Crowded Campgrounds and Parks

I full timed for 10 years and love every minute. Finding empty spots in campgrounds is very easy. Any campground that does not accept reservations will have many open spaces that can be claimed in the morning. RV parks are harder but not impossible. I only had reservations once in ten years.

There's no doubt that there are campgrounds in nice areas, near popular attractions that are often crowded. Some are are always crowded, and you have to be quick on the reservation button to reserve a site. There are many, many others, however, that will often have vacancies. A lot depends on the size of your rig, the amenities you want (50 amp, sewage etc.) and the time of year you want to camp. It usually, just takes a bit of planning to find a site that'll make you happy.

Kev

(By the way, welcome to the RVForum!)

It depends on location and what your requirements are.  Do you absolutely need full hookups and 50 amps? 

The RV parks you have looked at are apparently commercial campgrounds with a lot of permanent residents.  They are no doubt in busy (high tourist) locations, hence they are packed and the owners stuff you in like sardines, as you pointed out.

I stay almost entirely in federal, state, and regional parks, and I have no problems choosing places that have electric and often water hookups.  Sites tend to be well-spread apart, with no permanent residents with little white picket fences because you can stay only two weeks at a time.

There are tons of campgrounds that are slightly off the beaten track that are lovely and much less crowded.  In fact, 10 days ago, I thought I was going to be the only person camping in one state park in Nevada until another rig pulled in late at night.  We had the whole, amazingly quiet place to ourselves! 

So, you need to get out and do some driving around to state and regional campgrounds before you make your decision.   

Idaho is full of wonderful places to stay. Boise itself probably isn?t a great choice. We have looked at places around there and saw lots of lower income full timers too. Head toward the mountains within a 2 hour drive and life will look better. Do you require full hookups or will you be going off grid? Boondockingin Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana, and Oregon is a great way to go. Lots of less crowded locations, but it does depend on what you are looking for.

Also, disenfranchised Californians who have lost jobs have moved into RVs to survive, many dry-camping in whatever parking lots they can find.

We get blamed for everything

To the OP, are you weekend recreational RVing or full/part timing?
I think that makes a bit of a difference in what you might be looking for.

I've noticed that just about all the private RV parks I've looked at or visited have some full time residents.  Sometimes they are off in their own area, sometimes not.  Sometimes nice, sometimes not so much.  When we were looking for places to stop in these type of parks en route though, we've not had too much trouble finding a spot.

We are weekend warriors and frequent state parks which are different.

I'm East Coast, Florida, so I can't comment on your neck of the woods so much....but I have noticed that things are much more full than they used to be.  10 years ago or more when we were in the popup trailer, and before that tenting....it seemed that only the parks out along the beach would be hard to get in season.  Inland parks would be no problem.  Now, even the inland parks are hard to get into last minute sometimes.  With a little planning though we usually manage.

Admittedly, it could just be my perspective has shifted.....we probably try to do more last minute stuff than we used to so maybe I'm all wrong.... It is frustrating though to want to go, and look on reserve america only to find nothing available in the whole area.....

I would like to see more campgrounds also. I think there is such a great cost to start from scratch, that it hinders more being developed. Trying to get Planning and Zoning is most likely a really big headache right off the bat. Another problem is folks need to have everything right off the bat IE: full hook-ups, really great Wi-Fi, etc. that most wouldn't be able to make the initial outlay to even make a go at it.

You answered your question with the last word of your last sentence.>>>D

January in Florida, and we're currently in one of the less well known state parks, Gold Head Branch, a little north of the Ocala National Forest (our next stop). At a guess, I would say the park is at best 60% occupied right now. I don't know if the cold weather has scared people away or not, but when folks talk about how crowded things get down here in "snowbird season", I just think of parks like this one and wonder...

Greg Barker said:

Also, disenfranchised Californians who have lost jobs have moved into RVs to survive, many dry-camping in whatever parking lots they can find.

We get blamed for everything

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Don't know about you but I'm moving to Idaho if I lose my job.  Oh wait, I'm retired and I have lots of money. 

NY_Dutch said:

January in Florida, and we're currently in one of the less well known state parks, Gold Head Branch, a little north of the Ocala National Forest (our next stop). At a guess, I would say the park is at best 60% occupied right now. I don't know if the cold weather has scared people away or not, but when folks talk about how crowded things get down here in "snowbird season", I just think of parks like this one and wonder...

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yeah, even that one has been booked a few of the weekends we've checked (maybe December time frame, I can't remember exactly when it was now...)

NY_Dutch said:

January in Florida, and we're currently in one of the less well known state parks, Gold Head Branch, a little north of the Ocala National Forest (our next stop). At a guess, I would say the park is at best 60% occupied right now. I don't know if the cold weather has scared people away or not, but when folks talk about how crowded things get down here in "snowbird season", I just think of parks like this one and wonder...

