RV Campsite costs and availability

[Lily&Me]

Originally Posted by StreamingEagle

This is my exact frustration!

One of the things that drew me to getting my trailer was the prospect of hitting the road at a moment's notice. After a season of camping now I have fully learned that camping is a WAY ahead of time planning game.

I like the idea of boondocking, but I don't always want to schlep my genset with me if I don't have to.

Is there any better way to find first-come first-serve locations?

Generally you will have more difficulty finding sites on weekends and during high season in a popular area.

I make advance reservations only for rallies and for places I know I want to spend a couple of weeks in, otherwise always able to find something hsiredtion I am headed.

If you decide at the last minute that you want to take off for the weekend, there are State forests that are no reservations, and I can think of a couple in northern Illinois , but head out on Thursday morning rather than Friday afternoon to make sure you have a Site.

Apple River Canyon is especially beautiful...no hookups, but lovely.

Many of us like the AllStays app...decide a direction you want to go, and see what's there....or, find some no reservation campgrounds within a couple of hours of you, and make one of them your destination when you want to leave for a weekend.

It is a bit of a learning experience, but doable.

Maggie

[TravlinMan]

Maggie is right you got a bed and a bathroom and food bein hauled behind ya for a reason... So ya can be comfy wherever. Just decide where you're gonna go, check the weather and road conditions, and go.

Don't make a campground your destination. Make an area your destination and explore the options when ya get there and keep your eyes open along the way. Sometimes first-come-first-serve sites will be abailable to you. Sometimes ya gotta use an RV park, sometimes ya park on the side of the road. Or sometimes you'll stop before ya arrive at your planned destination cause ya find a camping location along the way that can't be beat! But if ya don't make it all about where ya sleep and just enjoy the journey, you will always find an option. Maybe easier said than done at first but like Maggie said it's a learning experience that is worth bein learned.

[AlinCal]

This subject is very regional to say the least. What you can do in much of the country you are not going to be doing weekends on the central Ca. coast in the summer, period.
The other big variable is many here are retired and can go any time, those of us who still work M-F are not going to find first come sites Fri. after work like those who can last minute roll out on a tues.

[TravlinMan]

Try just a little inland from the coast in Central California. Hwy 395 is the ticket, in my opinion and experience. For what it's worth.

[AlinCal]

Originally Posted by TravlinMan

Try just a little inland from the coast in Central California. Hwy 395 is the ticket, in my opinion and experience. For what it's worth.

395 is not a weekend trip for us, but I have 100's of nights camped along the 395 from Lone Pine/Whitney to Onion Valley to Big Pine to ALL the Bishop Creek area to Rock Creek to Convict Lake to Mammoth to Devil's Postpile to The June lake loop/Silver Lake to Lee Vining to Twin Lakes to....

End of the Mo we have a RESERVATION at Lone pine for the Sat. night we get there and one at Rock Creek 2 nights later where we will be staying the rest of the week ending up in first come sites because we will be there mid week to select the best ones.

[TravlinMan]

That's great, I love that area I spent a month there this year and I never had to pay for campin it was beautiful. I hope ya find some excellent adventures out there, my family is in California so I will be back there for the holidays.

Happy campin.

[3wd67rg]

Originally Posted by LBOskiBear

It's pretty rough down here in Southern California where 18,000,000 locals are competing with tourists who visit the area.

Summer is really tough at the better state parks. However, I've been somewhat lucky by obsessively checking the booking sites and refreshing all day. A cancellation often pops up, freeing a spot for the weekend.

Other options are county parks, which aren't on reserveamerica.com. I think the out-of-towners don't generally know about these and I can usually find decent availability.

Thankfully, I hate the heat so tend to do more time in the AS outside of the summer months.

It's because Southern CA has become so expensive to live in, the locals can no longer afford to vacation. I lived like that for 30 years, our vacations consisted of weeknd campouts.

There are far more places to camp then you might think, and BLM lands are free, but don't anyone have a campfire or smoke one outside your vehicle PLEASE! I don't care how safe you think you are, we had a boon of growth this spring and it's all tinder now. I want to come home to my tiny house, not a pile of ashes.

Google campgrounds and stay out of the desert until November.

