April / May trip. Campsite availability?
Hi We are family of 4 from the UK planning our first RV trip across the USA...from New York to San Fransico. The trip will be 19 nights in total and 4000 miles. First night in the RV is 14th April...
Forum Discussion
What you will encounter, with respect to weather and park availability, will depend on the route you take. For a northern route (across Interstate 80 and 90) you may still be slightly ahead of the "camping" season, so parks will not be busy, but many seasonal parks may not yet be open.
Some have opening dates in April, some beginning in May, some not until the Memorial Day weekend at the end of May. If you plan to stop at a particular RV park, it will be worthwhile to call ahead, rather than arrive at the gate to learn that the park opens in two weeks. That's my own experience for early Spring travel in northern Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, and northern New Mexico.
A little further south, across Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, parks are either open year-round or will have opened for the season in mid-April. Along Interstates 10, 20, and 30, and Interstate 40 in the middle of the country parks are open to take care of seasonal agricultural workers, but not necessarily in the mountains or high plains where it still may be winter, the parks depend on tourists and the tourist season starts end of May or into June.
I've lived most of my life in the agricultural MidWest or on the Great Plains, so I appreciate what is there. But not everybody, particularly from urban environments seeking adventures in our western National Parks, finds crossing the middle of the country to be an adventure, it is just days and days of the same scenery, whether fields, grassland, or desert. Especially if you get on the Interstate highways and bypass all of the small towns, which are the character of this part of the country. That's why it gets called the "flyover" part of the country.
I had a look at routes, the trip is not necessarily 4000 miles. Length of the first cross-country route NYC to SF (Lincoln Highway) was a little less than 3400 miles. That route (roughly Interstate 80 today) does not dip south to go through Colorado, Southern Utah, Northern Arizona, which are popular visitor destinations enroute to Los Angeles, rather than San Francisco. The direct route crosses Wyoming, Northern Utah and Nevada to enter California near Lake Tahoe.
Some have opening dates in April, some beginning in May, some not until the Memorial Day weekend at the end of May. If you plan to stop at a particular RV park, it will be worthwhile to call ahead, rather than arrive at the gate to learn that the park opens in two weeks. That's my own experience for early Spring travel in northern Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, and northern New Mexico.
A little further south, across Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, parks are either open year-round or will have opened for the season in mid-April. Along Interstates 10, 20, and 30, and Interstate 40 in the middle of the country parks are open to take care of seasonal agricultural workers, but not necessarily in the mountains or high plains where it still may be winter, the parks depend on tourists and the tourist season starts end of May or into June.
I've lived most of my life in the agricultural MidWest or on the Great Plains, so I appreciate what is there. But not everybody, particularly from urban environments seeking adventures in our western National Parks, finds crossing the middle of the country to be an adventure, it is just days and days of the same scenery, whether fields, grassland, or desert. Especially if you get on the Interstate highways and bypass all of the small towns, which are the character of this part of the country. That's why it gets called the "flyover" part of the country.
I had a look at routes, the trip is not necessarily 4000 miles. Length of the first cross-country route NYC to SF (Lincoln Highway) was a little less than 3400 miles. That route (roughly Interstate 80 today) does not dip south to go through Colorado, Southern Utah, Northern Arizona, which are popular visitor destinations enroute to Los Angeles, rather than San Francisco. The direct route crosses Wyoming, Northern Utah and Nevada to enter California near Lake Tahoe.
