senior pass. So, if you fall into one of those categories, it's worth looking into.

Consider going in the offseason

There are popular times for going to national parks, monuments, and sites. Go in the offseason if you can, and you'll have a better chance of booking your site. There’ll be fewer people around, so it's going to be a more enjoyable experience. You can also go during the non-peak times of the day, like early morning or late evening.

There’s one thing to note with going offseason. Some parks shut down because of seasonal weather. So, if you're trying to book and you can’t find a reservation around the winter months, maybe they're closed.

We’ve traveled offseason many times. We've gotten caught in some crazy weather, but as a result, we've been the only ones exploring sometimes. We were in the Grand Isle, a barrier island in Louisiana. There were four other people there and no one else on the beach. It was one of our favorite places.

As you head into your national park adventures, we hope you tick off all the items on your bucket list. You can share stories of your adventures with us in the comments section of our YouTube video below:

We can't wait to share more of our adventures with you!