For road-weary RV travelers, Walmart has long been the unofficial oasis of the open road. Affectionately known as Wallydocking, it’s a beloved tradition: pull in, grab some snacks, catch a few hours of sleep, and save yourself the cost of an RV park that charges roughly the GDP of a small nation for an overnight stay.
Unfortunately, Wallydocking is becoming harder to find. Cities are cracking down with ordinances, and campground owners aren’t exactly thrilled about RVers choosing a free parking lot over their premium gravel lots with “rustic” views of a dumpster. One report recently noted that only 58 percent of Walmart stores still allow overnight parking.
After our latest Walmart experience, however, I can almost understand why.
You remember Nightmare on Elm Street? Freddy Krueger lurking in the shadows, waiting to ruin your night? Well, on this particular trip, Freddy apparently traded his striped sweater for a container of Roundup and an RV generator.
After a grueling 10-hour day exploring in our new BundutecUSA Roadrunner, we rolled into the Walmart in Rock Springs, Wyoming. We were exhausted. The only thing standing between us and blissful sleep was dinner and about 30 feet of parking lot.
When we arrived, there was only one other RV in sight—a small Class B van occupied by a pleasant couple from Phoenix headed to Yellowstone. We had our 11-week-old pug with us, whose energy level could best be described as “espresso-fueled tornado,” so we chose a spot near a freshly mowed grassy area where she could stretch her tiny legs.
The location was perfect. There were trees providing shade. Plenty of space. Peace and quiet. In other words, it was doomed.
After dinner, I climbed into the cabover bunk, checked some emails, read a little news, and promptly drifted into a blissful food-coma nap. Thirty minutes later, my wife shook me awake.
“They just sprayed the rocks next to us with Roundup.”
Wonderful. Nothing says “sweet dreams” quite like a cloud of industrial-strength weed killer drifting through your campsite. I hate Roundup. It gives me headaches faster than listening to someone explain cryptocurrency. So we packed up and moved about 50 feet away. Problem solved. Or so we thought.
As evening settled in, RVs began arriving like contestants on a game show called America’s Got Parking Problems. First came a travel trailer. Then a Class A motorhome. Then a fifth wheel large enough to have its own ZIP code. Then more RVs. And more. And more.
By sunset, the Walmart parking lot looked less like a parking lot and more like an RV convention nobody had planned.
Then the truckers arrived. Soon, a fleet of 18-wheelers surrounded us on all sides, their diesel engines idling with the soothing subtlety of a rocket launch.
Summer nights at Walmart are always a gamble. We can usually survive warm weather with a couple of strategically placed 12-volt fans. Other folks, however, need air conditioning. Some need CPAP machines. Some apparently need enough electricity to power a small shopping mall.
Which means generators. Lots of generators. Before long, the air over the parking lot developed its own ecosystem. Diesel fumes drifted in from the trucks. Generator exhaust rolled in from the RVs. Our fans dutifully sucked every bit of it directly into the camper. Even my wife—who normally tolerates just about anything short of a bear in the bathroom—had reached her limit.
At 10:30 p.m., I surrendered. I threw on some clothes, climbed into the truck, and slowly relocated our entire rig to the far side of the parking lot. There, sitting alone in the darkness, was a single Class B camper. No generators. No diesel clouds. No chemical warfare. Just peace. It was beautiful. Like finding the last lifeboat on the Titanic.
Miraculously, the quiet lasted all night. The next morning we woke refreshed, bought supplies, and escaped before anything else could happen—like a lawn crew arriving with flamethrowers.
So what’s the moral of the story? Simple. When Wallydocking, always have a backup plan. And a backup backup plan.
The reality is that overnight Walmart parking can be a fantastic resource for travelers. We’ve used it many times while crossing unfamiliar parts of the country. But it only takes a few inconsiderate RVers to transform a peaceful evening into a survival exercise.
One thing we’ve noticed over the years is that many RV owners seem magnetically attracted to other RV owners. You can choose the most isolated corner of a parking lot. You can be 300 yards from the nearest vehicle. You can literally be the only RV in sight.
