I guess I'm just ranting

I may sound selfish but

I?m trying to make reservations for our 3 month summer trip. I want to visit the big 5 parks in Utah and Yellowstone with many points in between. I?m already too late making reservations in some of the public parks.

The RV industry just closed out another banner year for sales. In excess of half a million units sold. So where do you think all these folks want to use their new RV?s. Yup you guessed it, Utah and Yellowstone.

The stock market took a 600 pt dump earlier this week. Is it telling us something? Historically the market can be in the bull mode for about 7 years and then it contracts. We?re overdue. It?s coming. Some will try and time the market, the smart ones get out while the getin?s  good.

What?s the first thing folks dump when the economy contracts? Yup boats and RV?s. I?ve worked hard all my life. Withheld buying expensive toys till I got close to retirement. Now retired I want to enjoy this wonderful hobby, not compete with others.

The park service probably didn?t properly estimate the popularity of their holdings. With record number of baby boomers retiring daily and working folks with more leisure time it?s only inevitable that public parks are going to be stressed. Public money goes elsewhere.

So about that market contraction ?.. I guess I am selfish!

You really have to know your plans many months in advance for popular destinations. It's not like the olden days at all, folks could cruise from locale to locale without worry that there is not a space available when they arrive.

I plan my trips a minimum of the first day of a booking window opening. Many federal parks have a 6 month booking window, some longer some shorter. I also enjoy the planning phase as much as the going phase almost.

My plans for the year have already been made, all reservations in place, and three were reserved a year in advance.

We have traveled a lot, all states but Hawaii, all provinces except Newfoundland, and we are on the other side of the coin. We do not reserve early, sometimes we will call on the way to see if there is an opening. We did not camp IN Yellowstone, but camped NEAR. Always worked for us, and the idea of planning a year in advance is not good for us, obviously good for others. One time we left a campground in the morning, and within the hour saw a new place, stayed a couple days.

We wander, once in Texas it was too darn hot, wound up in Alaska. That is our way of enjoying travel! We started doing this maybe 50 years ago, and sometimes I look back at the campers we have owned (too many?) and think of the money we could have accumulated.  Then I think of the memories we have accumulated and think we did OK!

Reservations are not needed even at the most popular parks in the middle of summer. If a campground does not take reservations all you have to do is be in the campground at around 8 am when people are leaving and wait till someone vacates a site you want. The economy has nothing to do with it. Every day people check out. It is first come first serve. Be there early and there are always spaces available. I did it for ten years full timing.

In todays world Tom,, that space that just vacated has already been reserved and you will be told to vacate.>>>

Utclmjmpr said:

In todays world Tom,, that space that just vacated has already been reserved and you will be told to vacate.>>>

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I am talking about campgrounds that do not take reservations.

SeilerBird said:

Reservations are not needed even at the most popular parks in the middle of summer. If a campground does not take reservations all you have to do is be in the campground at around 8 am when people are leaving and wait till someone vacates a site you want. The economy has nothing to do with it. Every day people check out. It is first come first serve. Be there early and there are always spaces available. I did it for ten years full timing.

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Great idea, Early bird gets the worm.  But wait, did you drive during the night  :-\, my wife would not be cool with that.

If what I've been seeing while watching this forum is true, we need to continually complain.  The Country is at it's best in many years.  That stock market tick yesterday, always happens with growth.  The Economy looks very promising, and if that is true, and more baby boomers do buy RVs, well, let's complain to the only people who can change that.  If you want to be that troll that says, ya, they don't listen, please, the rest of us do believe in our great country.

National Park Service.
https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/contactus.htm

And

Our Elected officials
https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

Tell them we need more camping options in our Beautiful and Wonderful parks

Keep in mind the National Park Service is also charged with preservation of the park lands and resources. That mission is seldom compatible with creating more camping spaces. Maybe private campground interests adjacent to the parks should be encouraged to take advantage of the market expansion opportunities as well.

SeilerBird said:

Reservations are not needed even at the most popular parks in the middle of summer. If a campground does not take reservations all you have to do is be in the campground at around 8 am when people are leaving and wait till someone vacates a site you want. The economy has nothing to do with it. Every day people check out. It is first come first serve. Be there early and there are always spaces available. I did it for ten years full timing.

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When was the last time you actually traveled?

spencerpj said:

Great idea, Early bird gets the worm.  But wait, did you drive during the night  :-\, my wife would not be cool with that.

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I usually get up around 5am and leave directly so I arrive at the next campground by 8am. It is called planning.

John Beard said:

When was the last time you actually traveled?

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Agreed we did that in the late 70's times have changed Washington State allows you to book 9 months to the day in advance and most of the popular places are booked on that 9 month day. We would use 6-7 computors to book 3 spots if we were going as a group.

It gets harder and harder every year here in Alberta the May long week in the Provincal Parks will sell out 10,000 spots within seconds of opening the booking window. So to avoid it we travel a day in advance and an extra day after and go a little further but its all good you have to. Be flexible

John Beard said:

When was the last time you actually traveled?

