Saving Camping Spots

Okay...can I just get something off my chest? I work with this gal & she has a 5th wheel & so does her daughter & SIL. Her husband & SIL will take their campers to the lake & leave them there a few days before they can get off work & get up there to "save" their spots so other people don't get the good spots. I never thought much of it b/c they have been doing this long before we got our first RV (& we don't go to the lake). This weekend we were camping & met these "nice" people as we were getting ready to leave. They talked about how they park their camper in spots days before they will actually be there & they do this all the time. I think this is awful...taking up spots that other people could be using when you're not, ESPECIALLY in our state & neighboring states where the beetle kill is SO bad & SO many campgrounds are shut down. Spots are limited. Not to mention I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving my camper unattended for days like that! They do take their propane tanks out.

Thank you. I feel better now.

It is sad that some people have NO respect for others. Must not have a camp host or reservation system. Are they paying for the spots?

Some places have eliminated this practice by forcing sites to be occupied by people, not just an rv or tent. When we lived near Atlanta years ago prime weekend spots near the lakes were almost impossible to come by. They were first come first served. There was actually a cottage industry of high school age kids that you could hire to camp in a prime spot during the week, and then turn the spot over to you on the weekend. I don't have a clue what the answer is. We empathize.

Most forest service campgrounds have a rule that the campsite must be occupied the first night. I guess you don't have to physically be there after the first night. But I agree that it's kind of tacky to take up a spot when you're not even there. Maybe one night if you have to go home or into town for something but not repeatedly and just to hold a good spot.

Wendy

We've been in parks where people do that and it seems pretty obvious.  People park and immediately leave and don't come back until the weekend.  I know that the park is getting their money and they don't seem to want to enforce the rule about occupying the site.  The people probably figure that nobody is hurt since they are paying for the site.  Paying an extra $100 while they aren't there to insure that they have a perfect spot for the weekend.

I can understand both sides of this.

Having moved to a larger 31' trailer there are sites in some campgrounds we just cant get into.  The crap shoot of driving much of a distance along with all the other prep work and then not being able to get a decent campsite would make me think the extra days fees would be worth it.

I think this could be taken care of with some sort of reservation system.  I am also aware that would be hard to do and enforce and likely cause many other issues!

"scratching head" Not sure what the best answer is....

In addition to what Bostonsmax describes, there are very popular Corps of Engineers and State Parks in some parts of the country where folks will reserve every weekend as soon as they become available and then either just not show up or cancel at the last minute. We have been in some of these parks when the weather is bad and there are empty sites all weekend with reserved signs on them.

Not too long ago, the National Park Service was grappling with folks reserving sites in Yosemite and then charging high prices (scalping) to resell the site and transfer it. I believe they addressed the issue by changing the rules for transferring sites.

Seems there is always someone ready, willing and able to game whatever system.

BigDfromTN, I encountered a reservation system being used at Bennett Springs State Park in Missouri earlier this summer.  I don't know if the system is used at all Missouri state parks, but this one was set up with photos of each spot so that you could pick the spot you wanted.  I made plans for that trip months in advance.  Not having been to the park, photos were a bit deceiving, but the concept seemed good.  Nothing like having been to a park and kept good notes, to know what to pick on the next trip.

In this particular case I witnessed this weekend, it was in a National Forest that doesn't need reservations. The parks close by are closed due to the beetle kill so it's difficult to get the sites nearby. There are "obvious" marked sites, if you know what I mean but they are not in parks that take reservations. So it's on a first come, first served basis. WE take extra vacation time earlier in the week so that we can (fingers crossed) hopefully get a decent site. If we don't, we don't and we move on to another less desirable but still beautiful place...after all, we're still in the mountains. We don't like to get too close to the trees anyway, as they're all falling! There are still others, just not the ones that are our first choices. But we certainly wouldn't go up and park our camper early to get our favorite one.

