Campsites - It's all about planning

[Burnside Bob]

Originally Posted by mojo

It's amazing to me that parks with thousands of acres still only have a few acres set aside for overnight visitors.

Sorry, don't think more acres for overnight visitors will happen anytime soon.

Federal agencies operate under mandates approved by Congress and signed into law by the President.

In the case of the National Park Service, the mandate is to:

to preserve and to protect the parks' priceless natural and cultural resources and to provide for the enjoyment of park visitors in a way that will leave the park resources unimpaired for future generations.

In the case of the US Forest Service, the mandate is:

to develop and administer the renewable resources of timber, range, water, recreation and wildlife on the national forests for multiple use and sustained yield of the products and services

For both agencies, a very long view of resource management is mandated. High levels of human visitation adversely impact the resource and thereby conflict with the mandate.

Using Yosemite as an example, the National Park Service saw that the visitation level of the 1960's to 80's lead to smog, traffic jams, law enforcement issues, and excessive wear and tear. Within Yosemite Valley the NPS reduced the number of campgrounds and campsites, implemented a one way traffic pattern, and restricted automobile entry to mitigate these effects.


Burnside


PS. I hear the mandatory shuttle bus system at Zion NP was continued thru New Years 2020 and will resume the last weekend of February!!

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by mojo

The government can not run a campground. Just think what they could do with universal health care!

I beg to differ. The Federal Government runs hundreds of Corps of Engineers campgrounds in no less than 44 of our 50 states, and runs most of them very well.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

First off - I 100% agree about the COE campgrounds. I have stayed at a lot of them over many decades and *never* seen one that was anything less than first class in all regards.

Second off - take a look at the budget requests put in and the budget money granted for parks. Without money, regardless of what they would *like* to do, there is only so much they *can* do. Most can barely maintain the crumbling roads. There is a massive underfunding each year.

Unless funding parks becomes a more significant *political* issue, things aren't going to get much better .... ever ...

Bob

[Hittenstiehl]

So many good comments and experiences here most of which we agree with except the child support one

We too recently had the same experience with the AZ State Park system. We were making a late long weekend reservation but couldn't make it work online. The 800 number lady was able to make it work because she had us move several times over our 4 night stay. The online system still wanted to have us pay the $5.00 use fee for each spot because it saw it as a new reservation each time we moved but she was finally able to override it.

We spent some time in the office trying to glean tips and tricks. They just advised making the reservation a year out. Also, if needed, moving a reservation to another time period versus cancelling as then you don't lose your reservation fee.

They said many people cancel last minute. Many people forget they made a reservation. If there is a no show the staff tries to reach the intended campers by phone or email but if they can't reach them nothing happens and the spot stays vacant because it's paid for.

As already said it's only going to get worse.

Millennials that have given up on sticks and bricks and just need internet. Boomers retiring, snowbirds, regular campers, rv shows on TV etc.

They clearly are not developing RV parks (State Parks, COE, BLM etc) as fast as they are selling RV's.

I'm not sure of this but I wonder what the stats are on tent sales and renting tent spots. We still do run into new tenters but seem to run into more ex tenters who are now rvers as we get older.

Seems we're all very vying for the same piece of the pie or puzzle.

While we understand that reservations over the phone take up a long amount of time and a very patient employee. The online systems can be frustrating and inflexible. We don't want to resort to using a service that games the system for you.

[A W Warn]

I don't know where I'm going next. Even if I did, I will change plans on the fly when something interests me along the way. I chose a destination then meander till I'm there, or maybe I'll end up over yonder instead.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

A lot of this depends on the details of location and timing. If you are in a popular destination in the "high season" it will be crowded. Not just the parks, also the hotels, restaurants, streets, and bars (we all need beer ... ). If you look at the population swings in many of these areas they are crazy.

Tourism is a cyclical industry year to year. Along comes some random virus and it craters. There is an unfortunately long list of things that can and do have an impact. Scaling up just in time for a dip (and going broke as a result) is a *very* common story.

One answer is to plan your travels as much based on crowds as on the weather ....

Bob

[moosetags]

We have been camping in Florida State Parks for many years. We are Florida natives and have friends and relatives throughout the State. We have used the Parks very often when traveling the state. Many of our stays were one nighters while traveling.

We still do this type of travel, but are now faced with this Reserve America debacle. Even on a one stay, we are faced with an $8 reservation fee. As Florida resident seniors, the fee for the campsite is $10. It really rubs me the wrong way to pay $8 to reserve a $10 campsite. I just refuse to do it on principle.

We still do these one night stays as a walk-up. This usually works for us. I sure hope that Florida doesn't go for making us pay a reservation fee for a walk-up.

Brian