One more question. Also looking at national park campsites. We usually glamp in private campsites with full hookups. I have no problem with boondocking. Looking for a small generator mostly to charge my battery. "Suitcase" type generators are usually around 1600 or 1700 watts. Should be good?
1st cross country trip. Looking for advice
- Thread starter R.J.
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
We camped in the upper peninsula of MI in the height of tourist season. Near any town, campsites were hard to get, between towns, not such a problem.
We found Glacier NP better on the forested west side as opposed to the high plains desert of the east side. Unfortunately you have to drive about 100 miles around the south end to get to the west side. While on the east side of GNP campsites were hard to find, as it was peak tourist season. Reserving spots in the park was difficult because the spaces for TT was limited and booked a year ahead of time. We have a National Park Pass otherwise we would have had to pay an entrance fee every time we went in to the park.
We did a day trip up to the Canadian portion but I did not get a chance to check out the camping situation. Remember guns are not allowed in Canada without proper approval, usually before hand.
One other thing to consider which I know sounds stupid, but after 5 or 6 weeks of travel even the dog was a little home sick.
We have found that while we dearly love to travel and rarely stay in one spot for any length of time, after 5 to 6 weeks it is good to touch base and reset for the next adventure.
Good Luck
We found Glacier NP better on the forested west side as opposed to the high plains desert of the east side. Unfortunately you have to drive about 100 miles around the south end to get to the west side. While on the east side of GNP campsites were hard to find, as it was peak tourist season. Reserving spots in the park was difficult because the spaces for TT was limited and booked a year ahead of time. We have a National Park Pass otherwise we would have had to pay an entrance fee every time we went in to the park.
We did a day trip up to the Canadian portion but I did not get a chance to check out the camping situation. Remember guns are not allowed in Canada without proper approval, usually before hand.
One other thing to consider which I know sounds stupid, but after 5 or 6 weeks of travel even the dog was a little home sick.
We have found that while we dearly love to travel and rarely stay in one spot for any length of time, after 5 to 6 weeks it is good to touch base and reset for the next adventure.
Good Luck
Yonder
Well-known member
We were not able to get in to Arches due it being full. That was August. The problems are that many (most?) of the parks do not take reservations and if you go earlier or later in the year, the higher elevation parks may not be open. Then there is the weather. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, we live near Glacier and, in many years due to the rate of snow clearing and the weather itself, it is open less than 3 months to the top of Logan pass. I read many on here that are okay with flexibility and catch-as-catch-can. That just doesn't work for me most of the time. We are not yet retired so we just don't have that flexibility. So we have learned our lesson and now opt for nearby private RV parks that will take reservations. One of the benefits is full hook-ups which are rarely available in the NPs
The common theme in all this is calling ahead.
It is not that you should be on a tight schedule but some places are just crowded or hard to get to because of there location.
We circumnavigated AZ in March, it was the off season so campsites were easy to come by; UNTIL we here going to Lake Havasu City in to see the London Bridge and hit the local spring break. Likewise when we went to Las Vegas there were lots of campgrounds but there we also a lot of full campgrounds also.
Our trip to Zion, Bryce and Arches required some planning because many of the closer campground were closed or still experiencing night temps in the teens, that meant the lower elevations campground were the only ones available to us. We never made it to Arches NP because the road were still closed in March.
A call ahead to the campgrounds in the area you expect to be in, about two or three days ahead of time, will tell you if you need reservation or if they typically have open spots. We rarely book ahead unless campsites are hard to get, because we rarely stick to a schedule.
Good Luck
It is not that you should be on a tight schedule but some places are just crowded or hard to get to because of there location.
We circumnavigated AZ in March, it was the off season so campsites were easy to come by; UNTIL we here going to Lake Havasu City in to see the London Bridge and hit the local spring break. Likewise when we went to Las Vegas there were lots of campgrounds but there we also a lot of full campgrounds also.
Our trip to Zion, Bryce and Arches required some planning because many of the closer campground were closed or still experiencing night temps in the teens, that meant the lower elevations campground were the only ones available to us. We never made it to Arches NP because the road were still closed in March.
A call ahead to the campgrounds in the area you expect to be in, about two or three days ahead of time, will tell you if you need reservation or if they typically have open spots. We rarely book ahead unless campsites are hard to get, because we rarely stick to a schedule.
Good Luck
muskoka guy
Well-known member
The problem with trying to book ahead is you cant always be sure you will be where you think you will be. We did 10000 miles last winter, and are doing the same this year. We are from Ontario, and are currently in Needles California. We never make reservations. We took a week to get to Flagstaff from Ontario. This was putting a few 8 hours days driving at first, then doing four to six hour days after that. We wanted to see some stuff along the way, and driving 8 or 10 hours a day, you bypass lots of interesting things. We have 8 weeks in total. Dont kill yourself getting there, or you will be tired for a few days. You might as well take a few extra days to get there and be fresh. Back to the reservation aspect. Last year we hit a chunk of metal on the road and blew a front tire. This set us back a day. We had a problem at one campground. The disconnect relay went and we couldnt retract the slides. This set us back a day and a bit. In New Brunswick years ago, we blew a transmition. This is the problem with reservations. If we had reservations, we would have had cancellation fees due to not being there on the date reserved. If the whole trip was reserved, you would have to skip something to get back on track. We have travelled probably close to 45000 miles in the last six years, and have never made a reservation, except calling ahead either the same day, or maybe the day before if you are sure you are going to get there. The only time we have had to stay at a rest area or Walmart, is if we wanted to. Buy a National park pass, it is worth the cost if you want to see the parks. It doesnt cover camping, but gets you into many great things.
Frank B
Well-known member
Yep.
We thought about a really nice place on the Oregon coast for the trip home this year, but their cancellation policy is brutal. If they are as busy as they say, then they don't need me, and I don't need that kind of deadline pressure. Get enough of that at home. ;D
We have found that if one is traveling in the off-season, reservations are never needed anyway. And there are tons of free or low cost places to overnight. The only time I would consider making reservations is if we had a specific destination that we were going to be at for some time.