The campground owner where I'm seasonal loves it when people do that.  He collects the rent and they don't use his services like electricity, water and sewage.  I suspect that most privately owned campground owners feel the same way. If they rent the site, it's up to them if they want to sleep there or not.  Not much different than if I rent a car and don't put a mile on it, or rent an apartment and rarely sleep there.  Is it fair to others that want to also rent it, probably not.

Government run parks are different as they often try to give oppurtunitity to more people to enjoy the park.  I've seen some here that have a maximum on the duration of the stay, but never heard that the site must be occupied in my neck of the woods.

As far as reservations are concerned, I've seen lots of campgrounds that take reservations, but you cannot reserve a specific site until you show up at the gate to register which probably encourages people to show up on Thursday instead of Friday after work.  The only time I am really picky about reservations is when travelling in a group, we usually want to be grouped together as we all have young kids and it's easier for all the adults to sit by the same campfire when we can each see our own trailer.

Marc...I suppose if you're paying for the site and not using it that's one thing (I'm not sure how I feel about that). But if it's in a National Forest and you're not paying for it but just taking up the better spaces others could be enjoying then shame on you.

If they are not paying for the site, than that's a totally different story.  That means the park is losing money and it means others can't get spots.


National Parks in Canada are not operated like that, people have to pay for every nite the site is occupied (by people or objects).  So if someone holds a site 2 nights in advance, they are paying for those 2 nights.

Marc L said:

The campground owner where I'm seasonal loves it when people do that.  He collects the rent and they don't use his services like electricity, water and sewage.  I suspect that most privately owned campground owners feel the same way. If they rent the site, it's up to them if they want to sleep there or not.  Not much different than if I rent a car and don't put a mile on it, or rent an apartment and rarely sleep there.  Is it fair to others that want to also rent it, probably not.Government run parks are different as they often try to give oppurtunitity to more people to enjoy the park.  I've seen some here that have a maximum on the duration of the stay, but never heard that the site must be occupied in my neck of the woods.

As far as reservations are concerned, I've seen lots of campgrounds that take reservations, but you cannot reserve a specific site until you show up at the gate to register which probably encourages people to show up on Thursday instead of Friday after work.  The only time I am really picky about reservations is when travelling in a group, we usually want to be grouped together as we all have young kids and it's easier for all the adults to sit by the same campfire when we can each see our own trailer.

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Maybe that is why one place we go to now quit taking reservations???  OR they were too lazy to keep up with which sites were reserved and which someone could rent.  I can see that being a real nightmare without the proper paper or computer system.

As for being together with a group.  Completely agree.  It also avoids the hassle etc of having to either go around, or cross someone elses site to go back and forth.  I would not like to be the one with a slot in the middle of a bunch of folks camping together.  I think it would be kinda awkward.

A lot depends on the campground and its rules, but so long as they are PAYING BY THE NIGHT and there is no rule against it... I would not complain, might grumble, but not complain. Yes courtesy is a word in the dictionary to many people.

Now where I happen to be typing they have a rule.. Your first night on site you MUST occupy your RV.. So I think it was the summer before last.. I pulled on on a Sunday, and set up.. 1 week later they oepened some new "Prime" sites so I (and my neighbor) moved,  Again this was Sunday, I have now been in the park a week.. Wed (I think it was) I get up and head out for coffee and I find I've been ticketed overnight for violation of that "First night you got to be in the RV" policy.

Uh, it is the middle of my 2nd week, I have been in the park over a week on site for over 2 nights,  Yes, I gave said red tag to the park manager along with a few words that suggested his security officer needed a bit of re-education.  I was not the only one either, the Class C accross from me got tagged too.

If you object to the practice, talk to park management about a rule such as we have here.

Another rule is you may not leave the unit on site for more than ONE NIGHT unoccupied.  If you are gone 2 consecutive nights.. It gets tagged and can be removed from site by park management.

Of course this is a Membership park,, I pay a flat rate for use of the park no matter if I'm here or not, there is no "per night" fee.  That makes a difference.

