Finding a safe place to sleep

So Ive been moving around alot and sometimes having to find a place to sleep either in a car, a van or a tent. Ive been asked to leave a couple spots and actually spent 5 days in jail for trying to park the van at a park.

Does anyone have any tips on finding good places to camp preferably really cheap or free! I usually have internet access so any tips on searching for places either?

We should be able to start renting some property soon, but for now were on the road so any tips will help!!!!

 

other folks will have more expert advice, but I think that you can camp in a national forest in the us for 2 weeks for free

 

where are you located?

 

sorry i'm not help on the van bit.

sometimes backpacking and/or camping i would strap myself up in trees.

you might want to check out the global freeloaders, if they still have their website up.

 

Right now were in Sebastopol, CA. I was crashing on a friends couch but she got evicted for rescuing stray dogs hahaha.

So far Ive been told that walmart parking lots are usually pretty chill to park the van.
Thanks for the ideas! Id love to go up in a tree, but I usually have a couple friends and dogs to sleep with too haha. Were looking at renting a property right now and the owner said he wouldnt mind if we built anything in the trees!!!

 

shit dude you're in cali? Just come on up to arcata, the redwood forest has tons of ancient tree stumps you can just put a tarp over and comfortably house 3 people easily. Not to mention all the other chill stuff and random little sleep spots. There's very few cops at all and they usually are tending to drunk college kids. They never go in the forest (the forest is over 100 acres) so you could easily hide out and just live there. Plus the rainy season just stopped!

 

wal mart is probably the best way to go if you have a van and you're just looking for somewhere to park it for the night. at most non-primitive camp sites you're going to end up paying like 15 bucks a night to park a van. You can usually find state parks (i don't know about cali though, i'm only familiar with the east coast) or national forests where you can park and hike into a camp site for free or for a small donation.

 

We've lived in a van for the past five years, a good bit of the last four in a Walmart lot. There it ios best to come in around dark and look for the area with the other campers. I would rise early each am and go have coffee in the Mcdonalds inside Walmart and my lady would rise a little later, move the van in closer and join me, and then do a little shoping. We got to know the employs and were never bothered in four years. We found it's best to roll out of there around 9/10 as things got busy and return in the evening.
Another thing you can try is Googling 'boondocking' and their will be sites devoted to this subject. Also many casinos have areas for boondocking or just allow it in their parking lots. you can camp on BLM land for fourteen days or in some areas of National Forest land that don't have developed campgrounds for free for two weeks or so. In Sonoma County we found it difficult and coouch surfed with friends. One thing you might try is going early to the little hip coffee shop on the west end of town in Guernville and meeting folks. Going in early to the local coffee shop to meet folks is a good tactic anywhere. ood luck.

 

boondockers@yahoogroups.com

 

Yeah ive slept in a few good spots, worst one cost me round $150 that was at bells beach, fair enough. Im more in the country so just on the side of the road i can get away with, altho ive been in a few runn ins with locals,

 

Yup Walmart is camper/rv friendly . You can stay at most overnight with no problem . As long as you don't make yourself a nuisance you should have no problem .

There are some Walmarts that don't allow overnight parking/ camping on their lots . They are few in number , and will always have a sign posted saying overnight camper/parking not allowed .

Many boondock on their lots overnight . Most are safe , pick a good neighborhood however .

 

I bet a lot of those are in maryland More specifically the germantown area

 

dreadful, are you going to see JGB this 4/20?

 

lot of info and good people in this yahoo group

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/VanDwellers/

 

Just go to where the trucks stop.. Gas stations that kind of thing, I never had any trouble sleeping in my van at truck stops!

 

^was ur van painted with flowers and rainbows?

 

yeah it was, to let all the truckers no Im open for butt secks