Western States Vacation

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.
See posts with no answers
Meffrig

Meffrig

Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2013
Posts
12
Location
Carrollton, Ky.
On my bucket list is a trip out west in summer or fall of 2017 for my wife and I. We have a 35 foot Class A motor home with a tow vehicle. We have about 3 or 4 weeks and will be leaving from Louisville, Ky. We want to see the Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore, Bryce Canyon, and Yellowstone for sure but would like to see other places as well. We have no desire to go to Las Vegas or into California. Should we do reservations for campgrounds or just play it by ear? Any travel route ideas would be helpful as well. I know there's a bunch of places to visit. I really don't want to drive more than 6 hours per day. This will probably be the only chance we have to go so we want to see as much as possible. Thanks in advance for your help. All ideas are appreciated.
 
I full timed for ten years mainly in National Parks and never had reservations. But there is a secret. Campgrounds empty out Sunday morning as people return to work. Be at any campground before noon Sunday and you are sure to find a spot. If you figure on 6 days of driving from Kentucky to Arizona and six days going back you are not going to be left with much time for camping. You could add more destinations but you would really be cutting it thin. Zion, Arches, Glacier, Grand Teton and Sedona are all wonderful destinations. It is too bad you won't get to California. You will be missing Yosemite, Death Valley, Sequoia, Redwood, and Joshua Tree National Parks. There really is an embarrassment of riches in the west.
 
I always disagree with SeilerBird about national park reservations, particularly with a motor home. Things have changed in the last few years. Visitation to the parks has increased by at least 50% over just the last 3-5 years, and campsites that used to be easy to get are now frequently filled up. Summer will be really hot in Arizona and southern Utah (100 degree hot!) and incredibly crowded in Yellowstone. I would recommend planning your trip for September, heading north first and then back to the southern parks. Get reservations for the national parks as soon as the reservation window opens. You will fit in only a few spots within the parks. If you need hookups, your best sites will sometimes be outside the parks. Much more expensive, but usually not much of a drive. Let's face it, you will be away from the coach most of the time anyway! Even for September I would recommend reservations for the parks themselves. Traveling between them can be done without reservations.
 
That is a very ambitious for 3 or 4 weeks. You will spend too much time driving. and not enough time seeing things. We go to all of those places, but even taking 6 week trips, we don' try to do them all in the same year.

We eill do Yellowstone N.P., Beartooth mountains, Bighorn mounains, Black Hills / Mt. Rushmore, and Badlands N.P. in one trip. Other years, we will do Zion N.P., Bryce N.P., Grand Canyon N.P., Capitol Reef N.P., Arches N.P., and Canyonlands N.P.

Joel
 
3-4 weeks is enough if you plug in some long drive days.  You could do 8-12 hours going out and coming back.  You should also plan long drive days between major parks.  Plan 2-3 days at different locations and it becomes doable.

The Rushmore area is worth 2-3 days.  You can get the Yellowstone experience in 3-4 days.
 
Yes visitation in National Parks is up but getting a campsite is still easy even with a motorhome. Most all of the campgrounds do not take reservations. Every day people check out. If you are in the campground before noon you simply claim a site as soon as it empties out.
 
    We just came home at the beginning of Oct from a 5 week trip from all of these places.  We did not have reservations for the most part; we like to travel without restrictions. Having said that we were not able to get into MANY places.  We stayed on BLM land and National Forests, with Walmart and Cabbalas in the mix.  What we saw were tons of "rented campers" and they were in the commercial campgrounds and at the national park campgrounds.                         

      We personally did not have an issue with were we stayed but if you like electric you might not like it.  I believe we went well over a week one time before we could get an official camping site with electric.  Even the BLM was full in places; Moab was one area.  We were on the third BLM camp area before we could get in while in that area of Utah.

      So yes it can be done without reservations, but if you like campgrounds with hookups I would recommend reservations.  We were traveling from the end of Aug till the second week of October.  Weekends, weekdays it did not matter, places were full.  Many many rented campers.  We didn't think it would be so busy with school, but it was.
 
sswon1 said:
So yes it can be done without reservations, but if you like campgrounds with hookups I would recommend reservations.
Click to expand...
Yes, you need reservations for campgrounds with hookups in National Parks. But there are only a small amount of National Parks that have campgrounds with hookups. Trailer Village in the Grand Canyon, Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone, Colter Bay in Grand Tetons and Watchman at Zion are the only ones I can think of. However almost all the National Parks have RV parks located within a few miles of the entrance that offer hookups and most are easy to get into.
 
I'll be following this discussion.....

We are hoping to get away next summer for a similar trip, probably for only 2 to maybe 3 weeks.
DW wants to take the kids to the Grand Canyon
But if I go that far I really want to see Yosemite.... in fact that is just about the only place I really want to make a point to go.... I'd love to take the kids to see the big trees too, and DS would like to see Death Valley.  I had some discussions here a few months back about that.

Sadly, we have all but determined that IF we can pull it off, we'll likely get no further west than the canyon..... so our trip would be a bit more like yours, skipping California.
But with such a short time, so much of the trip will be driving.... and driving through summertime desert no less....  I'm not sure what we'll end up with.
 
If you go to the national parks around Moab and planning to camp there. Get reservations. Forget about going around Easter, as the Jeepers have the place all booked up. You have to check out Dead Horse Point State Park there. Temps in the summer are around 100F. Another place to check out is Lake Powell. If you camp around Bullfrog. Beware of the goatsheads!  :-\
 
After Labor Day, the parks thin out a bit. You can get into place then that are impossible during the main season without reservations.
We tried to get in the Tetons almost the end of September, but it was full.






 
For Grand Teton I'd recommend Gros Ventre campground who don't take reservations.  They have some electric sites and a dump station and water point at the entrance. You can stay for up to 14 nights. It will be $52 per night in 2017 for electric site,  discounts available  which we were not eligible for, a great campground on the edge of the park. I can't remember check out time but suggest you try to get there before noon.  Lots to see and do. We saw female moose at campground and a horned owl.

http://www.gtlc.com/camping/gros-ventre-campground

 
Meffrig,

We live about 2 hours from you in western Kentucky.  Your trip mimics what we want to do next summer.  We thought we wouldn't get reservations, but after reading some of the replies, we may need to rethink it.

I am so looking forward to next summer!
 
When we were at the Grand Tetons at the beginning of September we stayed at Coulter Bay campground. We arrived a bit after noon that day, it is a first come campground.  We did get into the generator loop, which was nice because it was in the lower 30's at night.  From what I remember, the campground did fill by the end of the day. I recommend get in early and then explore the park.
 
Shakerag Diva said:
Meffrig,

  We thought we wouldn't get reservations, but after reading some of the replies, we may need to rethink it.
Click to expand...

It can be done, but if you like hookups then get reservations.  We were gone 5 weeks after school had started, and maybe had hookups about 6 nights.  Everywhere we went there was rental campers, and they were in the organized campgrounds.  We dry camped on BLM and State/National forests. 
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 682 (members: 3, guests: 679)

Forum statistics

Threads
132,151
Posts
1,391,105
Members
137,873
Latest member
TessInBandon
Back
Top Bottom