How likely to get last-minute spots in national parks

Veebyes wrote:
It depends. It depends on a combination of many things. The more flexible you are, the smaller you are, the earlier you arrive after the days departures have gone, the less you want in the way of services like hookups, what day of the week, all increase or decrease you chances of showing up & getting a site.

Most of the time we travel without reservations. Some would say a risky thing to do with a near 36'LOA 5er, & they are right.

We play the game. Reservations are made for holiday weekends & special events. We wing it with a plan B if plan A for a drive up does not work. Only had to resort to plan B fewer than 6 times out of 10 years & hundreds of drive up CGs.

Arrive by mid afternoon. Arrive Thursday if anticipating a busy non holiday weekend. A backin is just fine, even if it is a bit tight. Nope, don't need sewer. Can get along without any utilities if necessary. Nope, don't need to be near any bathroom. We actually prefer an area that is not pet friendly. The view is not important. We have boards for sites that are not perfectly level. We carry a laid back, make do attitude.

^^^^^^^ YES!

Didn't think there was any other way - :B

Some of the best spots are "Overflow"

JMHO,

It depends. It depends on a combination of many things. The more flexible you are, the smaller you are, the earlier you arrive after the days departures have gone, the less you want in the way of services like hookups, what day of the week, all increase or decrease you chances of showing up & getting a site.

Most of the time we travel without reservations. Some would say a risky thing to do with a near 36'LOA 5er, & they are right.

We play the game. Reservations are made for holiday weekends & special events. We wing it with a plan B if plan A for a drive up does not work. Only had to resort to plan B fewer than 6 times out of 10 years & hundreds of drive up CGs.

Arrive by mid afternoon. Arrive Thursday if anticipating a busy non holiday weekend. A backin is just fine, even if it is a bit tight. Nope, don't need sewer. Can get along without any utilities if necessary. Nope, don't need to be near any bathroom. We actually prefer an area that is not pet friendly. The view is not important. We have boards for sites that are not perfectly level. We carry a laid back, make do attitude.

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.

The first year I full timed, I did not make reservations because I wanted to be "free" to change my mind. And at times, I could not get into the park I wanted to at the time I wanted to.

Now I plan my travel (part of the fun of RVing) and make reservation up to 6 months in advance. I can still change my mind but I have a plan.

If you are flexible and can dry camp for a few days (this is why you have a self contain RV -- right) there are a number of BLM/FS campground near Yellowstone and Tetons some even take reservations. Others are first come, if one is full the ranger can point you to one that may be open. You may need to drive a few more miles, but that is the cost of not making reservations. Check out http://www.rvparkreviews.com/ and the boondocking section of RV.Net

We do three months out west without any reservations usually staying at USFS CGs that do not take reservations. Do not show up Friday hoping for a site, although with a small class C you might unlike me at 42'. Yes, these are often no hookups in CGs that do not take reservations but you should be able to go 3-4 days without...we can go 6-8 without cutting back but we have 100 gallons of water.

My approach would be to set up a plan of specific dates and start checking often online now. People do cancel, and maybe you can get a night or longer. Sometimes once you are "in" and are physically there, the rangers on site are forthcoming about inventory they control close in.

Then scout the back-up possibilities, fanning out for 10-30 miles or so, for commercial campgrounds, state parks, Army COE, etc. Some take res, some are first-come.

Do you have an app like AllStays? It's very handy for finding things in a specific vicinity.

I've found that late August is still prime time. Families are thinning out for back-to-school, but there are still many Europeans in rentals, and of course others without kids.

Often times you can find a state park nearby that you can book online. For example we wanted to stay near Rushmore the other year. We checked out Custer State Park and they have a campground set up for same day only reservations. I got online at 7 AM and booked our site for that evening. Once you are in I think you can stay for up to two weeks.

I can give you an example of what I've seen, in Rocky Mountain National Park. On more than one occasion, in Moraine Park (the most desired CG), I've seen empty sites for the entire time that I was there. The sign at the entrance said that the CG was full, and there were reservation tags on the sites mentioned. No one showed up, and the reservation dates were exactly the same as mine. Pity, really. The sites went unused and someone, such as yourself, would have benefited.

My suggestion would be to actually call where you want to stay and simply ask them what their policy is for no shows -- how long do they hold them until they become available to first come/first served.

It all depends on when and where. Holiday weekends - doubtful. You'd have to be lucky and score a cancellation as it happened. Not impossible, but you'll spend a good part of your day on the phone.

Sunday - Thursday, possible but once again it depends on where. I get a sense from the people in California that you need to reserve months in advance at any of the popular coastal parks.

I don't believe there's a blanket policy of holding sites open for walk-ups. I know some private parks that will do this, and they're almost always full on weekends.

In my experience, and that was mid to late September, the people in the campsites that want to move to a better site get first dibs in the very early morning. The owner of a first come first serve site is approached and asked if they are leaving. If they say yes, run to the ticket booth and grab the site, put your paper on it, and you win. Campsite gates usually open at 7, but the insider trading is done by then. Getting into the overflow can help secure a camp site in the morning before the gate opens. Once the gate opens, you have to find the open site first, then park and get to the ticket booth and get your paper on it. It's tricky business.