[3wd67rg]

Originally Posted by TravlinMan

In California I recommend Anza Borrego Desert, Death Valley NP, The Alabama Hills and the Sierra's south of Mammoth on 395. Plenty of boondocking to be had, no reservations needed. Go on a weekday if ya can but even weekends ain't bad. If ya can handle heat, go where it's hot there are less people. If not, go to the Sierra's but stay away from Mammoth Yosemite and Sequoia.

The forests are wide open around those parts too.

Happy campin.

Death Valley Highs this week, from 110-118. If you are able to boondock with both air conditioners going, and can handle the heat when outside... not me at all.

Anza Borrego Highs this week 102-107. The Anza Borrego is a beautiful place in Spring, most comfortable from December to March.

I can't recommend any of these places except t the Sierras during the summer, because of the heat. The southern Sierras above Kernville were hot, just not as hot as at lower elevations. There are lots of roadside camps along the river and road up the mountain. The famous Teacups are there! I don't recommend those but to the strongest swimmers. My daughter was a paid lifeguard for BSA and she struggled with them a bit. When I worked at Tahquitz BS camp, 40 miles outside of Big Bear, the snow caps lasted through July. The higher elevations in the more Northern Sierras are going to be cooler. Check for any reports from PCT trekkers.

The Alabama Hills, about 40 miles outside of Lone Pine, is a Great rock Climbing destination, but check the heat index first. I did some climbing there in May 2007 and the temps were perfect, but climate has changed since then and in California May is summer now.

[Jammer]

This problem varies regionally. The long-term dynamics are, unfortunately, poor, with most state/national facilities seeing campgrounds as outside their core mission leading to a lack of interest in expansion, and private facilities being regulated out of existence.

Originally Posted by Minno

Yeah, our current beef is that in MN, state parks are now 100% reservable a year ahead. Terrible for people coming in from out of state traveling.(ie: tourism).

I don't like that change either. Most of the Minnesota parks, even with all sites reservable, are typically completely full on weekends starting a few weeks ahead. For holiday weekends, they fill up before the season starts.

Recently, the Ham Lake Campground, one of a handful of private campgrounds in the broader metro area, announced a decision to become part of a membership-only chain, in effect making it a timeshare.

In Minnesota, the DNR runs the state parks and has almost zero interest in expanding their campground facilities. The recent Lake Vermilion facility would be one of the rare exceptions. Among private campgrounds, the regulatory burden is huge. The cost of wastewater treatment systems that are fully compliant is astronomical, and there are a host of other regulations. Water well testing, lighting, 24 hour security, fence, speed limit, local zoning regulations, etc etc etc. Financing is impossible to get and nobody wants to be in the business. The few new parks that are being built are predominantly on a cooperative, condo, or membership model.

It was interesting being in the Bad Lands over July 4th and seeing the nat'l park campground full sign up every night with sites reserved but not filled. 100 degree weather might have had something to do with that!

We were in the Black Hills the week after and stopped in the Badlands at White River KOA on the way back. Places were busy, but we were able to get our reservation changed, having had to reschedule a trip planned for earlier in the summer.

South Dakota appears to have a more friendly regulatory climate.

[zapper]

Originally Posted by AlinCal

We decided to just camp in the backyard this weekend. We really just wanted a nearby spot to test run the trailer and make sure we had what we needed before our week long trip to Rock Creek in the eastern Sierra in a few weeks.

Once the summer peak is over we plan to do some of the local beaches with San Simeon near the top of the list.

Rock Creek? Really? Didn't know that there were spaces in the park for RVs. I'm jealous. We had to stay in a RV park in Bishop then drive TV to the lake to fish. Unless they have made some huge road improvements since last year would suggest you explore the road to the lake road sans AS. I had a 25' AS at the time and I am certain I could not have turned my rig around to go back to HWY 395 on that road. Wish you luck.

[mstephens]

Originally Posted by Jammer

South Dakota appears to have a more friendly regulatory climate.

We just spent about 10 days in SD in the car (no RV). We were scouting future RV spots to spend time in next year with an RV. We found plenty of nice RV campgrounds that looked less than half full. I was very impressed with the facilities, and the beautiful parks and sights in SD. Loved it.

