2022 campgrounds

afidel wrote:
Just checked and for this weekend 3/4 of the state parks within an hour drive have an electrical site available. For 4th of July weekend almost half within 2 hours have an available electric site. I don't think I've ever seen that 2 weeks out from one of the big 3 summer weekends.

Soooo....?

Where ya gonna camp?

dedmiston wrote:

afidel wrote:
Just checked and for this weekend 3/4 of the state parks within an hour drive have an electrical site available. For 4th of July weekend almost half within 2 hours have an available electric site. I don't think I've ever seen that 2 weeks out from one of the big 3 summer weekends.

Soooo....?

Where ya gonna camp?

This weekend, Mill Creek CoE campground, booked Jan 1st. July 4th weekend, Mt. Gilead state park, also booked 1/1 =)

For the big weekends I book well in advance, but other weekends through late fall I'll just see what's open in a 2 hour radius with electric if the weather is nice and we don't have scouts/baseball/choir/etc going on.

WE usually camp in spring and fall. In March we went from Pa to Texas. That was before the big jump in fuel prices. I am pulling a 26ft TT with a Nissan Titan diesel. Our fuel costs for the trip was over $1,700. Now it would be almost twice as much. We won't do that trip next year if fuel prices don't come down. I think many people will forgo the long trips and look for something closer. We booked a forest service campground in Pa for August. We had no trouble getting a site with water and electric.But that was coming in on a Sunday and leaving on a Thursday. We can make the trip with one tank of fuel each way.

Well here is our real world experience. Starting in N. Florida we've camped in 7 spots (one future cg with reservations), had zero problems with our first choice.
Left FL, camped in one NF spot in N FL, two COE cg in AL, one private cg in AL, a county Fairground in TN (Escapade) and now in KY COE and moving to another KY COE for the 4th weekend.
Just about every place had plenty of open sites, even thru the weekends.
So once again I have to say that this so called shortage is limited to the east coast, especially the NE and maybe parts of Cali. I don't know about OR and WA.

I suspect all of those states have onerous regulations that force campground owners to quit. I have seen blog posts from one in Cali who said he was pulling his business out of the state. That leaves fewer government CG to supply the demand, leading to cg being booked solid.

Looking for camp sites near Ludington, MI. We will be near Ludington next few weeks. Is it going to be crowded?

Here in northern Colorado so far everything has been full, there's been no changes that are noticeable. Went up the Poudre Canyon recently, all of the first come/first served CG were full. And the State Forest State Park Ranger Lakes CG was completely full.

Checked to see if some of the other State Park CGs nearby had any openings and there's absolutely nothing. However, with diesel now at $5.50+ here, will be interesting to see if that changes.

hhornig wrote:
Looking for camp sites near Ludington, MI. We will be near Ludington next few weeks. Is it going to be crowded?

YES!!! The state park is probably all booked.

We were in Moab late April/early May. One weekend was the annual car show, always a big draw. This year it was noticeably less busy in town, even on weekends. It's been 10+ years since the crowds were this size. So yes, in the case of Moab, it is less busy.

But one thing we noted is that while there was an increase in the number of RV's in BLM and NPS CG's compared to the past, we noticed a decrease in the number of tent campers. I can imagine that younger people who visit Moab for mountain biking, climbing, kayaking, etc. are also the ones for whom higher gas prices are most daunting. If you're a college student looking for a long weekend getaway in Moab, doubling the price of the gasoline for the trip makes a big impact on a small budget.

Just got back from 5 weeks in Oregon. Stayed at a lot of state parks. Many would say no vacancy but 20% of the sites might be open on any given night. So someone made reservations but failed to use them. Fuel prices? Don't know. But I do wish people would cancel their reservations rather than being no-shows. Does make for a quieter CG but there are others who would have appreciated having that campsite.

We've been traveling for the last month or so from Central Florida to Maine, so far, will be heading west in a few weeks. In NC ,VA & NY , during the week there were plenty of empty spots, on the weekends, parks were full. In Maine, the 3 parks we've been at have had many empty spots, both during the week and on weekends.

We had a 3K mile trip planned for our summer get out of Arizona trip. Cut it about in half due to diesel prices and decided to not go outside Colorado. When we called to cancel our reservations in MT, ID and WY, were told those campgrounds were facing many cancellations. We were able to snag 10 days in Gunnison where you have to almost wait for someone to die to get in. We made reservations in Estes Park at the last minute and got a several week stay. Normally, they are booked months in advance. Manager said they've had lots of cancellations. Numerous vacant sites every night. Very unusual for Estes Park in July. With several decades of summer experience in Estes Park, I can say the crowds here are definitely thinner.