Finding Free and Budget Friendly Camping Along the Road: A Summary of our First Three Weeks

We have (nearly) completed our shakedown trip, staying in a variety of campgrounds, parks and stealthy spots. We paid for camp sites a little less than half the time and tried out more than a few free, stealth options, making our first outing in the van relatively budget friendly.

Rather than a six week cross-country adventure, we ended up doing a three week Great Lakes loop due to unforeseen family health events, but we enjoyed our tour of the mid-west and north woods and these three weeks have taught us A LOT. 

Here’s a rundown of the kinds of campsites we used in the mid-west and Great Lakes.

State and Provincial Parks

We stayed in two state/provincial parks, Honey Creek State Park, IA and Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, ON, for a total of 4 days. These stops tend to be well kept, manicured even(!) with showers and flush toilets. They tend to be large, many with more than 100 campsites and several loops. They are more RV oriented, with close neighbors, paved walkways, electric hook ups, etc. And they don’t come cheap. In our experience, costs for these parks range from $18-$43 per night. These were the least budget friendly options, but they were readily available.

This type of camping isn’t our scene. But we discovered that if we asked for a “tent site”, the fee was a little less AND we had the tenting area more or less to ourselves. We set up our screen tent and hammock among the trees on the site and slept in the van. And we absolutely appreciated those flush toilets and showers!

County and Town Parks

One pleasant surprise was the variety of municipal options in the mid-west. Many towns offer camping in small, local parks and recreation areas. Often, these campgrounds are more budget friendly and quieter. We stayed in four of them during our shakedown trip.

Generally, these parks are a little less groomed, a little more focused on providing local recreation opportunities like swimming, fishing and picnicking. But they were great options for us, especially when there were no other sites nearby. 

These spots vary a great deal but they tend to be a bit cheaper than state parks (our stays averaged $25 per night), with less amenities. Some did have closely packed RVs and trailers, but we found that there were “overflow” or tent options away from the group, and these fit well with our van dwelling ways. We stayed in four of these local parks along our way: Wolden Recreation Area, IA, Sylvan City Park in Lanesboro, MN, Thompson’s West End Park, Washburn, WI, and Point Detour, Red Cliff WI. 

One of the benefits of this type of site is that you can often explore on foot. We walked into Lanesboro to check out a local microbrewery, watched eagles along the waterfront in Washburn, WI, took in a sunset over the cornfields and lush small lakes of Wolden, Iowa, and found an awesome local swimming and sunset spot in Red Cliff, WI. 

State and National Forests

As hikers and tent campers, this is the type of camping we have the most experience with. National and State Forest campgrounds tend to be quiet and cheap (or even free) with very few amenities. Expect pit toilets and privacy.

While dispersed (wild) camping is available in National and (most) state forests, we stayed in campgrounds in the mid-west as the forests were dense and buggy, and we enjoyed having picnic tables and the cleared space for our screen tent. These sites ranged from free to $15. 

We stayed in five of these campsites for a total of nine days: Morgan Hill State Forest, NY, Sand Ridge State Forest, IL, Vinegar Ridge Recreation Area in the Richard J. Dorer State Forest, MN, Beaver Lake Campground in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, WI, and the Poplar River Campground in the Superior National Forest, MN 

Stealth and Sort-of Stealth

This kind of camping is brand new to us: Pull up at sundown, cover the windows and sleep until sun-up. The word “stealth” isn’t very accurate for us, as our big ol’ van with a ladder and big ol’ deck on top is not stealthy by any stretch. Also, we imagine it is a bit more “vaguely menacing” than a Sprinter, Ram or Transit Van.

Many people have written about the “how to” of stealth camping, not as many have mentioned what we found to be true for us: it tends to be a bit stressful, especially at first. For an excellent article on how to stealth camp, check out THIS POST at Autogenic Amusements.

We out and out stealth-camped twice on our shakedown trip, both times because we were unable to find any cheap or reasonably cheap options. Before staying, we walked the areas we intended to stay, making sure there were no “no overnight parking/camping” signs. We covered our windows with reflectix and we stayed inside the van.

In both cases, we were treated to wonderful sunsets and sunrises and public bathrooms. No one bothered us at all. I imagine that we will get more used to being stealthy as we go. Dan, being a polite and rule-following Canadian, had an especially hard time sleeping where it was not expressly allowed. My thoughts ran more towards “better to beg forgiveness than ask permission”.  But even so, I felt a little anxious bedding down in the van these nights.

Roadside Rest Areas

North of Lake Superior, we stayed at a few free rest areas alongside the road. These were well known and reviewed on ioverlander, campendium and other sites. They were not secluded or secret. There were other vans and campers present but also a lot of space, a gorgeous beach view and (in one case) pit toilets and picnic tables. 

I don’t know if we’d be up for staying in a more typical highway rest area (unless we really needed to) but these spots were small and beautiful and free.

Other Free Spots

Lastly, we “mooch-docked” with family in Michigan for several days and, after being granted permission, we also stayed overnight on land owned by the amethyst mine we visited in the Thunder Bay area (Ontario). 

A Few Camping Takeaways

All in all, we found that in our new “Van life” a little planning, flexibility and calm were key to finding a good spot to bed down for the night. When places were full, or not what we had hoped, we learned to take a deep breath and rethink our plans. 

Here are a few suggestions based on our “shakedown” experiences:

1. Start early: plan to arrive with enough daylight to get the lay of the land, especially if traveling to an unfamiliar place.
2. Check for “No parking”, No Overnight parking” and “No camping “ signs. If there aren’t any, the spot is probably alright. Worse comes to worse, someone will ask you to move.
3. Stop at visitor centers and ranger stations, ask about your options, especially in less visited state and national forests. These people know their stuff.
4.  If you end up staying in an expensive and/or crowded state park, use the tent camping or overflow spots– these tend to be less crowded and cheaper.