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Interesting.  We are going to that area at the end of March and I tried to book a week at Silver Springs SP just east of Ocala and could only get 3 nights in the middle of the week.  I guess maybe because it's a little closer to "attractions."

To the OP, as others suggest, it's just a matter of where you want to go and when.  I've only been RVing for about six years, but here's what I've noticed:

1)  In our home state of IL, parks have become more crowded in the last 5 years.  My theory is that in 2012, the country was still recovering from the housing crash and recession and people just weren't spending money on RVs.  That seems to be no longer the case.  (BTW, for whatever reason, we're just not into commercial CGs; in six years, we've only actually stayed in national, state or county parks (and the occasional Walmart overnight))
2)  Unless we're near a tourist attraction, those crowds are primarily limited to weekends and holidays; still plenty of room in parks in mid-week.
3)  More parks are moving more campsites to reservation only, with fewer available on a first-come, first-served basis.  That said, for parks that do still set aside some space available sites, I think most full timers will tell you that if you arrive on a Sunday or early in the week, you can usually get one of those sites without much trouble and then stay there for a week or more.  On the other hand, if you show up at a popular campground on a Thursday or Friday night and expect to get a site without a reservation, you may be disappointed.
4)  National Park campgrounds (and state park campgrounds near major National Parks) often fill their reservable sites for peak periods within a few days, hours, or even minutes of the opening of the reservation window.  Therefore, if you want to reserve a site in those high-demand places, you need to plan well in advance.  For instance, when I planned a trip to the Utah national parks that included stays at popular state parks, I made myself calendar reminders of the days that the reservation windows opened (either 4 or 6 months in advance), and was online the moment the reservations opened.  Some, like Dead Horse Point SP (spectacular), were full within minutes.

Thanks for indulging my ramblings.  Bottom line, it depends where and when you want to go.  Although I think that RVing is becoming more popular and campgrounds more crowded at peak times, it's still very enjoyable.  Because I still work full time and don't have as much flexibility, we always make reservations.  However, many folks like Tom (SeilerBird) are still able to mostly travel where they want to without reservations.

During off peak times, usually when school is still in session, we find that reservations are fairly easy to obtain in State and National parks. During the summer or holidays it is much more difficult. Like some have mentioned here, if you can, try reserving Sunday-Thursday. That's what we do. For those of us that are eligible to use military FamCamps, we have noticed many famcamps are allowing folks to stay permanently. We have also noticed some FamCamps are allowing contractors working on the base/post to utilize the CG. We have seen those spots that have the picket fences and 100 gallon propane tanks in the FamCamps. Doesn't seem right.

jagnweiner said:

Interesting.  We are going to that area at the end of March and I tried to book a week at Silver Springs SP just east of Ocala and could only get 3 nights in the middle of the week.  I guess maybe because it's a little closer to "attractions."

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A better guess in part would be that Silver Springs itself IS an attraction. The home of the famous glass bottom boat tours. We were there for a week last winter, and it's a really nice park and campground.

Ricebug said:

... One Airstream had a white picket fence around it, telling me that they've been there awhile...

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I personally would look elsewhere if I checked on a site that had full timer, nothing against them but there's lots of campsites here in CA  .  Most I've visited had 14 days max camping.

Seon said:

I personally would look elsewhere if I checked on a site that had full timer.  Most I've visited had 14 days max camping.

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And of course there's no chance that might be a work camper or volunteer.

NY_Dutch said:

A better guess in part would be that Silver Springs itself IS an attraction. The home of the famous glass bottom boat tours. We were there for a week last winter, and it's a really nice park and campground.

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This is true.  Glad to hear the report; we are looking forward to it.

Seon said:

I personally would look elsewhere if I checked on a site that had full timer, nothing against them but there's lots of campsites here in CA  .  Most I've visited had 14 days max camping.

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As an administrator of RVParkReviews.com I can tell you that if you don't want to stay at any park or CG that has long-term residents you are pretty much limiting yourself to federal, state and local facilities that have mandated maximum stays.  Many (most?) privately owned parks throughout the country have decided that long term residents provide much appreciated steady revenue.  This is true of both "mom and pop" parks as well as major franchise chains such as KOA, Jellystone and others.

I don't know about all state and local park stay limits, but I do know of at least one national park campground where you're apt to find long term residents other than work campers and volunteers. Salt Springs Campground in the Ocala National Forest has a maximum 180 day stay limit. We'll be there for the first time next week, and it'll be interesting to see how "settled in" some of the guests are. We're only staying 5 nights though...