180 Day Window Opening

For the most part I avoid any place that requires reservations more than about 3 days in advance. I make an exception for things like a music festival.

I just came back from Yosemite for instance. We went after the reservation system was closed for the year. Glorious fall weather, fall colors and great people because the shorts and ice cream crowd was at home.

The only camping I do now in July and August is boondock camping with the RV or backcountry trips with no one around.

You don't have to worry about competing with me for a site anywhere over the 30th, 4th or Labor Day.
I agree with ppine, if you need reservations more than a few days in advance I probably won't be going to that site.

Enjoy hunting during 'Reservation Season', it's just not for me. :)

Thom02099 wrote:
For those of you/us that are chomping at the bits, ready to start making reservations for the 2019 season (raises hand), you may be wondering about the 180 day window in which to make reservations at certain locales (USFS, some National Parks, etc). For Memorial Day weekend 2019, figuring May 24th-27th, the window to reserve is....

NOVEMBER 25TH, 2018 !!

Get up bright and early and get ready for "Reservation Season" !!!

You can calculate the rest of the season from this starting point date.

Come on Thom - you don't need to make reservations this early!

We don't even start to Look thill 2:00 in the afternoon when Traveling :)

As My old Friend Yogi would say,

"No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.

or

It gets late early out here."

Wish I knew where I'd be Tomorrow:)

State parks vary quite a bit for reservation windows. NY for instance has a 9 month window, while FL has an 11 month window, and GA has a 13 month window. We do make reservations well ahead during busy seasons and when we have specific site preferences, and hitting them the instant the window opens gives us the best shot at getting what and where we want. Our Jan-April "southern tour" of GA, FL, and NC state and national parks is fully booked with the exception of a few flexible overnights, and our July 4th week park and site preference is booked in NY, with Labor Day week on the calendar for booking at the end of the month. In between, we'll wing it with booking no more than a few days ahead with a few private sites that need no reservations filling in the gaps.

All the people who say they don't need reservations clearly don't live in Colorado!

I need to get our trips planned out. We don't camp a ton here in CO because it's so crowded :(

Have traveled for 8 yrs full-time and have only had 1 time that there was not a park with space available, and that was an area in Tn with only 2 small parks. We don't make reservations, but are usually sitting longer term somewhere when there is a holiday. We don't travel or look for sites then. From MI which has a shorter season like CO -- state parks are always full - we don't go to them, we also avoid parks with more than 50 sites if possible.

For those of you that don't/aren't making reservations...Good on you! That means I don't have to compete with you ;)

But here in Colorado, and in particular northern Colorado, for us weekend warriors (I'm not completely retired so I can only do weekends), reservations are a necessity. Last year for Moraine Park in Rocky, I was up early on the window opening date that I wanted, and I STILL only got my 3rd choice of spots.

When the season runs from just before Memorial Day to just after Labour Day as it is here, the competition is always keen for spots, any spots. And for prime spots it's even tougher. No, it's not right. Yes, it is reality. The information was provided for those who actually need and/or want it.

Personally, when I was working full time, I LOVED having Sun/Mon/Tue as days off -- perfect for going camping and NOT needing reservations. Go up on Sunday, arrive around 2pm, everyone else has gone back home. NO ONE around on a Monday or Tuesday. Loved it! Can't wait to fully retire and do that again. Until then, I'm a reservation junkie.

I've made advanced reservations at the beginning of a window exactly once. I wanted to be at a county park in Lake Worth FL for Thanksgiving with my brother. The window opened at 156 days.

Since then, I've never had to reserve more than 2 weeks in advance. Did I not get to go somewhere I wanted because it was full? Sure. But I'm sure it would have been less-fun with all those people there anyway.

Thom02099 wrote:
For those of you that don't/aren't making reservations...Good on you! That means I don't have to compete with you ;)

But here in Colorado, and in particular northern Colorado, for us weekend warriors (I'm not completely retired so I can only do weekends), reservations are a necessity. Last year for Moraine Park in Rocky, I was up early on the window opening date that I wanted, and I STILL only got my 3rd choice of spots.

When the season runs from just before Memorial Day to just after Labour Day as it is here, the competition is always keen for spots, any spots. And for prime spots it's even tougher. No, it's not right. Yes, it is reality. The information was provided for those who actually need and/or want it.

Personally, when I was working full time, I LOVED having Sun/Mon/Tue as days off -- perfect for going camping and NOT needing reservations. Go up on Sunday, arrive around 2pm, everyone else has gone back home. NO ONE around on a Monday or Tuesday. Loved it! Can't wait to fully retire and do that again. Until then, I'm a reservation junkie.

Thom,

As usual your info is to the Point and is Extremely Useful to the forum members.

Hoping you understand that I was not disagreeing with you, just poking a little fun at the state of affairs in Colorado - As it is truly difficult to camp on a weekend in a Good Campground - Namely a State Park.

I apologize to all, if this ran against your grain, as the State of Colorado, is IMHO just one Big State/National Park, and there should be many more opportunities for the Residents and Visitors to have Camping spaces available.

Just got back from a week - had to Fly and stayed in a House - so did not have any issue :)

Just one more reason to Love Colorado;

we stay at a combination of private campgrounds and state parks mainly in nc, sc, and virginia. i usually don't book out more than a month or so but when we take the TT and pontoon boat to campgrounds on lakes such as kerr lake state park nc, i have booked out 9 or 10 months ahead to get our favorite sites that are waterfront so we can pull pontoon up on shore during the time we are there.