This just happened to me the other night.
I’m in a dispersed camping spot in a National Forest. It’s not crowded. I go to sleep around 9:30PM and wake up at 4:30AM to someone parked right next to me. There’s no trees between us and no possible way that they did not see my car.
As I drive out of the forest I pass dozens of empty spots.
This has happened to me twice. Who are the people who do this? There’s no rational explanation for it.
Because you assume a camper seeks quietness and privacy. Some campers may just seek camaraderie of what they guess would be like-minded people
So the cars can cuddle when you’re not looking ❤️
I don’t want my car to be lonely while I’m out in nature. If you’re lonely, they’re lonely…give them a friend.
Don’t worry, the wendigo that breaks into your car at night to wait for you to return will keep it company :)
Exactly. Where do people think new cars come from?
Am I crazy or is the weird thing actually where you drive to a national forest and “dispersed” camp in your car?
In my mind dispersed camping is when you maybe drive to a trailhead but then actually camp after hiking several miles into the forest.
If I saw a car parked in a parking lot I would not assume anyone was sleeping in it.
Maybe it’s a regional thing?
Yeah, depending on where I’m going, there are specific areas you can bring your car around to if you’re deciding to camp in the car lol parking lots, in my experience, are for day trippers and people looking to drop their car off and hoof it to the stream for fishing or go deeper to camp/backpack.
Edit: West Coast/Rockies and foothills mainly for me.
Dispersed camping is any designated campsite that allows you to show up and go as you please. In Montana, they’re everywhere and frequently have spots to put your RV or car. “Dispersed” is a designation by the NFS for these sites
Not to quibble but technically dispersed camping, according to the USFS, is camping anywhere outside designated sites. The distinction is important because people believe they can’t camp on USFS (or BLM) land for free, almost anywhere they want. In fact with relatively few exceptions and with a bunch of rules like time limits, proximity to water sources, fire restrictions etc etc, you can.
Yeah that’s totally fair, I felt weird writing that because that was how I was brought up thinking of it. I suppose where I live, the dispersed camping is very clean cut and does show up on NFS listings, so I’ve learned to think of it differently recently. I suppose at the very least me and many other people just call any first come first serve camping “dispersed” because of this 🤷♀️
Whatever the case, it certainly doesn’t need to be a backpacking spot.
I don’t see where they said they camped in their car. They could have easily parked the car at the site and then set up a tent, or like we do, towed a pop up camper there.
After rereading they do mention they’re at a campground. I focused on the ‘dispersed camping spot’ phrase.
The only conclusion I can come to is OP uses different camping terminology than I’m familiar with. For me ‘dispersed’ can have a broad range of meanings but always means ‘not at a campground’.
Even with dispersed camping (which is not at designated sites) you can still drive to them. We do so all the time. They’re very popular here in Colorado. We literally take a 27 foot popup camper there, my brother in law brings his toy-hauler, my in laws bring their class c. And you just drive right up and camp. There’s no marked site, it’s just dispersed.
Just yesterday I got back from a trip at a designated campsite, which was marked, and you were not allowed to camp outside of 100ft of the marker. Notably this was a bit further up the road from an actual campsite, which had rules about hours, restroom use, no equines, no dogs off leash etc. and the sites were maintained spots with gravel etc.
So there’s three levels, and dispersed is just the ‘free-est’ of them all, but it has no bearing on whether you can drive up and plop down a camper or not.
Dispersed just means undefined sites
I may have an explanation for you. There are two state parks near me that require people to park next to each other. You can actually get towed for parking off on your own. They say they’re trying to get as many cars in the parking lot as possible.
Maybe that person is used to these sorts of rules.
Apes together strong.
Reverse Monty Hall problem. With two cars next to each other, yours is less likely to be broken into.
Power in numbers
An empty parking spot with dozens of open spaces and I park far away, clearly trying to avoid other cars. I come back and the one other car in the vicinity of my own is parked right next to it. Fucking why!
You parked far away because you care about your car. They parked next to you because they trust you to not ding theirs.
Or to spite you.
Pulling into an area, the odds of unwanted clinging proximity decrease with more turns made and the more gnarly the road choices appear.
Simple flow chart with unpopular choices. Three gnarly turns in a row is pretty solid.
If it’s ugly looking, of course walk it first. Even big puddles will deter weaklings and tweaklings.
Thus I’ve woken in the middle of the night because the moon has come up and I’m surrounded by lowing cows, or being bumped by a bear, or being practically deafened by profound silence (mostly).
Introverted versus Extroverted personalities.
The behavior is likely due to the wide spectrum of human functional thought. Perhaps they went camping to share a niche social experience. TBC, I want to have my space too.
Depends:
- two camper vans ? Weird
- two simple automobiles ? It’s the right way to park even if the lot is empty . You make sure to align to the other parked cars.
It’s easier to park when there’s another car already parked, for reference.
Because parking is such a difficult activity?
Not saying I’d do it, just throwing one more option out there.
I think your shock and confusion is 100% valid. The whole point of trekking out to remote camping spot in a National Forest is usually to get the hell away from other people, is it not? That seems… rude at worst, and ignorant of them at best.
Have you lived a million years?
Can confirm OP is older than dirt.