And somehow another RVer will pull up 6 feet away from you as if the rest of the parking lot has been declared a wildlife preserve. In fact, this happened to us last summer in Aberdeen, Washington. We found a secluded corner of an almost-empty Walmart parking lot and settled in for the evening.
Fifteen minutes later, a massive Class A motorhome rolled up and parked directly beside us. Not across the lot. Not even a few spaces away. Directly beside us. His windshield practically lined up with our dinette window. I could have handed him a salt shaker through the glass. Then, despite having acres of empty parking lot surrounding him, he fired up his generator.
At that point I was honestly expecting him to ask if he could borrow our couch. Thankfully, there are alternatives to Walmart.
We’ve had excellent luck overnighting at Cracker Barrel and Cabela’s too. During COVID, Cracker Barrel even delivered our meals directly to the camper during one stay. That’s peak RV luxury right there. And Cabela’s has water spigots, camping gear, outdoor clothing, and enough gadgets to convince you that you absolutely need a titanium coffee mug that costs more than your first car.
So when possible, we choose those options. But every now and then, we’ll still find ourselves spending the night at Wally World.
We’ll just be keeping one eye open for Freddy Krueger lurking in the shadows with a running generator in one hand and a jug of Roundup in the other.
Got a Walmart parking lot horror story of your own? Share it. Misery loves company—and RVers love swapping parking lot battle scars.
For me Walmart is the last resort to stay for a night’s rest. Several posters laid out valid points for a business to restrict or ban any overnight stay. The two Walmart in Anchorage, Alaska in 2017 banned all overnight stays due to all the trash left behind by “RVers”, I’ve seen this first hand and yet you have the Fairbanks (2015 and 2018) which has employees living in their RVs for months in their parking lot.
I do agree with ardvark: “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us”!
When I’ve needed the occasion to overnight at a walmart in the past, I used to look for the most inconspicuous out of the way spot to park for the night.
Last year I had a bad experience doing this. I was parked on the far corner near a fence line. Someone started tapping lightly on the side of my camper around 6:30 in the morning (I was already up checking email and getting ready to hit the road, etc.) I glanced out around the shade, and saw 3 guys wandering away. But a few minutes later they came back and were looking like they were eyeballing what they could get into in my rig. My dog started barking that time, luckily and they backed off again.
I basically immediately jumped in the truck and hit the road a few miles down the road.
Long story short, If I have a need to stop overnight at a walmart again since then, I make a point to park much more conspicuously out in the open where there’s more traffic, other people around, security patrols, etc.
A few days late but still here. Pulled into Walmart aver travelling 14hrs from central BC to Portland to pick up some supplies and spend the night. Came back to the truck to find our people loving Bloo Hound terrorized and paranoid with fear. Would not leave the truck for the camper resulting in me to sleep with her in the truck. Now no one is allowed bear the truck as she will defend lt from all who try, even known family members who she grew up with.
Not all Walmart over nighters are kind and considerate, some are down right mean. The only ones to have done it where other campers who came after us, as we where there before others showing up.
Might have been the license plate that caused this , but most West Coast Canadians are friendly and helpful by nature. Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident to have happen down South. We have travelled far down there with no problems when boondocking away from others.
Yep, been there, experienced that. Even more annoying than having someone pull up tight to you in WM and crank the generator (when nobody else is running one) is the guy who pulls up next to you in a remote camping area and fires it up to watch videos. For hours. Yep, we moved. What’s great about truck camping is that it’s a lot easier to move than it was when we were in a motorhome.
I am relatively new to truck camping so maybe I bring a little different perspective on the free overnighting. I would not think of trespassing on private property and set up camp without permission because I do not want someone settling in for the night in my back yard or the parking lot of my business even though it is in a rural location. For this reason, when I am traveling and thinking of shutting down for the night I make it a point to go into the business, ask for permission and ask where they would like me to park. I have not been refused and usually find customer service or management to express surprise and appreciation at being asked. I save my shopping or, when possible, refueling for those businesses.
There is no right for me to park on their property and some businesses are posting their “No Overnight Camping” policy right in the parking lot like the Cabelas in Billings, Montana has done. I find that ironic considering they sell camping equipment and supplies.
