Cross US trip

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.

hpykmpr

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Posts
418
My wife and I are in the process of planning our trip across the US this summer. We plan to be gone for 5 to 5 1/2 months ,leaving Florida in mid May and traveling north through probably Missouri then taking westerly  route probably through South Dakota and Wyoming on to the Oregon , Washington area. Coming back we would take a route through Northern California .Arizona , New Mexico and then Through Texas. My main question , how long before hand must we make reservations to get campsites close to the national parks. We would like to just take it kind of one week at a time so if we are in a place where we want to stay extra days we can.We know there is a lot to see and if we make reservations too far ahead we are afraid we will have to leave some places before we may want to. We would like to know what other people's experience has been with getting campsites close to the national parks with out making reservations a long time in advance. Bye the way we will be a 38' Class a motor home. We are members of Passport America and Good Sam's as well having  access to military Fam Camps as my wife is retired civil service so we have a fairly good range of parks to try and find sites if they are available.  Thanks ... Alan
 
Sorry I guess I posted this in the wrong section , my bad , I will slap my knuckles with a ruler and ask someone who knows how to place it in the right place . Thanks .... Alan
 
We have spent a number of summers in the Northwest. We rarely make reservations more that a few days ahead. Every now and then a park we wanted to go to is full, but we just adjust our plans. Often we will call ahead the the day before or even the same day. If we know the CG is often full we may try to book a little further out. I will warn you that some of the Oregon State parks along the coast are very popular in the summer. It can be hard to get reservations on summer weekends because so many folks from Oregon love to go to the coast for a weekend. So we stayed at a state park during the week and move to a private park for the weekend.

We prefer to be flexible rather than being tied to a schedule dictated by reservations. Others will disagree, its really up to you and how you want to travel.

ken
 
I am in my tenth year of full timing and I have visited all 46 National Parks in the lower 48 states. I have spent an enormous amount of time camping in National Parks. I very rarely make reservations. 

My first question is what National Parks are you thinking about visiting and I can give you specific info on each of those parks. Second question, do you want to stay in the park or near the park. Staying in the park is almost always cheaper, but very few parks have hookups so if you want hookups you will probably have to stay outside the parks. If you want to stay in the park that have hookups you will definitely need reservations.

I usually stay a week or a month at a campground. Then I always leave on Sunday morning. That way I arrive at my new destination around noon Sunday when the campgrounds are the emptiest.

Sounds like a great trip you are planning, it should be a lot of fun.
 
If you want to stay in the national parks, as opposed to near them, you may need reservations for the more popular ones during their busy seasons, especially with a 38' RV. Yosemite, Yellowstone and Grand Canyon come to mind. They can be full up on reservations months before arrival. But if they are full, there are almost always places nearby where you can stay. And occasionally there may be a special event or spectacular weather or wildflowers that fill the campgrounds. The same thing applies to many state parks.

Enjoy your trip
Wendy
Crystal Cove State Park, Californa coast
 
You didn't say whether or not you have a towed vehicle.  If not, I highly recommend you consider it as it will make visits to the National Parks and other attractions much more enjoyable.  Plus it would expand your possible campsites to those less likely to require reservations and still allow you to visit the attractions.
 
Yeah, what Molaker said. Finding parking during the day for a 38' MH in many of the national parks could be very difficult. Without a toad, staying in the parks becomes the perferred option. Many of them have shuttles in the parks which are very handy.

Enjoy your travels
Wendy
 
Depends on the park and what site you want and "near" vs. "in".  Most Natl Parks take reservations for their sites that are reservable 6 mos. in advance.  I am planning a trip to Natl. Parks in Utah for June.  I made a note on my calendar 6 mos. out from my planned departure to start reserving campsites.  I went to reserve a site at Zion NP's Watchman CG the day after my dates were open for reservation and some of the most desirable spots were already taken, but I was able to still get a nice site for the days I wanted.  I just went back to the reservation site a few minutes ago, and only 15 of the 65 sites that would work for my 37' MH are available, over five months out.

Note, however, that most of the parks also have a number of sites that cannot be reserved and are first come-first served.  Some of the State Parks have different reservation windows.  For example, CO is 6 mos, but UT is only 4 mos.  If you want to guarantee some stays in the actual parks, I would plan ahead now and make some reservations.  Then you can always fill in the gaps in commercial CGs.
 
I, too, wasn't sure if you're wanting to stay in the parks or near...I think I understood near, so I'll tell you what we did.  We took the advice I read on the forum to not make reservations unless it was a holiday or special event.  Because of the Sturgis Rally, we made a reservation at Custer SP.  It didn't take us long into our trip to learn that we like FHU.  After realizing Custer SP didn't have water hookups (could've lived with no sewer, if necesary), I canceled and was still able to get a FHU site at a commercial park even though it was sort of last minute and Sturgis was beginning very soon.  Once we left a CG and were on the road, I'd call wherever we wanted to stay at the next destination.  Only once were we not able to get a site at our first choice.  I simply called the next on the list.  Your trip sounds fabulous.  Safe travels to you and enjoy! I'm from Florida also - Lakeland.
 
