National Park RV Camping – The Top 6 Things You Need to Know!
Planning to RV camp in a National Park? Here are the top six things you need to know before you go!
Boondocking: Most National Park campgrounds don’t offer hookups. With RVs not built for off-grid camping, you could damage your battery or struggle to power appliances. The Bowlus is designed for boondocking, with large battery banks and power management systems that allow you to enjoy off-grid camping without the need for hookups.
Generator Use: Many parks have limited generator hours, often during the middle of the day. Instead of relying on a noisy generator, the Bowlus’ advanced power system lets you camp quietly for over a week on one charge, so you can focus on exploring.
Size Matters: National Park campgrounds often can’t accommodate RVs over 27’. With a larger RV, you may be forced to camp outside the park, away from the action. The Bowlus’ compact size gives you more campsite options, offering flexibility for easier reservations and more exploration.
Getting into Campsites: Larger RVs can be difficult to maneuver into tight National Park campsites due to natural obstacles like trees and rocks. The Bowlus, with its high ground clearance and ability to be moved by hand, makes campsite setup a breeze, giving you more options and flexibility.
Getting into the Park: National Park roads are often narrow, steep, and have low-hanging branches or tight turns that are unsuitable for larger RVs or Sprinter vans. With the Bowlus, you’ll never have to worry about these restrictions, allowing for easier access and greater freedom to explore.
Weather Conditions: National Parks can experience harsh weather, especially at higher elevations or in deserts where temperatures drop overnight. Unlike most RVs, the Bowlus is built for all seasons, including winter, keeping you warm and worry-free even in freezing conditions.
Watch this video to learn how the Bowlus is perfect for your National Park adventures!
Join Geneva Long, CEO of Bowlus, as she explains the top 6 things you need to know about RV camping in National Parks and how you can select the RV that’s best for you!
Video Transcript
Hi! I’m Geneva Long, CEO of Bowlus and today we’re going to talk all about RV camping in national parks and the top six things that you need to know! So let’s kick this off with boondocking. Now most national campgrounds do not have hookups. What does hookups mean? That means shore power right here, and adventuring with RVs that are not built for boondocking means that you could end up either damaging your battery or not able to work even small 12V appliances due to your batteries limitation. And that’s why we designed the Bowlus to be off-grid with large battery banks and sophisticated power management systems with the ability to run necessary appliances like microwaves, air conditioners and all outlets off-grid means that you can stay in the best spots because you don’t require those hookups to be able to enjoy yourself and be comfortable inside your RV.
Now you might hear people say who cares about shore power, just use a generator and you know well that can be the case, you shouldn’t rely on generator power especially inside national parks. The big reason is that because national parks offer generator hours and even those hours they offer are really limited and usually about less than four hours per day and the hours are always at the most inconvenient time – think like 10 to noon and 3 to for 5 and of course those are the times that you’d rather be out exploring and doing something rather than just sitting next your RV running the generator. It’s also like you visit the national parks to experience it and not to hear that constant hum of your generator so at Bowlus we’re really into you know that ability to have quiet performance meaning that your generator is not on and that’s not part of the experience for you. In the Endless Highways, depending on your battery configuration you can have up to 17 Kwh of battery and AeroSolar on the roof as well. and AeroSolar both on the Rivet and the Endless Highways means that you can be off-grid indefinitely, so that means the solar that you’re able to generate, of course on a sunny day, is able to make up for the consumption that you would use with regular daily use and regular daily use we consider the fridge, the lights, charging devices, really anything except for those larger appliances like air conditioning Etc. Air conditioning can still run off the batteries and in the Endless Highways you can get up to 32 hours of air conditioning off the batteries as well but that’s sort of a separate consideration depending on the way that you’re camping.
Now the next important thing to consider is that size matters. So most national park campgrounds cannot accommodate RVs over 27 ft and that’s a huge reason why you see the Bowlus at 27 ft. With larger RVs you can still get close to the park but you’re going to end up staying outside of the park and being far away from the fun. Even if you do find some campgrounds inside the park that can accommodate those larger RVs they’re not as abundant which going to mean that you’ll have a harder time making that reservation and getting that spot because they’re just simply in higher demand because they’re fewer of them. With a Bowlus, booking ahead is easy because there’s more spots that you can fit in to it also makes sense because it allows you to have that flexibility with State parks, National parks, to be able to get last minute camping reservations and that type of thing.
Now my fourth most important tip is getting into the campsite so even if RVs over 27 feet are allowed they’re going to be really hard to maneuver in there and that’s because National Park campsites were largely built a long time ago when travel trailers and RVs were much smaller so features like trees, rocks can all make getting into your campsite quite difficult and that’s certainly not how you want to start your camping experience. So with the Bowlus and I’ll link my videos where I maneuver the Bowlus around with the jockey wheel at the front as well as AeroMove. So two different options to easily maneuver your Bowlus into the campsites. Never mind the fact that it also has the single axle, making it very easy to back up as well as the Bowlus is just easier to maneuver you’ve got really high ground clearance, the ability to place that Bowlus into position by hand, super easy towing experience and backing up experience which means you can really have your pick of the campsite.
Getting into the park is my fifth tip. The routes are not always suitable to RVs over 27 ft or high vehicles. Tight corners, steep grades, bridges, all of that can provide issues so it’s important to know the size of your RV including any rooftop air conditioning units, which the Bowlus doesn’t have, but in case your RV does have that. Parks can have really small roads one-way roads you know and trees over the roadway, etc. that can make it hard to get in. The Bowlus is a lower profile vehicle, but still has a high ground clearance and that’s because of that step in frame design so you’re not limited in how you choose to explore especially in a National Parks.
Then my last tip is weather conditions. So many National Parks are located at elevation or in desert terrain where temperatures can drop overnight and if you haven’t bought an RV before and this is your first RV that you’re considering you might not know that most RVs are not built for freezing conditions or four seasons camping and due to that if you were to encounter those conditions damage can occur to your fresh water systems in your RV. Now Bowlus designs this differently because we do design for four seasons of camping and a big reason is that is all of our water lines are inside the shell including the freshwater tank and so as long as you’re keeping the inside of your Bowlus warm which you can do with hydronic heating incredibly efficient and silent, which can run off of either electrical shore power, battery or propane tank on front. So lots of options that means the Bowlus is built for every season so no need for concern when temperatures drop about damage so you’ll be warm and cozy inside too.
So that finishes my top six things to know about camping in National Parks. Feel free to add yours in the comments if you have any other questions about what it’s like to camp in a Bowlus or your use case and what type of camping you’re thinking of please contact us at sales@bowlus.com or www.bowlus.com.
