Are the campgrounds full in your area?

We are state park/COE people and wanted to change things up this year and have our Christmas on the coast (Florida). Not a single spot to be had that time of the year. We were in western Pennsylvania in June and it was virtually the same way. Planned a trip to the UP area and had to schedule it according to when we could get a site.
It's a mess!!!

For us, the few last minute reservations we made (within a week) have been harder than usual for East coast travel but only for popular areas.
A few times we got our 3rd or 4th choice. Once we rerouted.
Covid Wilderness travel from June-August from FL to ND, WY, ID & Montana I made advance reservations. Headed east visiting family August til now with 3/4 advance reservations in CO to TN, NC & SC. The few gaps were filled but took far more effort than past years.
We've seen more full campgrounds than either of us can ever recall.

It was hard to get a good camping spot in California in the 1960s and 1970s particularly at the beach and redwood state parks. The “old days” at least here weren’t that different.

Actually where I am is a year round camping hotspot, Florida, so yes it can be hard to get a spot. That said I had no problems reserving four days at a COE park followed by four days at a cg in Wachula FL. We traveled 6700 miles thru almost 20 states (Not the NE or the left coast) an got turned down for a last minute spot ONCE and that was outside Yellowstone. I suspect this flooded cg problem exists mainly in the NE/Atlantic states and the Left coast.