TrailerTraveler1 wrote:
We were hoping not to have to live with reservations in Nat'l Parks, but our experience says otherwise. Last year, September, after Labor Day for a month, we were unable to get a spot in Yellowstone, Badlands or Glacier. Part of the problem for us was they start closing campgrounds mid-late Sept in some national parks.
But a classic example was Badlands - we were a day early for our reservation in Custer State Park. I called the campground in Badlands Nat'l Park at 9 AM. On the phone they told us "no problem, campground is wide open, you won't have a problem for tonight". We arrived at 4 PM to a sold out campground and the rangers then told us the campground had been full every day by just after noon. She had no idea why the person on the phone told us it would be wide open. Ugh.
Lesson learned - don't drive all day hoping to get a first come,first serve spot. Or plan for the first come first served dance as outlined above by Artum Snowbird - we've experienced this is several nat'l park campgrounds -- especially Capitol Reef.
Had a similar experience with Big Bend Nat'l Park in late March ... then the problem was spring break. It seems it's always something....
Not as easy to wander as we had hoped.... at least if you want to stay in a park not a commercial campground.
Definitely seems like more planning/proaction will be needed while playing the game. Having to pack up and make sure you are in line by a certain time for some of the first-come sites definitely seems more time intensive than making a few phone calls at various times while site seeing to find a hotel.
Your last paragraph is another one of my primary concerns. From our experience back in the day with our trailer, combined with what we have seen looking at campgrounds while out on vacations without an rv, it appears I would prefer national park/state park/BLM/Forest Service type locations vs commercial campgrounds. There were a couple of times with our trailer we felt like we were in downtown Bombay. EDIT: The amount of space that people had when scattered around in Goblin seemed like RV heaven.
