Overlanding Life
Stories
What the public record says about where we drive and camp.
Reported from the record.
These pieces are written from public data and our own measurements of it: who manages the ground, where the campgrounds are and how high they sit. Trip stories and profiles will join them as travellers and builders tell theirs.
- 01 How high can you camp? We checked the elevation of 2,576 drive-up federal campgrounds. Two stand above 11,000 feet, 39 are listed at 10,000 or more, and one lies 198 feet below the sea.
- 02 Reservable, first come, or not listed We counted 4,929 federal places to camp. The official record calls most of them reservable. For 256 of them, that word does not mean what you think.
- 03 Where the public land is Nine of every ten federal acres sit in Alaska and eleven western states. The rest of the country shares what is left, and travels differently because of it.