How can I travel without making reservations

1775 wrote:
If you are going to a popular spot any time that others may want to be there - summer vacation season, school breaks, weekends no matter when - you are going to find that you need reservations. If it is a holiday weekend or week - there is no question that you will need reservations. In the middle of the week on an off season you may find sites available - sometimes also in the summer at the beginning of a week but in really popular areas you are shooting dice to find vacancies.

Unlike the parks near major cities, Yellowstone tourism does not drop during the midweek. If anything, Saturday is the least crowded day of the week. It makes sense if you consider that Yellowstone is at least a two day journey from almost any populated area. People get off work on Friday and then drive the two days arriving either on Sunday or Monday. Then they need to leave on Friday to be back at the Cube Farm on Monday. People local to Yellowstone avoid the summer season like the plague. You won't see the locals in the park except in May and late September. And even then, the entire population within 100 or so miles of the park boundary wouldn't constitute much more than a mid sized town.