Recently, we finished traveling 10,000 miles in 65 days of RV camping (in a truck camper) with our dog, a 4-5 year old Chocolate Labrador mix. Leaving home Feb. 27 and returning in early May, we traveled through a variety of ecosystems and climates, with temperatures ranging from 0F to +93 F.
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| Utah |
We traveled through parts of Alaska, where we live, down the Alcan Highway to Dawson Creek, BC, then SE to Montana, south to Texas, and then NW through Grand Canyon and related National Parks, up through Idaho to Canada, and then back to Alaska.
Below is advice for others who are considering extended road trips with their dogs. (To read our evaluations of the specific campsites and their amenities (or lack of them) we visited in March, April, and May, 2025, see companion article: Our Itinerary up and down the Alcan Highway in March/April).
1. Recommended Resources:
a) www.freecampsites.net identifies free and inexpensive, natural locations, such as forest roads, beaches, as well as some organized dry campgrounds.
www.rvlife.com
lists paid, primarily private, RV parks and lets readers rate them. You can add search criteria, like “pet
friendly.”
b) www.bringfido.com lets you search for pet friendly restaurants (those with outdoor seating, in season) and dog parks.
c)
www.petsmart.com
offers pet sitting and overnight stays.
We used this service for a graduation ceremony and related
celebrations. The price was very
reasonable – about $20 for 4 hours in 2025.
The company does require proof of
vaccinations required by their state/facility. Because this varies,!!! check in advance before you leave your
home veterinarian. Texas, or at least this boarding facility, requires two shots that Alaska does not.
d)
www.cdc.gov:
If you plan to travel from the US to Canada and then back again, find
the pet form on the CDC website. You
will need to fill this out in advance and show it at the border, along with
proof of rabies vaccination.
Sites for national and state and city parks in your target regions. Note: many national and even state parks can be huge. Searching near your target route will help you find campsites on THAT side of the a park that may be thousands or hundreds of thousands of acres in size. Also, we found that some famous national parks were more pet friendly than others. For example, Zion had very few dog accessible trails. Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon were better.
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| Bay Area |
Best and Worst Campgrounds
Note: a follow up article will list our itinerary, where we stayed, and how we assessed each one.
2. Campgrounds and campsites vary widely in their pet friendliness (from worst to best, below)
a) The worst are private or city owned RV/camp parks that are basically parking lots for closely spaced vehicles, with no shade or privacy between spots. The closeness, the noise of vehicles coming and going, dumpster lids banging, garbage trucks arriving can contribute to anxious and noisy dogs. These are common in and around cities and tend to cost the most.
We paid for 3 ($77 in Golden, CO; $61 outside Grand Canyon, AZ; and $39 in little Bowie, TX) that fit this description. We also spent a free night in an RV welcoming city lot in tiny Vulcan, Alberta surrounded by commercial parking lots. I avoid these city and private parks when alternatives exist. They are not dog friendly, are often crowded and unattractive. You might wonder why they would be crowded in winter. My impression, from the skirted and insulated undercarriages of RVs, is that there were a lot of long term seasonal workers living there.
g) The good news is that in summer months, most of these have electricity and water and often a dump site, as well as laundry (for a fee) and showers (sometimes free). The highest we paid for a commercial size washer load was $3.50. Showers were often on timers that you had to fumble to find and push while shampoo was running into your eyes. I understand 3 or 5 minutes, but 20 seconds? Yup. One of those. I timed it.
I In cold
weather winter locations, many of these campgrounds are closed altogether, or they offer
electricity but no water services. Most of these were closed from mid-Oct to end of May in Alaska and along the Alcan.
b) Other city or town owned campsites are much more appealing, within larger, natural settings. We enjoyed locations next to lakes, rivers, golf courses. Many had day use areas for picnicking, maybe with playgrounds, boat docks, etc. These are better suited to dogs and usually cheaper, too! We enjoyed lovely ones in Austin, TX along the Colorado River, Minersville, UT ( at a lake), next to a municipal ski hill for children near Grande Cache, Alberta, adjacent to a glacier in Alaska, and overlooking a lake and mountains outside Reno, NV. (Yes, we traveled beyond the Alcan). Some do and some do not offer utilities. Prices varied from free to $30. The spaciousness and water body offered exercise options for our labrador.
