CG Reservations-YNP, GTNP, Glacier, Olympic, Banff, Jasper

First, since you seem to have the time, can you go mid-August or later rather than July? July is absolutely packed. How much time do you have?

I'd highly suggest you stay IN the parks themselves for the best overall experience. Each national park, the Canadian parks and basically all the state parks have excellent web sites with camping information, road information, things to do, etc. Explore them thoroughly and especially Yellowstone, look on the park map to see where the campgrounds are located. It's a huge park and since you have a small van you could choose 2 or 3 different areas to move and explore the more immediate area. It saves a lot of driving. With your van some nice campgrounds in Yellowstone are Pebble Creek, Slough Creek and Indian Creek and more centralized campgrounds are Madison, Tower or Canyon. Even in Yellowstone and the other parks, some campgrounds are not even reservable. If you get there early morning you would get a site.

Here is Yellowstone's:

https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/campgrounds.htm

For Grand Teton, there are two campgrounds that don't accept reservations. Each has 300 sites and they rarely fill, even in July. You'll get a site. They are Colter Bay and Gros Ventre campgrounds.

The Oregon/Washington State parks are awesome so be sure to stay there. We've gotten sites without reservations even with our 40' motorhome. Again...early morning is the key.

For the Oregon coast, choose to stay at the northern end, the middle and at the lower end. Then it's easy to cover the whole coastline with minimal driving.

2gypsies wrote:
First, since you seem to have the time, can you go mid-August or later rather than July? July is absolutely packed. How much time do you have?

I'd highly suggest you stay IN the parks themselves for the best overall experience. Each national park, the Canadian parks and basically all the state parks have excellent web sites with camping information, road information, things to do, etc. Explore them thoroughly and especially Yellowstone, look on the park map to see where the campgrounds are located. It's a huge park and since you have a small van you could choose 2 or 3 different areas to move and explore the more immediate area. It saves a lot of driving. With your van some nice campgrounds in Yellowstone are Pebble Creek, Slough Creek and Indian Creek and more centralized campgrounds are Madison, Tower or Canyon. Even in Yellowstone and the other parks, some campgrounds are not even reservable. If you get there early morning you would get a site.

Here is Yellowstone's:

https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/campgrounds.htm

For Grand Teton, there are two campgrounds that don't accept reservations. Each has 300 sites and they rarely fill, even in July. You'll get a site. They are Colter Bay and Gros Ventre campgrounds.

The Oregon/Washington State parks are awesome so be sure to stay there. We've gotten sites without reservations even with our 40' motorhome. Again...early morning is the key.

For the Oregon coast, choose to stay at the northern end, the middle and at the lower end. Then it's easy to cover the whole coastline with minimal driving.

Thanks for the reply gypsies. I plan to go early july to early sept or mid july to mid sept
I do plan to stay in the parks, unless there is somewhere special to stay on the way to the next stop. I also plan on moving campgrounds often, probably wouldn't stay anywhere more than 2 nights. Will likely stay at a fair amount of "first come first serve sites" but looking to see if there is anything special I need to book now that fills up immediately every day. (although, even with 2 months, I know won't see EVERYTHING :) )
Wasn't planning on getting this van yet, but was offered an awd van at a price I couldn't walk away from and now trying to make sure I won't miss out on anything next year.

We will be doing, and have done about every other year, 2-3 months out West without advanced reservations and I'm 42' plus a car... many of the places we stay at do not take reservations... that includes NPs. I will call a private CG after lunch to see if they have a site for that night when traveling.

At 20'... enjoy your trip and just wing it. A couple days before a long weekend, find a nice spot and stay put until it's over.

We found to our chagrin that the Provincial Parks in Canada open reservations in January for the summer - we were too late to reserve good sites there for this summer, and had to make alternate plans. So - January for the Canadian parks. Private parks there, I have no idea, but July and early August would definitely be peak visiting time for the Canadian Rockies, for sure.

Yellowstone opens reservations in May for the FOLLOWING year (i.e. May 2016 to reserve summer 2017 sites). Not sure about the Tetons; we booked our site at Colter Bay RV Park (not the same as Colter Bay CG) in January this year, for this summer.

I booked our trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons 11 months in advance. Stayed at Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone and Colter Bay in GT.

Ivylog wrote:
We will be doing, and have done about every other year, 2-3 months out West without advanced reservations and I'm 42' plus a car... many of the places we stay at do not take reservations... that includes NPs. I will call a private CG after lunch to see if they have a site for that night when traveling.

At 20'... enjoy your trip and just wing it. A couple days before a long weekend, find a nice spot and stay put until it's over.

Like Dick we never make reservations and some how have managed, you seem to have a good plan and in your unit should be able to move about and squeeze in just about anywhere. Don't forget to seek out and explore the areas all around the parks too - hard to drive anywhere in any direction that will not reward you with Eye Candy.

Like 2gypsies said though, later is better, so you might just keep in mind that the outlying areas are better in the higher season as most are just not on the radar of the masses in high season.

My personal suggestion would be to try to stay as late as possible - IMHO September and October are Heaven.

BOL,

smitty23 wrote:
I'm looking to take a long trip next summer from Iowa to grand teton and yellowstone, then glacier/jasper/banff etc and over to Washington(olympic, san juan islands, Cascades etc), then spend some time in oregon and colorado before heading back home.

I was wondering if anyone can give me any tips for excellent campgrounds and which ones allow reservations(and when I should reserve them). Also any boondocking near any of the parks?

I'll be camping out of an express van, so size isn't an issue. Will have a bed inside there as well as tent....so "hard side" or tent camping will both be possible.

Just looking for tips on anything I should start doing now. I recently got my van and was hoping to go down to bahia honda state park in FL this winter but see I'm way too late for that. I also believe lime kiln is a campground I need to get reservations for as it seems to fill up fast as well. Just seeing if anyone can help with what reservations should be a priority right now.

I'll also be making as many stops in between as I can .....any great places outside the park that require a reservation a long time in advance?

Thanks very much!

Think you should read/follow this might just fit into what you are after.

Do a search on this member profdant139 his adventures seem to parallel much of what you are after.

Stan Parker's Album might help also

Camera and Tripod - Fleece - Really good Boots - rain gear - comfortable chair - 2,200 watt inverter generator - bike - cell phone/gps.

And you will be good to go.

IMHO reservations are way over rated - just get out there and Do It!

BOL,

We are stuck now wanting to visit the parks you mentioned without reservations and everything is full for the year. The larger parks are hard to visit from campgrounds outside the parks. And I believe most all parks have gone to online reservations at most campgrounds. With online reservations It's so easy to reserve sites a year in advance hoping for a trip the following year.
Your big advantage is the short length you require opens many more possibilities.

YNP: Knowing that it's tough getting both SP & NP campsites during primetime, we just book private using trip advisor/campground reviews in new geographical areas. Works for us. Stayed in Gardiner, MT last September which was too many miles north. Next time W. Yellowstone.

Washington coast or Cascade Mts: plenty of private, affordable CG's if you can't book SP or NP. Off season is better for those.

I agree with the "just wing it" folks. With that much time and a tent and van you will fit almost anywhere, which makes it much easier in the National Parks and state parks. Also, reservations sure put a damper on spontaneous change of plans when you decide to stay longer or shorter based on things that you hadn't anticipated.