Planning a Van Trip Across the West: Routes, Water, and Elevation

The West is the reason most people buy a van. It is also the place most first big trips go slightly wrong — not dramatically, just tiringly. Too many miles, not enough water, and a schedule built around places rather than around days.

Here is how we plan ours.

How far should you drive in a day?

Less than you think. 150–250 miles is the sweet spot for a van in the West, and it is a different number from what the same distance means in a car.

A loaded camper van is heavier, taller, and more affected by crosswind than anything you are used to driving. Add a 6,000-foot pass and a 45-mph headwind across Wyoming and a “four-hour drive” becomes six. You also want to arrive with daylight left, because finding a dispersed site in the dark is how people end up sleeping at a truck stop.

Our rule: drive two days, stop one. The rest day is where the trip actually happens.

Plan around water, not around miles

A 20-gallon fresh tank is roughly three to four days for two people who are being sensible, and about two if anyone is showering daily. Water is the constraint that ends trips early, and it is the one people forget to map.

Reliable fill points across the West:

• State parks — nearly always have potable water, often available even for day-use visitors.
• National Forest campgrounds — spigots at most developed sites, though many shut off after the first freeze.
• Municipal parks and visitor centers in small towns — underrated and usually free.
• Truck stops and RV parks — dump and fill together for a small fee, worth building into the route every fourth day.

Fill whenever you pass water and are below half. There is no prize for arriving at the next town with an empty tank.

A loop that works

The classic two-week Western loop from Colorado, and the one we recommend most often to people picking up a van in Boulder:

• Days 1–2: Boulder to Moab, Utah. Shake-down night close to home first — see our six campsites near Boulder — then west over the divide.
• Days 3–5: Moab and Canyonlands. Huge BLM dispersed camping along Highway 128 and 313. Hot from June to September; shoulder season is far better.
• Days 6–8: Capitol Reef and Grand Staircase–Escalante. The emptiest stretch of the loop and the best night sky on it.
• Days 9–11: Bryce and Zion. Book these campgrounds early or stay on Forest Service land outside the park boundary.
• Days 12–14: North through Utah, back east over the Rockies.

Roughly 1,800 miles, which is a comfortable two weeks and an ambitious ten days.

Where can you camp for free in the West?

This is the West’s great advantage. On most BLM and National Forest land you can camp free for up to 14 days, generally within 300 feet of a Forest Service road, in already-disturbed sites.

Three rules that keep it legal and keep it open for everyone:

• Check the Motor Vehicle Use Map for the road you are on. Not every road allows dispersed camping, and some areas are designated-site-only under a Forest Order.
• Use existing sites. A fire ring and bare ground mean someone camped there before; that is where you want to be, not on fresh vegetation.
• Check fire restrictions daily. They change fast in the West, and a Stage 2 restriction can ban even a camp stove in some districts.

Elevation is the variable nobody plans for

You can start a day at 4,000 feet in the desert at 95°F and end it at 10,000 feet at 34°F. In the same afternoon.

This affects three systems in your van. Your heater matters more than you expect in July. Your fridge works harder in desert heat, so your daily amp-hours climb exactly when you are parked in the shade. And your ventilation is what keeps condensation down when you go from dry heat to a cold night — which is the single most common reason people wake up to wet windows on a Western trip.

Pack for both ends. Every day.

What we would put in the van before leaving

• A full fresh tank and a collapsible spare jug — 5 gallons buys you a day of margin.
• Downloaded offline maps. Cell service disappears for whole days at a time.
• A paper atlas as the backup to the backup.
• Recovery basics: traction boards, a shovel, and a tire plug kit. Most Western trouble is soft sand and sharp rock, not mud.
• More layers than the forecast suggests, because the forecast is for the town, not the pass.

Planning the van itself rather than the route? Start with conversions or the DIY kit, and read how much power you actually need before you size the electrical.