April / May trip. Campsite availability?

travelnutz wrote:
End of April and still snow? Or in Pennsylvania etc? Interesting as we've not seen this yet! Cool temps yes and that's a given, but I question snow on roads other than in some of the very high northern western mountain passes perhaps.

The seasonal averages charts show mid 60's F day time and mid 40's F at night in Lower Michigan. Exactly what we see in spring at home in Lower Michigan. The State Parks CG's open between April 1st and the 15th as do most other CG's and the tourist season is happening already. Mid 50's F daytime and about 40 F at night in the Upper Peninsula close to the Canadian Border. True that it would be warmer to the south but already very hot in some areas. Maybe not so far south with the few things to see?

Surely does depend on what the OP's party of 4 wants to see on their trip and only they know. The route going south to S.C. nad Florida from New York and across to the west to San Antonio and then The Grand canyon and up to San Francisco sure does add a lot of extra miles to cover in those 19 days and if they are driving the RV back to New York which the OP doesn't tell us, it would be about 7,000 miles.

I wonder if he's renting an RV for a one way trip and then flying back to New York? That would be closer to 4,000 miles but a very expensive way for the 19 day trip for the one way rental and flying back for 4. Maybe he can fill in the blank details?

WE had snow in New Mexico and Arizona end of April.

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.

Hi all,
Thanks for all the useful tips and opinions. Our proposed route at this point can be viewed here http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=216279157755435151850.0004d4e7c439852a22a5d

If anybody has experience of good stopover sites, activities, or scenic roads along or close by we'd really value your input.

Cheers,

Well; we did it? 4501 miles across 13 US states and a brief trip into Canada! In total 18 nights on the road in the RV.
How did it go? Amazing,awesome,incredible! There are simply not enough adjectives available to describe your fantastic country!
We started with two days exploring New York before picking up a brand new "four winds 30' RV from Road Bear in New Jersey.
First overnight stop near Scanton. Next onto Branches of Niagra ( excellent site)and a brief 4 hour trip into Canada to see the falls from that side...incredible. All very easy to do. Was very cold but nobody about.
Next stop Crystal Rock campground nr Sandusky..another good site...most on this part of the trip were very quiet as it was early in the season but all everyone was helpful and friendly and overall the standard was good. This was followed by two nights at Indiana Dunes State Park...amazing place...and one day looking around Chicago where we took in a baseball game at the Wrigley Stadium.

Time then to clock up some more serious miles with two 500 mile + days across the mid west. It so easy to do big distance as the roads are so good and it is really easy to set the cruise to 65 or 75 and just enjoy the drive. I expected this part to be boring but landscape and agriculture was fine to drive through and I am glad we did it as it had a real "feel" to it. Real characters at Grandma Max's! Halfway stop at KOA Omaha. We pass Denver and arrive in the Rockies having covered 2000 miles.

Stayed in Rockies national park for two nights and hiked for one day...no rest on this vacation! Most amazing scenery and we just loved the contrast and change as we moved from east to west.
Drive through a number of exciting roads and passes to Moab...now we are really blown away by Utah....i think the word " awesome" was invented to describe this place. Hired a jeep for 1/2 day to get "off road" and explore some of trails and see how Colorado river meanders around this area...
Onto Bryce Canyon...words fail me now.
Then onto Lake Powell...nice and hot ...Kayak across the lake....busy busy!

Next Grand Canyon...25 miles drive along South Rim and stay overnight in park. Next morning off to Las Vegas via Route 66 ..drive through a blizzard...bit scary but we are going down ...not up so we drive out of it. We do approx 80 miles on Route 66 ..stop at Roadkill Cafe for amazing breakfast and onto LV via Hoover Dam. Overnight at RV park by Circus Circus ...win a million on the tables at the Bellagio (not!) and head off through Death Valley to Lone Pine. Check out where the westerns were filmed and off across Sierra Nevada Mountains to Moro bay on the coast. Arrived here having covered exactly 4000 miles since picking up the RV. We are not done yet so off up Highway one to Carmel...see the seals and add another 17 miles to the total around 17 mile drive! Stay at Saddle Mountain Ranch RV park here ...excellent and swim in their huge pool. Now don't want to leave and could really do with a rest but more to do so pack up and head out to Yosemite. Quick 400 mile round trip to here and once again worth every mile travelled. Two nights in parks here...really good...hike up to waterfalls...strenuous!

Finally we head to San Francisco to return a very dirty; travel stained RV to Road Bear with 4501 more miles on it when collected.
Overall the RV was excellent...no issues apart from needing regular $200 "gas" stops every 300 miles! 600 gallons. It did 7.5 mpg!
We treated ourselves to two nights at a hotel(wonderful beds!) at Fishermans Wharf and spent last two days Sightseeing...

To sum up this really was the "holiday of a lifetime" for our family and the memories we have will stay with us forever. Yes it was sometimes tiring and gruelling but what an amazing country you have and it was so good to see a good chunk of real America in the short time available to us.

If anyone is thinking of doing something similar the only advise I can give is ....JUST DO IT!

I'm glad you had such a good time here! I hope to go see your country before I'm too old to enjoy it.