North West trip

We have done the NW twice. SPs & NPs are our preference. Both times no reservations anywhere.

Sunday to Thursday is easy most places. Weekends at popular SPs & NPs can be hit or miss. Weekdays we try to be where we want to be by mid afternoon. That way there is time for plan B if A is full. Very rare. Weekends we arrive where we want to be Friday, maybe Thursday if we think the CG will be a busy one. Stay put till Sunday, maybe Monday.

4th July. Make reservations as soon as you can. No need to be months in advance. Even as late as the week before a spot can be found in a private CG. Hole up for the holiday & let the camper storm blow through.

Push comes to shove there is always a Walmart.

To the OP, just was at Nehalem Bay SP, and they are in the process of an Electrical upgrade to the A (done) B and C loops to 50 amp services. This is your user fees and Lottery dollars at work.

ovrdrawn wrote:
Hello,

My wife and I live near Daytona, Fl and after seeing most of the East and Midwest have decided to venture further West while we can.
Plans for this June/July are to travel North to North Dakota, then West through Montana, Idaho, into Washington, then South through Oregon & California, with most of the time being spent in Washington and Oregon.
My question is general in nature. Would I have trouble getting into state parks or private parks without reservations in Washington and Oregon, as our time frame is unknown at the day level, where we would be.
We're traveling in a 38' fifth wheel

First off - if you have traveled the East, and enjoyed those adventures you will LOVE the west.

Second, is there a reason for not leaving earlier? If not I'd try to get out ahead of the summer rush, we have found over the years that the Summer season, in most popular well known spots, is crowded and a little planning is needed. That’s the Bad – the GOOD is there are a lot of great spots that are not crowded and there are times that lend themselves better to being in particular spots.

Third – How long for the total trip? And what is the Mission – National Parks? – Mountains? – Fish? – Visit Friends? – Or just Travel.

The next thing would be “How do you enjoy to travel” on a plan? With reservations? Or do you enjoy more of a free flow? No reservations type of travel. This is often not discussed, but is IMHO, critical to enjoying the trip. There are people who just need to plan and map out every place, having reservations and a ridged schedule – then there are people who Know that they will not get a camp site on a weekend so they relocate on the weekends and just roll in to an empty CG on Monday or Tuesday – both are enjoying the RV lifestyle just differently. So you need to sort of let us know where you fall in the planning type, as these are both great, just different.

Many of us giving you advice have miles and miles under our belt – some are seasoned full timers some are seasoned part timers, the common thread is the advice usually fits US not YOU so you need to really narrow the field/parameters to get Good advice.

Make a list of locations you would like to visit. Check weather as to best time to be there. Look at the distances between stops – the WEST is really BIG, and it takes a lot more time to drive in the Mountains that in the Plains!(especially in a truck and a 5th wheel) then look at how many miles you are going to try to negotiate in this period (right now 60 days) and do the division/miles per day – just driving out and back you are at least 7-8,000 miles with just a little travel you will be at 10,000 -12,000 easy, miles so as you see it’s a big adventure and you might want to add another 100 or so days.

Now for my suggestion – let’s take this in smaller bites, maybe just take in Colorado and Utah first – maybe leave the 5th wheel out there and fly or drive back and forth to do the next adventure if time is at a premium.

Just some food for thought,

BOL,

My advice would be to plan your trip so you pretty much know where and when you will be places and use online reservation systems to check and reserve sites well before your trip. Especially weekends and holidays. Takes some finesse but is very doable. At times you may miss, but then you can almost always get into a nearby private/commercial RV park.

We did that trip last year. Had a ball. Started in MN, ND, MT, ID, WA, OR, CA,NV, WY and NE, then home to MO. Stayed in 4 places on the coast in OR, 50 miles apart, each for a 3 day stay.Gave us lots of time to explore each area. Took 6 week, could have slowed up coming home, but wanted to get home to enjoy the rest of fall. Started Aug.14 and got home Oct. 1. Have fun, beautiful scenery.

No worries, come on up, there's plenty of choices on where to park. Montana, Idaho, Wa, and OR, even allow boondocking. and there are plenty of private camp grounds, and most every city has a city parks. Federal, & state parks USFS are not your only options.

We use the Woodalls camp ground directory, and the Rand Mcnally road atlas to locate camps and then call ahead to reserve as we go.

River Bend County Park outside of Sweet Home OR has sites that would suit you. We have always made reservations when we were headed that way, but there seem to be open sites most of the time. We mostly use this park for our overnighters while on the way to the coast, but have spent a few days there a time or two, just to kick back and relax.

Our area is great!!! Try searching county fairgrounds, as some offer hookups. Port Townsend, WA has a nice fairground RV park.

My 02

Once school lets out finding a site in a State Park gets tougher - weekends often require reservations and even weekdays depending on the Park and the weather.

rr2254545 wrote:
Yes we had trouble getting into a Oregon Park in February - the coast is so mild a climate that you can camp there all year round. We have spent 11 weeks on the Oregon coast in the winter in the past two years.

Yes get reservations - you will find about only two decent state parks on the Washington Coast

X2
Yes summer can be tough! Winter and spring are bad enough it is amazing how full SP are on weekends.