[AlinCal]

Originally Posted by zapper

Rock Creek? Really? Didn't know that there were spaces in the park for RVs. I'm jealous. We had to stay in a RV park in Bishop then drive TV to the lake to fish. Unless they have made some huge road improvements since last year would suggest you explore the road to the lake road sans AS. I had a 25' AS at the time and I am certain I could not have turned my rig around to go back to HWY 395 on that road. Wish you luck.

We just got home from a great trip to Lone Pine and Rock Creek (East Fork campground), had an 03 Bambi 16 in the next site over an 06 30+ slide out just down a few sites.
There are lots of places to turn around and most campgrounds are loop so it's never any issue. The road is steep but typical for the Sierra canyons, my 4.6 was down to 2 gear getting up to Lone Pine Campground though.

[Mollysdad]

Full circle.
When I started visiting Colorado, I stayed at a nice KOA in town. One year it was sold to a ex-banker from Los Angeles. In a few years, he put in new power posts, landscaping, Park Models, and in general nice improvements. The next year he told me he was going condo, and I could buy my space for $50,000. I left. Recently, someone told me it was now a KOA.

[sncnidaho]

Originally Posted by Mollysdad

from Los Angeles. .

This pretty much sums it up. One of the reasons they (californians) are so despised in Idaho.

[AlinCal]

We arrived at East Fork (Rock Creek) on Monday and campground was maybe 10% occupied yet the reservable sites were all in fact reservered but mostly empty, I questioned the host asking when do they forfeit the site if they don't occupy it? after first night? 24 hrs? She told me it's theirs whether they show up or not, since most the campsites in the region are run buy this same consessionair and not the Forest service anymore they make the rules as they see fit.
I was not too happy about the whole scenario but we had a good site so I decided to not let it ruin our trip and we went hiking instead.

[Len n Jeanne]

With a lot of public and private campgrounds and multi-day bookings, they will hold the site for 24 hours, but no-shows lose the site for the other days. I think this is fair both to really late arrivals who may have driven into the night, and also to people hoping to bag a site.

I recall when we lived in Ontario, though, people could reserve a provincial park site by the month or whole season, even if they only used it on weekends. Ditto for an Iowa state park we once stayed at. Probably the governments made more money that way, but it seemed really unfair to everyone else.

For Californians whose vacations permit winter breaks, we've fallen in love with the area just south of Death Valley. The Furnace Creek CG in the park got pretty zoo-like, but the Shoshone RV Park, though slightly run-down, is an otherwise wonderful place, with its own warm springs pool and hiking trails all around. We found some great boondocking on the lower Furnace Creek road, and found that dispersed boondocking is permitted in the more remote parts of the park. The Mojave National Preserve is another gem that allows dispersed boondocking. We're going back for another sojourn this February/March.

I realize this isn't next door for you folks along the coast, but we have been pleasantly surprised at SoCal's Big Empty.

[TravlinMan]

Originally Posted by Len n Jeanne

With a lot of public and private campgrounds and multi-day bookings, they will hold the site for 24 hours, but no-shows lose the site for the other days. I think this is fair both to really late arrivals who may have driven into the night, and also to people hoping to bag a site.

I recall when we lived in Ontario, though, people could reserve a provincial park site by the month or whole season, even if they only used it on weekends. Ditto for an Iowa state park we once stayed at. Probably the governments made more money that way, but it seemed really unfair to everyone else.

For Californians whose vacations permit winter breaks, we've fallen in love with the area just south of Death Valley. The Furnace Creek CG in the park got pretty zoo-like, but the Shoshone RV Park, though slightly run-down, is an otherwise wonderful place, with its own warm springs pool and hiking trails all around. We found some great boondocking on the lower Furnace Creek road, and found that dispersed boondocking is permitted in the more remote parts of the park. The Mojave National Preserve is another gem that allows dispersed boondocking. We're going back for another sojourn this February/March.

I realize this isn't next door for you folks along the coast, but we have been pleasantly surprised at SoCal's Big Empty.

You have mentioned some of my favorite boondocking spots, you should explore Anza-Borrego Desert State Park on your next visit to California, it is beautiful with hundreds of miles of desert roads.

[Len n Jeanne]

Thanks for the advice-- and hope to see you out there sometime.