Questions about a Canada-American trip

[Adventurevanisle]

Hello Overlandbound!

I’m planning a two week trip in July, leaving Victoria BC, going through Alberta, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and back up through BC.

This will be my first trip to the States and I am curious if anyone has experience to share about being as prepared as possible for the boarder crossing. Any tips on how to be as organized as possible to make the process as pain free as possible?

How does camping work once I am stateside? Here in BC, you can camp just about anywhere off of FSRs and crown land for free. Is this similar to the states? I read somewhere about national park passes, as this will likely be my only trip through the states this year is it worth it to purchase an annual pass?

Hope to meet up with some members along the way!

 

[CampWithChin]

Hello Overlandbound!

I’m planning a two week trip in July, leaving Victoria BC, going through Alberta, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and back up through BC.

This will be my first trip to the States and I am curious if anyone has experience to share about being as prepared as possible for the boarder crossing. Any tips on how to be as organized as possible to make the process as pain free as possible?

How does camping work once I am stateside? Here in BC, you can camp just about anywhere off of FSRs and crown land for free. Is this similar to the states? I read somewhere about national park passes, as this will likely be my only trip through the states this year is it worth it to purchase an annual pass?

Hope to meet up with some members along the way!

Sorry for late info sharing. First, welcome to US. For border crossing, just beware fresh fruit and meat might be inspected. No firewood from outside state. If you tow boat, that a different thing to deal with. If you tow trailer, make sure the trailer is registered with your name.

In US, you can camp within many National Forest and BLM (Bureau of Land Management) Land. Search the National Forest and obtain a mvum map from any National Forest office. It would list info like camping. It's free to disperse camping within NF & BLM land.

As for National Park, it is illegal to camp within National Park. You can camp in designated campground which most national park have some first-come-first-serve campground or book online via recreation dot gov. You will need to pay entrance fee to enter National Park. It's $35U?s per vehicle for Glacier National Park in Montana for a week of reentry. If you plan to visit more than 3 National Park, you might want to consider getting the Annual Pass (America the Beautiful Pass) for $80US. 3 or more entrace to any US National Park will paid for the pass (Highly recommended).

There are plenty of National Forest in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon. So, free camping is very much available. Also, if you have app like ioverlander or freecampsites dot net, you can find plentiful camping/overnight info on your location. You will need a smartphone with data access to search the info.

 

[Adventurevanisle]

Sorry for late info sharing. First, welcome to US. For border crossing, just beware fresh fruit and meat might be inspected. No firewood from outside state. If you tow boat, that a different thing to deal with. If you tow trailer, make sure the trailer is registered with your name.

In US, you can camp within many National Forest and BLM (Bureau of Land Management) Land. Search the National Forest and obtain a mvum map from any National Forest office. It would list info like camping. It's free to disperse camping within NF & BLM land.

As for National Park, it is illegal to camp within National Park. You can camp in designated campground which most national park have some first-come-first-serve campground or book online via recreation dot gov. You will need to pay entrance fee to enter National Park. It's $35U?s per vehicle for Glacier National Park in Montana for a week of reentry. If you plan to visit more than 3 National Park, you might want to consider getting the Annual Pass (America the Beautiful Pass) for $80US. 3 or more entrace to any US National Park will paid for the pass (Highly recommended).

There are plenty of National Forest in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon. So, free camping is very much available. Also, if you have app like ioverlander or freecampsites dot net, you can find plentiful camping/overnight info on your location. You will need a smartphone with data access to search the info.

Amazing! Thank you so much for the information, super helpful.