Hiker Biker Site Locations

[John Nettles]

Does anyone know of a centralized list of what North American (US & Canada) national, state, cities, etc. campgrounds have "hiker biker" campground sites OR a "do not turn away" policy?  Looking at you Jamawani! 

 I know that some of the major National Parks like Yellowstone and certain states like Oregon have the sites and/or policy but I am having difficulty determining if other places do without a lot of research and/or phone calls.
If there is a national Forest Service or Park Service policy, does anyone have a link to the actual official policy as I am having difficulty finding it if one exists?

If there is not a database, perhaps ACA could start one that is user-submitted and then an approved ACA-volunteer could verify the information.  I would be happy to be one of those volunteers. 

Happy Camping, John

[John Nelson]

Having H/B sites doesn’t guarantee that you wouldn’t be turned away. Some campgrounds have H/B sites, but a limited number. Having said that, I’ve camped in places that have exceeded their H/B limit, and I’ve never seen anyone turned away.

One problem with a H/B database is that H/B sites are provided by private, city, county, state and various federal agencies. Also, it changes over time, so keeping it up to date would be a nightmare. I don’t know where you’d go to find the information.

Note that right here on the ACA site is a list of no-turn-away policies by state.

https://www.adventurecycling.org/routes-and-maps/adventure-cycling-route-network/no-turn-away-bike-camping-policies/

[HobbesOnTour]

John, you may find iOverlander useful. It is an app (but there's a website too, I believe) that is a map based database of different services useful for travellers.
Since it is user maintained there can be discrepancies in descriptions and some regions are better served than others.

There are reviews as well as basic info. It can work offline.

Another alternative is Osmand, another app that will show campgrounds (among other POIs). Again its utility varies region by region and again it depends on users to supply and maintain data. It's advantage is that we can import a gox file of a route and see what services are within range. It also works offline.

[John Nettles]

John, you may find iOverlander useful. It is an app.....
Another alternative is Osmand...

I actually use those and also review FreeCampSites,  Outly, and The Dyrt for sites.

I find IOverlander best for user-submitted sites (this is sort of what I am envisioning with an ACA database) and Outly for BLM land. 

Tailwinds, John

[John Nettles]

Having H/B sites doesn’t guarantee that you wouldn’t be turned away.....I’ve never seen anyone turned away.

One problem with a H/B database is that H/B sites are provided by private, city, county, state and various federal agencies. Also, it changes over time, so keeping it up to date would be a nightmare.

Note that right here on the ACA site is a list of no-turn-away policies by state.

Thanks for the link to the list.  I couldn't find it earlier. 

I don't think it would be that difficult if you have a say 5-10 volunteers.  I mean how many total are in your region?  Mine (say TX, OK, KS, MO, AR, & LA) probably less than a handful.  Since the sites would initially be user supplied (Rider X would submit the site info) the verification wouldn't take that long, maybe an email or phone call to the appropriate entity.  Note:  I am not talking about dispersed or stealth camping but official "Hiker/Biker" sites like what is at Yellowstone.

An annual early spring re-verification of the info pretty current.

For the states with a lot of them such as California, one volunteer could be responsible for either the entire state or even North, Central, South regions of California. 

I honestly feel ACA could make use of volunteers more.  I am sure they could easily get a couple of dozen volunteers to help with various projects like keeping the services GPX database updated.