bus size for parks help

[wencington]

Hi all-

I'm ready to buy and just comparing a few busses. I was really trying to stay at 27' or below because that seems like average limit for national parks. Looking for those already on the road on how important this is? I'm looking at a bus i really like but it's 30'. If you can't stay in the park do most have facilities right outside that are just as good or is staying in a park that much better? Do you all stay most of the time outside on BLM land where it doesn't really matter anyways...?

 

[o1marc]

There may be centralized facilities in the parks, not outside. For BLM, all my facilities are in the bus, which prevents me from the parks that don't allow 37". I want to camp where no one else is.

 

[wencington]

Yeah i’d like to both. Traveling with my little boy and definitely want to visit as many national parks as possible… but not sure if normally you can stay close and not a big deal to actually stay in the park…

 

[o1marc]

Do the parks not allow RV's over 27' to enter, or just camp?

 

[wencington]

that's kind of what i'm asking in a way. is it that important to enjoy the park to actually stay in park? i'm sure it depends on park but in general...

 

[Drew Bru]

Depending on which park you're talking about, there could be a lot of free National Forest or BLM boondocking in the area. Could also be a lot of Forest Service campgrounds. That's what we found to be the case out west, where we rarely paid to camp. We've got 36' bus and there was no way we'd find a spot at Yellowstone (we asked). Reservations were booked a year out, and the bigger the rig the harder to find spaces. The first-come-first-serve spots were few and far between and none could fit us. We boondocked about 45 min away on NF land, also stayed in a Forest Service campground where there were lots of empty spots. Those are more suited to our style than National Park campgrounds anyway.
I think if you stay at or under 30' you'll have pretty good options. Most National Forest campgrounds will have spots for a rig that size and National Parks might too, depending on how crowded they get.

 

[wencington]

thanks so much for the reply! that's exactly the kind of observations i was looking for!

 

[A_Bus_Called_Quest]

I think only 2 parks restrict buses over 30', Redwood Nat Park and Ziion or Yellowstone... I can't remember exactly but I think it the rest allow rigs over 30'
Even without a bus, we almost never camp in the national parks, way too many people.
As others mentioned, it is probably harder to find a spot in a park that accepts RVs because they are always booked out.
National Forest and BLM has always been the best camping IMO

 

[Disastrogirl]

Some parks have spaces that will only fit rvs under 26’ or even 19’. Some park roads can’t accommodate a 40’ vehicle. Being shorter will give you more possibilities.

 

[HamSkoolie]

And the National parks are upgrading their camp grounds to accommodate longer rigs that really didn't exist back when they were originally designed and built. Word is they're planning 40' spaces.....they just didn't make rigs that big and now "bigger is better" to most people......gotta have room for that big screen TV, microwave, Queen or King bed, full bath, and all the other stuff from home in order to enjoy "camping" any more.

 

[LandSharkRN]

Hello everyone! On this topic of size and access. Is there a formal list somewhere that lists the size constraints of given parks versus just looking at each individual park?

Do you know if there exists such lists for State Parks as well.

 

[TheHubbardBus]

@LandSharkRN,

This is the pdf export of an excel sheet I created as a tool for choosing buses before we chose ours.

The 'data' these calcs were extrapolated from this website if memory serves (I thought it was a different site, but those figures jive. So maybe that a plagarism, or the original, or more likely, I just don't remember). I can't speak to the accuracy, so don't hold me to it. Also a few other generalities in this spreadsheet that I was using for planning. Hope this helps.

 

[Wonderlust Inspired]

@LandSharkRN,

This is the pdf export of an excel sheet I created as a tool for choosing buses before we chose ours.

The 'data' these calcs were extrapolated from this website if memory serves (I thought it was a different site, but those figures jive. So maybe that a plagarism, or the original, or more likely, I just don't remember). I can't speak to the accuracy, so don't hold me to it. Also a few other generalities in this spreadsheet that I was using for planning. Hope this helps.

I thank you for the PDF it seems like it is such a crap shoot at figuring out lengths and noone talks about the inside length. To have it all combined on 1 list is so helpful. Thank you so much!!!