camping in national and state parks this summer: reporter query
 

Hi. I'm a reporter doing a story on how this summer is shaping up for camping around the country. I am interested in hearing from people who plan to camp in a national or state park this summer. I am curious about the experiences of those who have made concrete plans, those who have not gotten around to reserving campsites yet, and those who have tried but been unable to make reservations due to lack of availability or another reason. How did you go about making reservations? How does your experience this year compare to your experience in previous years? Please email me at [email protected]. Many thanks in advance for your help!

California-State parks and some National Parks can be reserved 5 months in advance..handled by Reserve America--small service fee and cancellation fee
Usually 3-4 monthis ahead is OK. unless you want a specific spot Last year most were filled within first week of registration period..Maybe due to the extreme gas prices people were staying closer to home...
This year, so far, 4 months in advance is ok. Not sure if the "economy" will change this..
All of the above is what I have observed related to very popular Parks...mainly ocean areas.
A few parks are "first come first serve" usually small parks and not in first class areas..Although sometimes these parks are a real"find" quieter, not crowded
Some parks have 1-3 sites saved for bicycle people and /or "walk in"
Hope this helps..

Most people make reservations online if possible. You still have to call for some--each park is different.

You can check availability for all parks that take online res. at www.reserveamerica.com. I checked a few popular national parks and they still had room.

A better forum for this info is www.rv.net/forums. You will have a MUCH larger group of respondents.

Thanks for the responses!

Traveler24, I just want to make sure I understand you: You're saying that last year it was harder to nab a campsite than it is proving to be this year? (Or the other way around?) Also, I'd love to hear what your own experiences have been in scouting and reserving campsites. Thanks.

Connie, thanks for the tip about the rv site. I'll check it out. What has been your own experience making reservations for campsites? Have you done it online? Or have you made reservations by phone? Either way, I'm curious about how you felt about the process. Thanks.

We haven't decided definitely where we want to go this summer so we haven't made any reservations yet. We really don't like making reservations to early in advance because we never know when our plans are going to change.

I did go online and make reservations as late as April 2 for three nights in Yosemite for April 21, 22, & 23. We actually wanted weekdays and a good thing because there were no Friday, Saturday or Sunday nights available for our size RV.

For privacy reasons I'll only be posting my finding here on the forums. I'll try to remember to come back after summer to let you know how things went.

Utahtea

We have been camping in the Parks and National Forests CGs in the western states for over 20 years and have never made reservations. Never had a problem either. The same goes with motels along the way.

I suspect that as with most years, the popular places are full and many other places will, as usual, have plenty of rooms for folks like me who rarely make reservations.

RedRock, Are you tent camping? We started out that way 30 years ago, but now we have a motorhome and we are finding we have to make more and more reservations to guarentee spots where we want to stay in the National Parks of the west.

Utahtea

Utahtea, we have been tent camping for years and use a large van to travel in. Maybe we are just lucky when it comes to finding a place..