Anyone actually LIVE at a campground?

[5 Right Turns]

I did my first night in a minivan, it was fun, but tight. Anyone live at a campground year round or seasonal in the north then south for the winter?

 

[crofter]

Doing the Camp Host job you live in a campground for the season. My campground was remote no cell service, no electric service, but had hand pump water and vault toilets. In my campground I allowed campers to dump their black buckets in the vaults, which is not currently allowed in Quartzite BLM.   

Very nice experience to wake up in a beautiful old growth forest every day.
-crofter

 

[rvwandering]

Welcome to the CRVL forums 5 Right Turns! Camp hosting is a very good way to save money on a campsite and get paid at the same time. The more remote national forest campgrounds may be better for new hosts because not as many people apply.

To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips, Tricks and Rules" post lists some helpful information to get you started.

Most of our rules boil down to two simple over-riding principles: 1) What you post should provide good information (like your introductory post), and 2) Any response to someone else's post should make them feel glad they are part of this forum community.

We look forward to hearing more from you.

 

[maki2]

"Living" in a campground. Many of them have time limits on how long you can stay so that limits the ability to set up home and live somewhere long term. The longer stays would be if you are staying on private land that you either own or rent. For the longer stay LTVA BLM land you are basically paying a small amount of rent to stay for a season.

Then there are the live/work situations where people are volunteering time, trading for staying there, it is part of the setup such as being a caretaker for the land or animals or even a structure.

Of course there are situations where you are camping long term on family land or you have a friend who just likes to have you hanging around at their place.

 

[blars]

Summer jobs are much easier to find. Winter you may need to take an unpaid volunteer position until you have experience. (or just camp on blm land, moving every couple of weeks.)

 

[5 Right Turns]

So maybe I wasn’t clear. I would like to pay a seasonal rate for say, May - October in the north then move to the south October - May. I guess maybe that could be as a host as well, but I’m thinking by the time I actually do this, I’ll have enough passive income to pay for it. I just want to sit at a campfire and work on my laptop every day.

 

[B and C]

Welcome. You are more describing a RV park than a campground I think. Those generally have monthly rates.

 

[trailer-t]

Some of the RV parks I have contacted for information don't permit anything other than traditional RVs.---meaning no
converted cargo trailers admitted in the park in my example. T

 

[rvwandering]

Try KOA https://koa.com/

 Campground chains that cater to families usually allow tents. I put in the dates for a season of summer camping with a car in a tent site. The site allowed 27 days at a time but had a number to call for longer stays.

 

[ckelly78z]

Nearly all of the campgrounds around where I live are mostly seasonal rentals. This is the reason I like going to State Parks, and staying throughout the week....nearly desolate, and very quiet.

 

[blars]

Most government owned campgrounds have time limits, frequently two weeks. Only hosts are allowed longer.

The BLM has LTVAs, both the winter type that are open "camp anywhere" (if self contained) land and summer campground type. Search for that for info.

Commercial campgrounds are more likely to have rules about what you can camp in, more enforced on long-term campers than short term ones.

 

[highest_vision]

I lived at a Forest Service campground for months, but as everyone else mentioned was necessary, I was working for the Forest Service. I think that campground had a 14 day limit like usual. It was pretty nice though; it had hot showers and flush toilets! I was in my previous pickup with shell.

 

[WanderingRose]

I have met some people who volunteer for the Forest Service and travel from campground to campground every few months, seasonally doing whatever they are assigned to do.

I suspect you might find private campgrounds expensive to stay at long term, and they are also likely to not allow van living.

If you head to an area that has a number of federal campgrounds, you will be more likely to find what you want and no prohibitions about being in a van.

You will have to move from one campground to the next, according to the rules, but many do this.

 

[Day Dreamer]

We had a waterfront seasonal site at a campground / RV Park (it's both) for 10 years about 30 minutes from us as our weekend retreat. Some of our neighbors there kept 2 travel trailers, one here in PA and one in FL. They would go to FL for the winter when the campground closed up here. Some of them eventually ended up just staying in FL year round. This campground also provided camper storage for the winter for about $100 and they towed it to and from our site. The rates are now about $2,000 per season (April through October) where we were.

 

[maki2]

keywords for a search "extended stay" add the desired geographic location to the keyword string. You can also add in things such as campfire or other amenities you need such as showers, toilet, potable water, trash, pump-outs. The shorter the keyword string the more hits. The longer the string the more specific. But there is a balance as not everyone uses the exact keywords you might choose so switch it up by changing extended stay over to long term or season long or seasonal.

 

[VanFan]

keywords for a search "extended stay"

Also try "weekly rate" or "monthly rate".  Some state park systems do offer weekly rates.

 

[1shemp]

Back when we were full timing we stayed at several campgrounds for months at a time,due to work.Last summer we stayed from May 1st thru Sept. at a campground in Wi.$1100 plus electric for the summer.I'd rather have hookups than be boondocking.

 

[Vonbrown]

I found this year at the 2020 RTR a campground in Quartzsite with full hookups and free electricity, yeah, I said free electricity.
It's the B10 campground on W. Main across from Solar Bills. For $340 a month in the month of January
(you know, the Big Tent and RTR) you get water and sewer hookups and electricity for free!
I know, not everyone sees it this way, I'm ok with that, live and let live is my belief, but for all the budget savings we folks whom live on the road know we must be aware of, our financial constraints and any helping hand is appreciated.

 

[trailer-t]

Thanks Vonbrown, For $10.96 a day (including all utilities) what is not to like! Do they only allow titled RVs in the campground? (or also permit Cargo trailer conversions & van conversions etc?). I checked into some places down on the gulf that looked good monthly (including also wifi) until they said-- Only "real" RVs can park here. No FEMA Trailers with window AC ?? or homemade units........etc.
Thanks T

 

[outermostsoul]

Sawtooth Lodge in beautiful Grandjean Idaho has RV sites with water and limited electricity for seasonal renters. There is a FS campground just down the road. I was the host there for part of 2005. At the lodge campground, you are a bit tight but your season rent includes daily use of their sparkling hot spring fed pool. New owners since I was there so I imagine they have raised the fee from the 500 it was for all summer in 2005.