On Saturday, September 6, 2014 9:51:22 AM UTC-7, wrote:
I like to drive my camper van to an area where I want to do some road rides and stay there for several days. Hotels and motels are definitely out of my price range for this kind of discretionary activity.

If you don't know anybody in the area who will let you park in front of their house, I guess you are supposed to go to an RV park. However, those aren't exactly cheap, either.

If you park alongside a road or street overnight, chances are really good that you will be rousted by the local constables at 3:00 A.M. and be told to move on.

I have found no cities that have free temporary parking for RVs. (This is understandable because if they did permit it, they'd probably have a huge influx of homeless people)

Parking in a Walmart lot is possible in some cases, but I've never found a Walmart that permitted RV overnight parking anywhere near where I wanted to ride.

Would any of you camper van people have suggestions of other places where one could park for free?

Thanks!

retroguy

In California most state parks and many county parks and I think all Federal parks charge fees for camping. These are only designed to pay for the maintenance of the camping area and so are very reasonable. Many of them even have pump-out stations. There are usually time limits for staying since they do not want people living there but they are usually gotten around by people that move from park to park in the same area. The rangers usually run from very friendly and helpful to real AH's.