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The RVing world has definitely changed in the last 5-7 years. Many Utahns now complain the state tourism office advertising for the Mighty Five and The Grand Circle was a bit too successful. Add to the multi millions of new RVs bought in the last few years to the increasing number of retirees, and the entire thing is fraught with overcrowding. The poor NPS is slowly being suffocated for lack of funds, and the campgrounds inside the parks are increasingly being transferred to private concessionaires. We generally still travel without reservations except to popular tourist locations. We sometimes find sites in the parks without reservations, but it is iffy even with a relatively small trailer like we have. Once we buy a motorhome, I am not even going to try. Too few sites for the bigger rigs, and too many people trying to get them.

For the OP, I recommend continuing to check the reservation web sites. People do cancel all the time, and you just have to be there to grab the reservation. Get a backup site at a private park, or set your rig up for boondocking as an alternative. Don?t get too discouraged. The beautiful places are still beautiful even if they are crowded.

As a middle aged couple  just starting our RV life I find this a bit disturbing. That said...basically all our travel will be in the winter months so I would expect a good portion of the competition will be working during the week.
I don't think I care either way. We have some solar and will add if needed to ensure we always have a place to set camp.

I would not worry about it Jeff, finding open sites to camp in is not as big a problem as some people make it out to be. There are millions of campgrounds and RV parks in this country and most of them have many open sites. However if you feel you must camp inside Yellowstone in July with full hookups it will be more difficult.

I?m trying to make reservations for our 3 month summer trip. I want to visit the big 5 parks in Utah and Yellowstone with many points in between. I?m already too late making reservations in some of the public parks.

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So reserve at a non-public park. It will cost you a bit more, but that's the price of being a late-comer. Might have some nicer features, though.

Yellowstone has convenient campgrounds outside the West and North entrances and somewhat less convenient locations at the East and South sides. You are going to do a lot of driving to see all of Yellowstone anyway, so being in or outside the park makes little difference [in my opinion].  Arches NP also has plenty of private campgrounds within easy driving distance (all of Moab).

Yosemite and Bryce are a bit tougher - not a lot of facilities nearby.

The NPS doesn't even have enough funding to maintain the parks, let alone expand the facilities. Write your Congressman!

SeilerBird said:

I would not worry about it Jeff, finding open sites to camp in is not as big a problem as some people make it out to be. There are millions of campgrounds and RV parks in this country and most of them have many open sites. However if you feel you must camp inside Yellowstone in July with full hookups it will be more difficult.

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Not worried Tom.
Our goals are to get out of the cold, explore the west from the ground. Concentrate on smaller towns as we've been to most of the big cities when on vacations. Explore locations to buy a winter place when we hang up the keys. We are simple folks. We've been to Florida countless times. Want to see what else is out there. That is what this new coach will allow us to do.

I find that getting out of "sync" with the rest of the herd to make everything quite enjoyable.  Get up early and moving.  You can do in two hours what will take 6 with the crowds.  The destinations are usually fully staffed with well rested people ready for the day.  Eat lunch early and enjoy a nearly empty dining room.  Go to bed right after quiet hours. 

I learned a while ago - It helps me to only worry about what I can control.  I can't control RV sales, who retires, who is on vacation or what the park services does.  I can only control my attitude, smile and what I do. 

KandT said:

I find that getting out of "sync" with the rest of the herd to make everything quite enjoyable.  Get up early and moving.  You can do in two hours what will take 6 with the crowds.  The destinations are usually fully staffed with well rested people ready for the day.  Eat lunch early and enjoy a nearly empty dining room.  Go to bed right after quiet hours. 

I learned a while ago - It helps me to only worry about what I can control.  I can't control RV sales, who retires, who is on vacation or what the park services does.  I can only control my attitude, smile and what I do. 

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Love it. We should get a beer! 8)

I don't know whether you require full hookups or are looking in state and national parks, but National parks and some state parks do not take reservations more than 6 months in advance.  So, today is February 3.  That means there were sites open at Zion this morning at 8:00 am. open for August 3.  In fact, there are some sites available from July 30.  So, if it were me, I would block out my trip for at least August and start making reservations.

The no-hookup campground at Zion accepts reservations only 14 days before your arrival date, so you can get into there.  And there are always cancellations at other campgrounds. 

Have you called Grand Canyon? If your rig is less than 30' long, you can try the Mather Campground.  There are still sites available.

Finally, you might want to adjust your dates if you have flexibility.  Most of us who want to visit the busiest national parks and such try to travel in off-months, such as late August to October.   

  We just started RV camping a couple years ago, and I too was surprised at how fast campgrounds fill up. But once we kinda learned the ropes we got over it. It?s not really all that bad, with the exception of certain places that everyone seems to want to go.
  While travelling, we are never sure quite when we will want to stop, so about an hour or so before we decide we are going to pull over she starts using her phone app to find nearby campgrounds and we have never not been able to find a place. We have stayed at some many really nice, small, family owned campgrounds I can?t count them any more. The bigger spots on the map, yeah, it can be a little tuff to get in there.
  The other suggestion I have for the younger crowd reading some of these posts is to not wait until everything is perfect in your life to get out there an enjoy it. You may not have all the time or money you need yet, but personally, I would go ahead and get a head start on enjoying your life, even if it?s smaller doses for now. Free life tip from the Boonieman.  ??