Years of tent camping has left me with a desire to have significant distance between my camp and anyone else so I do not park next to someone else’s rig and I appreciate others who follow the same practice, however, there are times when it is not possible so I remind myself this is a free night and do my best to get through it. I am not a patient person and highly value my personal space and solitude so that can be a real challenge.
Another observation. Pick up your trash. I know I’m probably speaking to the choir but I cannot believe how much garbage I’ve seen and policed up even in remote places. Last year I was given permission to camp at a fishing access site by a Montana CO before the regular season started. After walking around the 5 or 6 other sites I went back to my camper and got a couple of kitchen garbage bags which I quickly filled up only to have no place to put them. Another visitor (Montana resident) checking out the river accepted the bags to dispose of. I got a beautiful place to camp, Montana got their sites cleaned up, and I got to meet some incredible people. The story of the wonderful three college students who camped at an adjacent site and shared their campfire will have to wait for another time.
My point, remember we are quests so let’s do nothing to wear out our welcome.
Wayne
Very great idea to ask permission. We will use that. Usually take an evening walk b4 bed and often pick up trash, too, if there’s a place to dump it.
Although I may have worded it differently, the message I took away from Mike’s reflections was simply this. Camping at Walmart” is a microcosm of what is taking place across the country. There is a reason Walmart is changing it’s attitude towards overnight visitors in the same way wilderness areas that use to welcome us are closing sites. Camping, RVing, or whatever rubric what we do now falls under has changed and with it concepts like simple courtesy are rapidly vanishing. Shortly I suspect we will be adding Cracker Barrel and Bass Pro to the list.
Perhaps Walter Kelly stated it best in his 60’s “Pogo” comic strip, “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us”!
My two cents,
Ardvark
Thanks, Steve, good to see somebody finally got it.
The Cracker Barrel in Loveland, Colorado no longer allows overnight parking because a RVer decided to dump his black tank in their parking lot.
A nightmare? How arrogant.
Imagine taking advantage of a generous courtesy extended to RVer’s from the largest retailer in the world, then a few other RVer’s in a country of over 300 million show up to do the same thing. The horror is too much to bear.
Walmart can be an oasis after a long day. Walmart is not an RV park, though, and are in the retail sales business usually located next to high traffic corridors. It will more than likely be noisy. Hey, it’s free and they usually have some roasted chicken or pizza ready to go. You probably use their bathrooms a couple times, too.
You want to see the abuse of Walmart’s generosity? Go to the Walmart in Whitehorse, Yukon. Disconnected trailers sit for days or weeks at a time. There is limited parking for customers due to the mass of campers.
Worst abuse I’ve experienced was in North Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Canada, where the Walmart had just started letting RV’s stay again, in the parking lot. Some idiot actually built a wood fire directly on the asphalt. Fire department had to be called to put the fire out as the parking lot caught fire.
Want a better free night? Try staying in a truck stop with hundreds of semi’s idling. Or an interstate rest stop. Please don’t complain about a free over night, anywhere.
YES! Tried the Wally in Whitehorse for one night and oh, yes, not a good night’s rest. What really did it were the locals who would drive up and down the RV line holding down their horn buttons. When we headed back south at the end of the winter we had done a little research and found that the Pioneer RV Park up on the AlCan would let you stay one night free in their overflow lot. We filled the propane and had a chip in our windshield repaired as a ‘thank you’. (Nowadays, that overnight will cost $14.)
I have been in rest areas just off a main interstate full of vehicles and it was quiet and have also been in the backcountry and could hear a generator off in a distance. If you had gone to that Walmart the next night chances are it would have been quiet. It’s just one of those things that come with truck camping.
Well dude, you’re staying for free at Walmart. Sometimes you may encounter others that want to the same. Not like you’re paying for a campsite in a secluded area.
We’ve stayed at a few Walmarts and Cracker Barrels on our travels. Some were quiet, some weren’t. Never felt the need to write an article about it.
Come on Mike, you’re better than this.
Easy to understand why Walmarts are increasingly posting signs and no longer allowing overnight stops. If I recall correctly, close to 50% of Walmarts now no longer allow it and I suspect that trend will continue.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/31/business/walmart-rv-overnight-parking/index.html
Ardvark