How can I travel without making reservations

I travel 3-4 weeks at a time, most of it in "the West" relative to your starting point, and don't usually make reservations.

But I don't go on the three big summer holiday weekends. I don't try to be at major events like races, ballon festivals, air shows, annual fairs, rodeo finals or biker meets. I try to make may visits to "must see" tourist destinations during relatively slow periods.

If you want to be at a high-demand location, or at an event that fills all accommodations, you need a plan, and that usually includes reservations, either by yourself or with a group.

At "events" quite a bit of what is available is already booked by commercial or club affiliated group travel operations, and to be there it is easiest and often least expensive (because they've bought in at a fraction of "rack" rate, let alone event rate) to join the group.

I just wrote you a long message about rving without reservations. You have chosen to only accept messages from people on your buddy list so I can't send it. Add me if you want my ideas. We have been rving with only a few reservations for 40 years.

Start searching early. Maybe 3 pm.

I think your 22’ TT is really a 26’ one so you may have limitations on the smaller, first come, first serve, more primitive campgrounds. If you want hu’s you’re far more limited. There is only one cg in YS and one in the Tetons that have hu’s. Regarding generators, some cg’s allow them and some don’t. For example last I know they’re not allowed in Tower, Slough Pebble Creek, Lewis Lake and Indian Creek campgrounds in Yellowstone. There are commercial cg’s outside the park that have hu’s, but YS is huge and it makes more sense to me to stay inside the park to reduce the driving.

If you’re traveling the west, there’s a lot of public land and you’ll have a great many options to find a place to camp without reservations. But it will be dry camping or boondocking. If you’re boondocking you can likely run your generator as much as needed because you won’t have any neighbors. If you’re in something like a national forest cg you can unusually run them within certain hours.

I pull a 16’ TT so I can usually get in anywhere anytime. Twice in 50 years and many trips to YS I got in late and couldn’t find a site in the dark. So once I stayed in Fishing Bridge, an experience I don’t want to repeat, and once I boondocked outside the park. Both times I easily got a site the next morning. So try to get to the parks early.
I never make reservations; I want total freedom of movement when I’m traveling and I almost always stay on public land. But on a very few occasions I’ve been caught with no public land in the area and the DW just calls ahead to commercial cg’s and finds a spot. We’ve never failed to get one, either, so that’s another way to be spontaneous and still find a campsite.

If your battery only lasts one night you’re either running the furnace fan or being too generous with the use of your resources. I couple of deep cycle batteries and LED lights would be a significant improvement, but being more frugal would be best. I have one group 27 battery and it will last the best part of a week. But I only use one light unless I really need more, the water pump is off until I need it, and I don’t carry tv’s or electronics. Oh, and I don’t use the furnace.

In short, if you’re not comfortable with not having the security of a confirmed campsite you’re best off to sacrifice the spontaneity and make reservations. If you can deal with the uncertainty, you should have many options to camp without them.

Don't worry. I've been camping in the west all of my life. Unless it's a major holiday or a summer weekend at a popular park, or I'm looking for hookups in a national park I never make reservations either, Yosemite being an exception.

I was at Grand Canyon last October, it was full in the trailer/RV park, I was glad I had reservations. That said, there is plenty of camping in Williams, AZ (outside of the park) anytime of the year and it's a fun place to hang out in the evenings.

I don't like adhering to a schedule either. I like it that way. You'll do fine with that little trailer.

My wife and I have been all over the US including the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone and the only place we were turned away was Disney World.

You have two big advantages over a lot of other campers - you're visiting after the summer season and your trailer is small. You should have no problem getting a site at any of the parks but, as other people have mentioned, it might be a little cold. Yellowstone is very picturesque when it's cold because of the steam rising from all of the thermal areas.

We took a major trip out west a few years ago with NO reservations. We travelled through the southwest, up the west coast to Canada and back down through the Midwest and never had the first reservation. I had no trouble finding an rv campground and getting a spot whenever DW decided it was time for us to stop and rest up. Good luck.

Think outside the box. There are lots of places to stay outside Yellowstone on the North and West sides. Same with the Grand Canyon on the North side. Your timing is good for outside the normal travel times, usually ending with Labor Day, but weather may play into your plans. Years ago I spent the week after Labor Day in the South end of the Park. Our second day we had a ranger warn us about snow, and if we didn't leave we would not have any help from them if we got snowed in. We were gutsy kids and took the risk, no problems. Five or so years ago, same weekend friends got caught in a storm and paid over $500 to be towed out.

You may not get the best site or if popular none. But there is usually one not to far away. Your flexible is an advantage. Plus Sept/Oct works in your favor.

and generators are not allowed at the first come, first served campgrounds

As a blanket statement that would only apply to some CGs, certainly not all/most.

While there are many tools for locating CGs Allstays RV and Camp for a phone is one of the best. Displays a map of any area or your current area with CGs. If you like one tap the phone number and see if they have a site for you. You can do it that day or perhaps the day before. Hundreds of filters for selective viewing. You can try the PC version but it's not nearly as good as the phone app IMHO.