To help us better plan for the long tour we are about to undertake, we decided we needed to try out this idea of “boondocking” and “stealth camping”. We had stealth camped once on our tour down the Pacific Coast, and have read much about both of these forms of overnight stays, but figured we needed to know if we could, indeed, do them in our van. The van, by the way, has a name! We have named it Vincent Van-Go, but sorry, we won’t be painting it with sunflowers (although that would be lovely!) in order to keep our camping stealthy when needed.
So, you are asking, what is the difference between boondocking and stealth camping? To some they may be the same thing, but in my mind, they are two different ways of camping. Boondocking is something borrowed from people who travel in their RVs. Typically, you will find people boondocking in the parking lot of Walmart or a casino, although it can be pretty much anywhere that is free to park overnight. You are not “camping”, but merely stopping overnight. As RVs are kind of hard to hide, it is pretty obvious where people are boondocking, and in places where it is acceptable, you will find large numbers of RVs and small vans like ours gathered together overnight.
Stealth camping, on the other hand, is just that – stealthy. Unlike an RV, our van looks like any other van (hence, the no sunflowers) and when the window covers are in place, you can’t see in to know if there is anyone inside. This allows us to pretty much sleep wherever we can park overnight. Even on a regular street in a neighbourhood! Ok, I know, this sounds really weird. Which is why we needed to give it a try before setting out. We needed to know if we would be comfortable sleeping in either of these two settings.
So, on a recent trip down to Seattle, instead of heading home right away as we normally would do, we took a couple of days with the idea of boondocking for a couple of nights, first at a casino and then at a Walmart.
Taking our time driving up allowed us to stop in Bellingham and do some leisurely shopping before heading to Ferndale and the River Reef Casino. I have several apps to help us know locations where we can park, and using http://ioverlander.com , I was able to see that the River Reef is a popular location for RVers to overnight. We pulled into their parking lot in the afternoon, thinking we would check it out to make sure it was legit and find out if we needed permission. The parking lot behind the casino was already populated by a dozen or so RVs. We stopped by where a couple were sitting on their lawn chairs outside their motorhome to ask if we needed to check in with anyone at the casino. Nope. Apparently you just pick a spot and set up for the night. Cool! The River Reef is set in some lovely countryside outside of Ferndale, so after checking out the parking lot to see that there were plenty of spaces available for the night, we went back into Ferndale to get a few groceries and check out the local Heritage site. I don’t know how many times I have driven past Ferndale over the years, but I have never actually checked it out. It is a very pleasant small town! We found our groceries, had a little lunch on a picnic table by the river and then set out to see the heritage village. It was unfortunate that we came so late in the day as things were being locked up for the night, but we still had a great chat with the docent who was there and were able to have a look around the buildings. Each one had been brought from somewhere in the vicinity and together, they represent a way of living that has long since passed. Just looking at the enormous planks used for the walls of each building was an eye opener. I can’t even imagine putting these giant pieces of wood into place to build a house without the use of modern machinery. People were sure resourceful back in the day!
After our visit, we drove back over to the casino. While there were a few more motorhomes in the parking lot, there was lots of room for our little van. We chose a spot towards the back where we had some green space next to us and set up our table to make dinner. We had noted earlier that many of the other boondockers had put out barbecues and chairs, so we felt it was appropriate for us to take the table out of the van to make dinner. I think that when boondocking in the future, this will be our rule of thumb. If we see that others are spreading out a bit, we will too. However, if we see only motorhomes and no items outside then we will obviously do our cooking and eating elsewhere. There are always parks with picnic facilities where we can set out our stove and make dinner before heading back to where we will sleep.
It was a very pleasant evening, with the sun shining warmly on us. When we sat, facing away from the casino, you might think we were at any campground! We listened to some tunes while enjoying a glass of wine before packing up for the night. The bathroom facilities at the casino were just a short walk away and we made use of them before turning in for the night where we set up our laptop and watched a movie before going to sleep. It was a lovely evening and just so quiet (except for the guy next to us who decided to turn on his generator!).
We had a great sleep and awoke to the sound of rain on our roof – nice to be in the van and not a tent! We dressed and drove over to the casino so we didn’t have to walk through the rain, used the facilities and then headed into town to find a Starbucks since setting up the stove was a no go this morning.
Continuing on, we crossed the border and were in Vancouver early in the afternoon. The original plan had been to boondock again down at the Walmart in Tsawwassen, but this would mean going south through the Massey Tunnel and since we needed to be in Richmond the next day, we would have to head up during rush hour, never a fun plan. Also, it was raining and looked like it would continue to rain for the remainder of this day. So, we changed the plan. We did our shopping in Vancouver and then arranged to meet up with one of the kids for dinner in New Westminster. Since a rainy night meant not being able to be outside at a park, we made plans to go to a movie after dinner. Checking around the neighbourhood around the theatre, we found a quiet street that looked perfect for our first go at stealth camping in the van. When the movie finished (John Wick 3 – pretty violent with action from start to finish) we made sure to use the facilities at the theatre before heading over to park for the night. With the window covers in place we didn’t look any different from the other cars parked there. In fact, I’m pretty sure the other Sprinter Van parked on the street was similarly occupied! Settling down for the night was a bit unnerving I have to say, since we had never done something like this before, but we were soon both asleep and passed the night without any incidents. First van stealth camp accomplished!
In the morning we were able to drive over to the pool nearby to use the washrooms before heading off to accomplish what we had on our schedule for this day. Late in the day we headed to the ferry terminal to catch the ferry back to Vancouver Island. Normally, when travelling in our car, we would head upstairs to sit on the not-so-comfortable chairs inside for the 2 hour ferry trip. However, with our awesome Vincent Van-Go, we now had another option. We put the window covers up in the back, set up the laptop and watched a movie for the entire time! It was the perfect way to travel on the ferry!
After this, we feel ready and are excited to head off on our North American adventure beginning soon. If you haven’t already subscribed, make sure you do so you can get updates about our travels as they happen. Thanks for reading!