The "Occupied 1st Nite" rule applies to NFS campgrounds in the Shoshone Forest outside of Yellowstone.  Only one campground (Wapiti) takes reservations as far as I know and it is also the only one with any type of hookups, although the idiot who designed it couldn't spell RV so half of them are on the wrong side of the sites

Personally (and it's just me I'm sure), I don't like the reservation system but I lead a slightly different lifestyle than the normal workaday person as far as flexibility is concerned.  The occupied first nite rule unfortunately isn't easy to enforce if there is no camp host.  In years past I've gone up with the rig and set up for the night and my wife has joined me the following day or weekend.  I've even commuted to work on more than one occasion from a camp spot 50 miles away just so we'd be able to spend a few extra days up in the woods.  But setting up and just leaving your rig is extremely rude, I'd love to be the tow truck driver who gets to enforce the occupied first nite rule though.

I agree that it's not very nice to just park and leave with the express purpose of saving the spot which prevents others from using it.  On the other hand, sometimes there are valid reasons for doing it.  We were in Michigan when we needed to make an unscheduled flying trip to Florida.  We found a nice campground, spent one night, and then left for almost a week.  I also know of people who have done it because they needed to attend a wedding, graduation, funeral, or some other family event across the country so I would cuation against jumping to conclusions.

ArdraF

Like Big D, I see both sides of it.  If I'm paying full price for the spot, what does it matter?  And like he mentioned, I want to make sure I have a spot that will accomodate the size of my trailer. 

Then again, those who can't afford to do this or can't get the time off to get the spot ahead of time are at a disadvantage. 

We usually take VAC days in the middle of the week and hit the campgrounds Tue & Wed, and leave by the weekend.  Almost always get our pick of the sites.....but if we want to be somewhere on a busy weekend, I've been known to sneak it up there and pay for 8 or 9 days to get the site I want.  Doesn't work at Forest Service CG's because of the first night rule, but does at the private ones. 

Oh no Ardra, neither of the people I am talking about have had to leave for an emergency wedding or funeral...not that a wedding would be an emergency . They simply save sites on a regular basis so that they can get the good spots. This information came directly from them and it doesn't bother them a bit to talk about it. As for having to pay, I would imagine the ones at the lake had to pay since I think it's a state park, so I guess if they're willing to pay for it then so be it. As for the other people I was talking about, it is NOT in a campground, it is simply in an "open" National Park area that happens to have nice camping "sites" where people have obviously camped for years. They all have little campfire areas all made up (not that we can have campfires right now with the ban) so it's like being in a campground, but not. I hope that makes sense.

On another interesting note, some people were camped near us this weekend and when another couple pulled in and parked across the road from them, the woman came out of her camper and told them, "If you're going to stay here we're going to have to leave. We came out here to be alone and we have dogs that we like to let run all over." What??? In a National Park you're going to try to run someone off? The people were SO nice and "talked them out of leaving" as they were only spending one night. Ha! I would have said, "Have a safe trip home!" They had no intentions on leaving. They wanted the other couple to leave. They tried to tell us where we could turn around when we pulled in so that we could leave. I informed her we weren't leaving. We were all more spread out than in a campground! We made sure to run right over and welcome them. We were all set to move our pickup so that they could camp right next to us if they needed to. Some people!

BostonsMax said:

On another interesting note, some people were camped near us this weekend and when another couple pulled in and parked across the road from them, the woman came out of her camper and told them, "If you're going to stay here we're going to have to leave. We came out here to be alone and we have dogs that we like to let run all over." What??? In a National Park you're going to try to run someone off?

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Sounds a bit like what we do at Quartzsite to drive off interlopers, except that we warn them that there'll be around 25-30 other RVs coming in ;D ;D ;D ;D

BostonsMax, yes I understood these people were doing it intentionally and weren't very nice to do so.  I just wanted to point out that "sometimes" there are extenuating circumstances that cause people to do this.

ArdraF