Is this normal in these odd times?

[UTTransplant]

We are at Cedar Pass campground in Badlands National Park, concessionaire operated. We came in around 1:00 yesterday, and the place was pretty empty. Not unusual for a couple of hours after checkout time. The unusual came last night. At 8:00 pm there were still about 20% of the campsites unoccupied. They were all reserved, and the concessionaire requires payment in advance. We have been here a number of times before, and the campground has never had more than a site or two unoccupied. Kevin and I can?t understand if people made their reservations so long ago they forgot about them or what. They give partial fees back, and even if they didn?t, why not cancel and let someone else spend a night in the fully booked park? I am at a loss.

ETA two campsites didn?t leave until after 6:00 pm. Just packed up and left at dinner time. Definitely unusual.

 

[NY_Dutch]

I know several weekenders that routinely book a Monday departure at local state parks so they're not limited by the 11:00 am checkout time on Sunday. They often don't leave until quite late in the day depending on how far they away they live. I don't know what's up with all the no shows though...

 

[darsben]

Also people reserve Friday if you have 24 hours after check in to occupy the site that way then can come up Saturday A.M

 

[PancakeBill]

Back when we were weekenders we would often pay for Sunday night.  We only lived 45 minutes away, so we could stay all of the day and leave in the evening. 

The park we are next to in West Yellowstone almost always has empty sites and the Full sign up in late afternoon.  Not sure why, but the site was open in the morning as well.

 

[SargeW]

Could have just been no shows. We are at Point of Rocks in Prescott, AZ and there have been empty sites in spite of the "campground full" sign being out the last few days.  Could be the park has a 24 hour cancellation clause.

 

[Hfx_Cdn]

    We found no shows to be quite common in Florida state parks, and it was quite annoying when trying to get into popular areas.

Ed

 

[BruceinFL]

Seems like that happens a lot at gov campgrounds. Usually the daily site cost is so low and for some people not worth the trouble to cancel or forget to cancel. I think more sites at gov parks should be allotted to walk-ins. Unfortunately, the reverse is true, more sites advanced rs.

 

[lynnmor]

They give partial fees back, and even if they didn?t, why not cancel and let someone else spend a night in the fully booked park? I am at a loss.

People are reserving sites way ahead of time just in case they might need them.  They don't care about the money, the me first mentality has taken over.

 

[PJ Stough]

A few times each summer we camp with friends on weekends, but because there are so few reservable sites at the county parks we go to, and so much demand, if you want a spot for Friday and Saturday night, you have to go to the campground on Tuesday, put up a tent on the site you want, and pay for five nights.

 

[UTTransplant]

It is now 7:00 on a Saturday night, and the campground is filling up. More folks than last night,  it still quite a few of the smaller sites open. People could still be out and about though, so the final percentages will undoubtedly be more than it is now. I guess I am used to no-shows at cheap parks, but this one isn?t cheap (for a public park). $28 a night for electric, $23 a night without, no senior discount. I also found it interesting that the pull outs weren?t just full of cars either at 9 am when we left for sightseeing or 3:00 when we came back. Every viewpoint had multiple parking spots available, again, that?s unusual for his time of year. We drove into Wall for donuts (I do love their donuts!) and parking was available right in front of Wall Drug. Rapid City didn?t seem crowded either. I just thought it quite interesting with how much we hear about increasing RV interest, but it isn?t showing up here.

 

[caspian2]

We have camped numerous times in Florida state parks and experienced the same. Kind of annoying when they show no opening for reservation, then when you get there number of open spaces. We just camped in Jupiter Florida at a state park last weekend and had a hard time getting a spot, then we got there and the same situation with number of open sites. I guess no shows must be common or folks just get extra days for late departure or early arrival.

 

[Lou Schneider]

It might be the campground is only using every other space (50% capacity) for social distancing.

 

[sscottab]

last weekend we went to adirondack gateway rv resort, we got in late friday night because of a late start and the place was packed, we had some issues and the other campers around helped a lot i have a tread going about that so i wont post it here. we got in after hours and the staff had our packet taped to the door i call to let them know we where running late. the place was great to the point when i checked out i reserved the same spot for next month monday the 13th in and out friday the 17th and this time we will be on time.

 

[UTTransplant]

It might be the campground is only using every other space (50% capacity) for social distancing.

Not in this case. The sites are very big to begin with (National Park style), people are in sites on both sides of us, and each no show had a name and reservation date. When we went out to try for some astrophotography after dark, the place was much more full than it has been on Friday. Guess Friday was a random situation. The boondock sites just outside of the park were also pretty full with many obviously long term campers plus a healthy percentage of more short term folks. It has been way too cloudy for good night photography so far, and the forecast for the next two days isn?t promising. We might head outside the park to a boondock site or the Black Hills for a couple of days to see if the weather cooperates. It will be disappointing if a 1200 mile trip doesn?t result in at least a few pictures of the Milky Way. We have seen a lot of animals though including two different nursery herds of mountain sheep, 20 plus animals in each group. Ridiculously tame. We drove slowly by one cropping grass 5? from the roadway, and she didn?t even glance at us.

 

[Betty Brewer]

I just thought it quite interesting with how much we hear about increasing RV interest, but it isn?t showing up here.

Well all those interested RVers are on I-15 in Utah! Today was Sunday. I plan trips through Salt Lake City on weekends due to traffic.  I thought on Fathers Day many would be home with their BBQ. No. We had near bumper to  bumper traffic from Mesquite to Salt Lake City today. Travel trailers, SUV's pulling boats, all kinds of cars pulling trailers filled kayaks, canoes, bikes or paddle boards. A few  rental RV's.  We got the LAST spot at RV campground. Full hook up pull through for $65.12 with our Good Sam discount. Gulp.  We are eating in tonight! 
Made a reservation in Dillon, MT for tomorrow night and got the LAST spot too. Owner told me they thought they were going to  go broke in  April and May as  no one was there, Now everyone wants to get OUT. The two RV's beside us tonight were purchased within the last 2 days a London Aire and an Essex.

 

[Patnsuzanne]

I?m not sure it?s something all that new. We were at Palo Duro St Pk in Texas in May of ?19 and the Campground Full sign was out (we had reservations). We spent 3 nights there and there were 3 or 4 sites on our loop alone that were marked Reserved that never had anybody in them.

 

[Utclmjmpr]

I am finding that RV dealers are reserving BLOCKS of spaces at the more popular spots as a "perk" for a purchase..  This is just a cost of doing business for large dealers,, and at a loss of only 8 bucks per spot, well worth it, used or not.>>>Dan

 

[cavie]

Did you stop and think that the virus might have something to do with it? Some folks take the issue seriously.

 

[timjet]

A couple of things may explain the no shows.
The virus may be keeping some people away, though I can't understand why. It's easy to social distance in a park if you want to.
Public park fee's are low and may explain why people don't cancel.
Many state parks use the Reserve America website to handle their reservations. Reserve American has a fee to change or cancel a reservation and sometimes depending on where the park is the fee to cancel may be close or even more to cancel than to keep the reservation. I would like to see those fee's changed. I tried to cancel a reservation at a boondocking site in Utah and the fee to cancel was more than the fee to keep the reservation.

 

[NY_Dutch]

ReserveAmerica does not set the fees that are charged to customers making, changing, or cancelling reservations. Those fees are set by the individual organizations that own or operate the facilities. Georgia State Parks for example, allow one change at no charge, but charges $10 for cancellations. NY State Parks on the other hand, charge $9 for all changes and cancellations.