US tour - west & midwest states, 2014

If you can squeeze in a couple of days near Fossil Butte, camp in Ashley National Forest in the Uinta Mountains. Beautiful. That's our backyard.

Thanks, yes, we planned on purchasing the annual pass at the first park.   

I need to get moving on a few repairs/improvements.  Get the fridge fixed, test the A/C once it gets hot again, new battery, possibly new tires, pack bearings, additional transmission cooler, and figure out how to extend the run-time of my generator.  Cheap and easy.... right.

It helps that so much of it is close together.   95% of the stuff - about 18 days of the 25 - is within a 3000 mile loop starting in Denver.  An average of only about 3 hours of driving each of those days.  3 times we'll stay at the same campground for 2 nights so we can do day trips, and we'll stay at Yellowstone for 3 nights.  There are 8 nights (most of the way out and back) where we'll stay at a truck stop to save time (and a little money).  Some of the sights only need an hour or two so we can fit in several things in one day.

Actually there are several places that are ok with RVs overnight - Cracker Barrel, most Wal-Marts, truck stops. There is a camping store I can't think of right now which apparently has a breakfast buffet.  Nobody laughs, lol.

There is no charge to stay at these places but the unwritten rule is you should buy something from them. Not hard to do, I always fill up with gas at the truck stops and we always seem to need something from Wal-Mart. Haven't done Cracker Barrel but I would certainly get breakfast if we did.

Two more rules. Always ask the manager, and never make it look like you are camping - no chairs, no awnings, if possible keep slide-outs in. Running a generator is fine, just don't use a cheap contractor screamer. We always look up the number for the next Wal-Mart and call ahead. Some cities have made it illegal to stay in any parking lot so there are some Wal-Marts where they'll tell you no. If they say yes we ask where they want us, usually it is around back or on the sides. While I fill up gas at a truck stop my wife will go in and ask if we can stay and where they want us (pointing out our camper so they see we are buying their gas). They usually do NOT want you to take up a truck bay and will point to a corner of the parking lot. I prefer that anyway since that gets you away from the diesel fumes. No reason to call ahead since they are always in locations where it is legal, obviously. I would call ahead to the other places like Cracker Barrel.

We prefer truck stops over Wal-Mart. We've had a few experiences with locals - they know the RVs are there every night and like to mess around or worse, if there isn't overnight security (some have it). We've had a car do a burnout down the line of RVs at 3 am, kids checking things out a little too closely, etc. Locals will not mess with truckers if they value their life and the trucks are moving through all night - lots of eyeballs keeping watch - so that is our preferred stop.

I've gotta second Grandpod's suggestion of Custer State Park; and Mount Rushmore is even sweeter if you do Needles Highway beforehand. You get a series of peeks at the Monument. It's like foreplay.