Thanks for all of the great replies. I will try to answer some of the questions asked in your replies.As to which parks ,I guess whichever parks that fall within driving distance of the route we choose would be the best answer I can give .Offhand without looking at the route I think maybe the first we will be looking at is Mt Rushmore.  We have visited most if not all of the parks in Utah along with The Grand Canyon from both sides and several  more in Arizona so they will most likely be at the bottom of our list but all of the rest are in our sights. To mention a few that we definitely want to visit are Yellowstone, Grand Teton ,Yosemite and Sequoia.Of course there are many more along the way as well.We will be towing a car so will not have to worry about parking the RV at the parks  and as far as staying in the parks as compared to staying in a campground near by we are very flexible. We also have the Army Corp campground book  as well as the others I mentioned in my other post. We are not opposed to staying where there are no or few services offered as we will keep out fresh water tank topped off and our propane tank full. The main criteria is that it be a nice place to park. Thanks ....Alan
 
hpykmpr said:
Sorry I guess I posted this in the wrong section , my bad , I will slap my knuckles with a ruler and ask someone who knows how to place it in the right place . Thanks .... Alan


Thanks Ned for getting me to the right section of the forum
 
Yellowstone - There is only one campground with hookups at Yellowstone, and that is Fishing Bridge. You will need reservations a few months in advance to stay there. There are a bunch more campgrounds that don't have hookups and I have never had a problem finding a spot if I showed up on a Sunday with the exception of Canyon, which you would need reservations for. There are a lot of RV parks in West Yellowstone in all price ranges. You won't need reservations for most of them, especially if you show up on Sunday.

Grand Teton - There is a full hookup RV park at Colter Bay that is pricey and you will need reservations to get in. There is also a large no hookup campground right next to it and you never need reservations for that one. Jackson has many RV parks but they are a long way from the things you want to see in the park. There are a few other no hookup campgrounds. Signal Mountain is also close to the sights. Jenny Lake is for tents only.

Yosemite - To stay on the valley floor you must have reservations. To make those reservations you have to be on their website exactly 5 months before and be there at 7 am. The reservation rules are complicated so here is a link that explains them:

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/camping.htm

There is a full hookup RV park in Portal, which is the closest to the park, but still not very close. Staying on the valley floor is the best way to go. Staying at any of the back country campgrounds will put you very far from the valley, which is where most everything is located.

Sequoia - Not many options here. Lodgepole is your best bet. You will need reservations. A better option is to stay at Sunset at Kings Canyon National Park which is right next door. Then use your car to explore both parks.
 
SeilerBird said:
Yellowstone - There is only one campground with hookups at Yellowstone, and that is Fishing Bridge. You will need reservations a few months in advance to stay there. There are a bunch more campgrounds that don't have hookups and I have never had a problem finding a spot if I showed up on a Sunday with the exception of Canyon, which you would need reservations for. There are a lot of RV parks in West Yellowstone in all price ranges. You won't need reservations for most of them, especially if you show up on Sunday.

Grand Teton - There is a full hookup RV park at Colter Bay that is pricey and you will need reservations to get in. There is also a large no hookup campground right next to it and you never need reservations for that one. Jackson has many RV parks but they are a long way from the things you want to see in the park. There are a few other no hookup campgrounds. Signal Mountain is also close to the sights. Jenny Lake is for tents only.

Yosemite - To stay on the valley floor you must have reservations. To make those reservations you have to be on their website exactly 5 months before and be there at 7 am. The reservation rules are complicated so here is a link that explains them:



http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/camping.htm

There is a full hookup RV park in Portal, which is the closest to the park, but still not very close. Staying on the valley floor is the best way to go. Staying at any of the back country campgrounds will put you very far from the valley, which is where most everything is located.

Sequoia - Not many options here. Lodgepole is your best bet. You will need reservations. A better option is to stay at Sunset at Kings Canyon National Park which is right next door. Then use your car to explore both parks.

Thanks for all of the info .It looks like you have covered them all. Information from someone who has been there is priceless and I will be looking at the web sites that you offered. Thanks again ... Alan
 
On our 2 month trip from Georgia to Yellowstone, the only reservations we made was Yellowstone itself as we wanted to stay at Fishing Bridge. After we got there found that really was not necessary. Only had on small problem. I believe it was in Cheyenne Wyoming, CG only has a site for one night, took management about a hour but they accommodated us for 3 days in the end.

Some days we did stop at a rest area or such and call a cg late in the afternoon when we decided that was as far as we wanted to drive that day.

Enjoy your trip, we really did.
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
134,550
Posts
1,431,346
Members
140,125
Latest member
Schwabelectric
Back
Top Bottom