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| Grand Canyon |
c) The best public campsites for dogs (and us) were, without doubt, state and national parks, preserves, and forests. The most common camping price was $20/nt for dry camping and $30 with electricity for our truck camper. Other prices vary by the size of your rig and the amperage you desire. All of these offered natural landscapes and often lovely views of lakes, rivers, reservoirs, deserts, lava fields, mountains, and forests. Many had cleared trails. If they did not, you could walk along the shore or in the woods with your pooch. Yes, the rules say a 6 foot leash, but in March, we were usually the only camper there. In April, there were a few other people who scattered thoughtfully away from each other.
d)
Our favorite campsites were ones where we
boondocked in a pretty setting that is not an intentionally designed
campground. This is allowed in most
National Forests and often a mile or so from designated campgrounds of
State and National Parks. We might drive
down a forest road until we found a spot to pull over. Since many park services in northern, snowy
regions are closed until Memorial Day, we occasionally camped behind a visitor
center, as at Sheep Mountain in Yukon or near the locked gate to a campground, as in Valdez, AK.
Other sites included a woodsy parking lot to trails frequented by
snowmachiners and cross country skiers, a unplowed rural airstrip,
side roads that dead ended in a berm of snow, and parking lots for day use access to trails that are not cleared or used much in winter.
The website, www.freecampsites.net, was of enormous assistance to us, and we added our reviews to it, too. I highly recommend this site.
For the dog, there were rarely other people/dogs at these sites, so he could roam freely, nearby. We walked with a leash in case we encountered other people/dogs. Other boondocking sites were much larger and better known, so we did find a number of vehicles there, such as at Lake Powell and south of Zion National Park down a rutted dirt road to public land. But since the nature of boondockers is to avoid crowds, we all politely spaced ourselves far apart.
3. Driving with a dog
a. Routine: I am pleased to report that Buddy was never reluctant to "load up" into the truck for our daily drives of 6 or so hours. I worried that he might resist it (like my children!) He always stood to look out the window for a while and then rested in the cab of the truck with us as we drove. About every 2 hours, we stopped to stretch our legs and offer him water and a snack. If a gas station was not adjacent to a fringe of grass or meadow, we sought out a more natural, dog-safe location, such as a short drive down a rural road for lunch or a bit of a walk. In urban areas, we looked up dog parks or walking trails. These vary widely from fenced meadows to woods traversed with dirt trails, to parks with ponds and hardscaping for people and even dog washing areas just outside the gates. The prettiest truck stop was on a short loop road near Huntsville, TX. It had restrooms, a little natural history display, a creek with turtles on logs, and lots of shady green space for walking the dog. Lovely.
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| In our yard in Alaska |
b. Supplies: We kept a collapsible water bowl and water jug and dry dog food in the car with us, along with small rags to wipe his feet and a cloth mat to lay over our laps for him when he was damp. Fortunately, we did not travel through rainy weather. Otherwise, a wet dog and saturated towels would have been an issue. Buddy seemed to like chewing on rawhide bones when he was a bit nervous; they served as pacifiers. When we made camp for the evening, and he explored the area and felt safe, then he was interested in playing with toys or he would find and bring us a stick or a bone.
c. Crossing the border between USA and Canada: The Canadian border patrol did not want us traveling with an open container of dry dog food. Cans are fine.
d) Health: An older dog might have trouble jumping in and out of a car, truck, or camper several times per day. The only issues we faced were ticks and burrs, which we found and removed quickly. However, other travelers could encounter issues with temperature regulation in hot or cold climates, hot sand or asphalt, dog fights or other animal injuries, such as snake bites for dogs not familiar with those reptiles. Another possibility is cuts from broken glass or bits of metal in some poorly maintained campsite. Keep your veterinary information handy, and, if you are concerned, find local veterinarians in your target location, especially if you plan to linger there. I have no idea if dogs ever suffer from motion sickness. Maybe?
e) One fun anecdote is that my husband likes to get mochas at drive up coffee kiosks that are plentiful in Alaska, the NW, and Canada. Almost all of them have treats for dogs, too! As a result, when my husband pulled up to one, Buddy would jump on his lap, lean out the window as though he were ordering! The barista got a kick out of this and Buddy got a free treat (a milk bone) or a purchased treat (a "pup cup").
Our dog was a good trooper on this long trip. I doubt he got as much exercise as he does at our rural Alaska home, but he enjoyed exploring new scents every time we stopped at a new place. There were restaurants and trails and museums that we did not visit together, but separately, but overall, he enhanced our travel experience.
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